Home made brush hog / grass cutter

[Alexisferos]

Hello from Greece again.
here the weather is shiny egain and the grass in the streets is growing,
so i have decide to create a brush hog / grass cutter for my small Kubota.
Today i order the (Group) i don't know the name of it, the thing that gives the movement to the chains or the knifes.
im gonna put photos of all the creation steps so it will be useful for others.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Hello from Greece again.
here the weather is shiny egain and the grass in the streets is growing,
so i have decide to create a brush hog / grass cutter for my small Kubota.
Today i order the (Group) i don't know the name of it, the thing that gives the movement to the chains or the knifes.
im gonna put photos of all the creation steps so it will be useful for others.

That would be called the gearbox.

 

[Alexisferos]

Thanks wolfman, in Greek we have different words for the "gearbox" and the "group" because are different things, .
That's why i call it group.
the group is only one gear..

 

[buckaroo52]

Not to be confused with group therapy...

 

[skeets]

That's what this place is,,,, right?

 

[Alexisferos]

ok small updates, the gearbox is in my hands and i take measurements for the sheet metal, with 5mm thickness and 100cm x 100cm ordered today..
spend so far 109€

 

[mikkeeh]

Don't know what the availability of equipment is in Greece......but unless you had all of the materials on hand...plus a lot of time......I can't imagine building a brush hog. a quick look at prices in my area = Pto shaft is $200, Blade 40-60...tail wheel $60. Im guessing Id have $700+ in it in materials, not including the time to build. I can buy used ones all day long for that.

What prompted you to build your own?

 

[Alexisferos]

Don't know what the availability of equipment is in Greece......but unless you had all of the materials on hand...plus a lot of time......I can't imagine building a brush hog. a quick look at prices in my area = Pto shaft is $200, Blade 40-60...tail wheel $60. Im guessing Id have $700+ in it in materials, not including the time to build. I can buy used ones all day long for that.

What prompted you to build your own?

first the cost for a new one, because used ones are very difficult to be found in my place, no one sells them even they dont use them or they sell them at prices that you can buy new one.

so i made my calculation and with everything , even a can of kubota paint the brush hog wont be cost me more than 300€ = 400$ i think it will cost me exactly 250€..

most of things and the metal sheet was already somewhere unused in my property.. the only problem is the lac of time.

 

[gpreuss]

How big are you planning on building this? I used a 5' (150 cm) brush hog with my L185, and quite frankly it was too big. Any heavy tall grass and I was in 1st or 2nd gear, creeping along with the engine fully loaded. On the other hand, 40" (100 cm) seems a bit small for the tractor. Our standard width is 4' (120 cm) for small tractors. I'd recommend about 52-54" (130-135 cm) as a good width. 5 mm is a good, heavy plate for the mower.
I saw your group? has a spline drive input. You have to have a shear pin/bolt or a friction clutch in the drive line, or you will break something for sure when you hit a big rock or stump. You don't want that something be in the tractor...
Keep the pictures coming!

 

[mikkeeh]

How big are you planning on building this? I used a 5' (150 cm) brush hog with my L185, and quite frankly it was too big. Any heavy tall grass and I was in 1st or 2nd gear, creeping along with the engine fully loaded. On the other hand, 40" (100 cm) seems a bit small for the tractor. Our standard width is 4' (120 cm) for small tractors. I'd recommend about 52-54" (130-135 cm) as a good width. 5 mm is a good, heavy plate for the mower.
I saw your group? has a spline drive input. You have to have a shear pin/bolt or a friction clutch in the drive line, or you will break something for sure when you hit a big rock or stump. You don't want that something be in the tractor...
Keep the pictures coming!

He said he bought sheet metal, I assume for the deck, and it was 100cm x 100cm.....so about 39 inches .

 

[Alexisferos]

yes i bought the sheet metal, not exactly bought because i had the metal plate but i sent it to the press to create the 2 drops from the sides.

i have read and learn all the posts about how big must be the cutter, that's why i decide to make it smaller, 100cm x 100cm not to load the tractor, i have no problem to make a pass one more time because of smaller cutter,
(i'm gonna do it movable to the side so i will cut next to the tractor and from behind)

i thing that this week im gonna start building it and post the photos.

 

[skeets]

It seems you have it pretty well all thought out,, I would be interested in seeing how you do it,,, pictures my friend pictures

 

[Alexisferos]

a small update to the forum.. today i found some spare time.. the update photos.

 

[gpreuss]

Coming along fine!

 

[Alexisferos]

a small update,
i have create the bar that support and moves the cutter from an old hydraulic press, and i buy the chain for the upper support.
as you can see i can move the cutter 40cm out of the tractor and with the chain i can folow every ground..

 

[Alexisferos]

finished product.
well yesterday i finish the cutter and today im in the painting part of it.
3-4 coats of primer and Monday the kubota orange on it.
here are some other photos with the cutter and the under plate where the chains will hook up. i made a combo of 3 and 2 chains, you can see at the holes, if i need 3 i will put 3 and if i need 2 i put 2.
the side slides are removable as you can see.

 

[D2Cat]

Alexisferos, is your design so you can slide your 3-point hookup to any position behind your tractor, to make it an offset mower if you need to?

Smallest offset mower I've ever seen was a 9' Bush Hog brand. Nice for mowing ditches or along tree rows.

Nice work, I can see you are detail oriented!!

 

[Alexisferos]

Alexisferos, is your design so you can slide your 3-point hookup to any position behind your tractor, to make it an offset mower if you need to?

Smallest offset mower I've ever seen was a 9' Brush Hog brand. Nice for mowing ditches or along tree rows.

Nice work, I can see you are detail oriented!!

yes i can move the mower to every place i need. to a dead zero behind the tractor or even 40cm out of my left wheel..
the pto shaft has more angle to give and the chain will let the mower flow the ground.

until now with the price of the pto shaft i have spent 240 euro~326 dollars.

 

[gpreuss]

It looks great so far! Are you going to use chains or blades? Are you going to fit on a tail wheel?

 

[Alexisferos]

im going to use chains 3 or 2 (look at the blue metal blade the holes) and it depents of the load.

no tail wheel for now, i will drug it to the ground..
today i cut from a vinyl a kubota logo and my name, so after the paint im gona paint the negative side of the vinyl to look like original.