Westendorf: Brush Crusher!

sdk1968

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Oct 19, 2016
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we had talked about this in another thread & now it has arrived!

only weighs 297lbs.

for my tractor with the SSQA set up the model number is 4300.

it is unfortunately bright yellow.

it was in the back of my truck & i just reached over the side of the bed with the FEL & it went right in the lip & lifted it out.. backed up & flipped the latches.

looked it over a good bit & decided to adjust the stop position. do i know if its exactly right yet? NOPE.

gonna play with it as soon as it dries up & put the counter weight back on.
then if need be, will adjust some more for best range of movement on my tractor.



first impressions:


you cant make it for what they are selling it for.

its lighter weight than i thought, but its made HD style.

the bright yellow paint sucks if you got a Kubo or Kioti.


pix to follow on WEDs.
 

sdk1968

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so didnt grab the pix yesterday... just got to late.

but i did get to play with it a little bit.

they send it to you put together in the middle setting. that makes the jaws open to about the 3' mark.

thats great cause you can grab a big ole pile of stuff or something huge. BUT that also means that when you are just rolling along to the work spot that you either have to have the FEL up really high or you could gouge the ground.

for my height of tractor that means im gonna have to decrease the jaw opening a little to gain some ground clearance in travel position.

it will make more sense once i ad the pix in here.

did get to use it on a downed tree & that was fantastic! was about a 50' Tulip poplar that got broke off in the last wind storm. was about 18" dia at the bottom.

this was obviously way more tree than one should move with a midsize tractor.

grabbed the tree up near the canopy end & picked it up. hopped off & fired up the saw & dropped the canopy end. NICE!!

got back on the tractor & drug the tree out of the brsh with this thing & the re gripped at about the middle.

NOTE TO EVERYONE: ive got a 700+lb counterweight plus loaded tires.

raised the tree up to waist height & then set the brakes, hopped back off fired the saw up. cut that baby into 5' pieces & let them hit the ground in just a matter of minutes. set the saw out of the way & got back on the tractor & collected those pieces with the grabber.

stacked them right on top of each other & then grabbed them ALL at the same time & took them to the wood pile!

YES!! that worked fantastically! so that tells me if you are gonna be doing big pieces or piles of stuff to leave it in the "large" position, but if you are gonna do tighter stuff? sure.... move the pins a notch to close it up a little more.

again ... this will all make sense after i ad the pix. working still takes precedent over picture taking. :D:D gotta get the work done.
 

sdk1968

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B2601HSD & CK4010HST 4WD/FEL
Oct 19, 2016
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Ohio

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sdk1968

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B2601HSD & CK4010HST 4WD/FEL
Oct 19, 2016
929
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Ohio
spent a little more time on it today.. moved probably 2 truck loads of brush & got it burnt tonite.

this thing is gonna be a huge time/work saver with just a little seat time on it, just like any other new play toy.....

getting the right combo of squeeze & lift verses curl & approach is the key.

& im not sure that the angles are perfect on this mount for the tractor yet.
 

sdk1968

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Oct 19, 2016
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moved brush all weekend & then got a couple tree's with it..

grabbed a couple more pix.

Its really all about using it & getting the feel of when to curl it & let it dig in.

anothre run that i didnt take pix of had 5 pieces like these in it at 1 time & i never left the tractor seat to grab them, take them to the spot & dump them.

:D:D
 

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D2Cat

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When I first saw Westendorf's brush crusher I only saw the independent operating teeth. Your unit has the teeth tied together, and I can see where that would (in my mind) make it smoother/handier to use. I do imagine the curve for learning the joystick would take a bit!

What's the biggest challenge you find in using it?
 

sdk1968

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D2,

yeah the smaller models for the JD's & BX's have the non joined teeth.


this 4300 model for anything with a QA set up has the big pipes connecting the 4 lower jaws & the wire on the back plate.

makes it a lot easier to get a bunch of smaller stuff.

the hardest part is getting used to the float of that lower jaw.

not sure if i can explain it, but will try.

when you have it all the way open that lower jaw can swing back & forth. so as you drop the FEL, it doesnt stay put when you use it in the free floating position....

the free float set up gives you the biggest opening so that you can grab more stuff at a time.

but when you touch the jaws to the ground, THATS when you move forward of the object & the jaws will rotate back while you are then starting to clamp down on the load.

your kinda rotating/closing the jaws around the load vs just running up on it & closing them.

IF you put the lower in a fixed position? then you can just run the jaws up under the load. BUT that doesnt let you open up near as wide.

so if you need to push at ground level & pick up stuff thats about 18" or smaller? individually? then thats when you want to fix this lower jaw into that position.

for great big piles of loose brush? let it free float!

BTW: you can adjust this jaw position lock in less than 30 seconds. its just a big pin on either side.

gonna get to use it a bit more tontie & move my last 2 brush piles.

after that it will be for grabbing & dragging some of these downed trees.
 

Dave_eng

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You can decide if this caution from Kubota about the wrong way to use their loaders has any relevance to your new implement. Owners buying forks often end up with broken cylinders in the same way,

Dave
 

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sdk1968

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B2601HSD & CK4010HST 4WD/FEL
Oct 19, 2016
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nah wont apply for this at all.

the lower jaw is free moving unless you lock it into place & it bottoms out on the arms when it rolls... you set the distance of that travel so that that cant happen.

the upper jaw clamps down as you roll forward.

would be really hard to do a dozer style push with this as its round & just slides over stuff.

other thing is: not running it on my Kubo. :D its on my Kioti.

only have 1 Kubo right now & its a little B7200 that im cleaning up to sell.
 

sdk1968

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B2601HSD & CK4010HST 4WD/FEL
Oct 19, 2016
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Ohio
update & more usage...


this thing is like most other pieces we put on our tractors. it takes a little bit to get the the hang of it & then if you dont use it for a few months it takes a few mins to get back to it.

yesterday started cleaning up some trees that were knocked down in the wind storm & got a few loads of wood cleaned up.

used this brush crusher to get this load of wood on my Mini. have found out that not only is this thing good for grabbing & moving logs & holding trees so you can cut them...

its also great as a loader!! i put all this on Mini with just the brush crusher. didnt even hurt my back once.

this is an attachment that pays for itself VERY QUICKLY!!
 

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