Do your brush hog blades "droop"

[Vladhed]

After a couple of years of use, I decided to take the blades of my RCR1248 to sharpen and check them for balance.


After I put them back on, and torqued them to ~400 ft-lb as per the manual, I noticed both blades were no longer "snug"! I took one of them off again and double checked everything was seated properly. Any hints? The keyed bolts seem to be tapered so you can only tighten the nuts so far, so it looks like the washer is the key. Should this be replaced?

Is this a big deal?

I went ahead and cut our usual walking trails and it worked like new.

 

[re54drider]

Mine has done that since new. I made the assumption that it allows the blade to move away from rocks, etc as well as to swivel about the main shaft which allows the stump jumper to work. Maybe I'm wrong but I stopped sharpening my blades 7 years ago and see no real difference either.

 

[Flintknapper]

No...mine do not do that. I expect there is some 'wear' someplace allowing that to happen. Certainly not a design feature.

Centrifugal Force would tend to keep the blades on a level plane (unless an object were struck), so the mower should still cut fairly well under most circumstances.

 

[Elliott in GA]

The best practice is to buy new mounting hardware with new blades, and I would expect new mounting hardware would give you a tighter (but not too tight) fit with you old blades.

I plan to replace my blades this winter; I will have completed the last (really just some minor stuff now) of my 10+ acres of field reclamation work. My 3+ year old blades still cut grass surprisingly well, but they do have some real dings from rock strikes (no matter how careful - pre-inspection on foot and cut height set high- you are backing into a wall of weeds, brush and multiflora rose, you are going to hit things). I doubt that I will sharpen the old blades; it would just potentially create other issues.

 

[SDT]

After a couple of years of use, I decided to take the blades of my RCR1248 to sharpen and check them for balance.


After I put them back on, and torqued them to ~400 ft-lb as per the manual, I noticed both blades were no longer "snug"! I took one of them off again and double checked everything was seated properly. Any hints? The keyed bolts seem to be tapered so you can only tighten the nuts so far, so it looks like the washer is the key. Should this be replaced?

Is this a big deal?

I went ahead and cut our usual walking trails and it worked like new.

Should be little slop between blade bore and blade bolts.

Blade bore and/or bolts is/are worn.

Washer?

 

[Russell King]

As everyone has stated the blade is NOT clamped by the bolt. It has to be able to rotate 360 degrees around the bolt.

It is sort of like a (cheap) lawnmower wheel attachment to the deck. The bolts are shoulder bolts so the nut is pulling against the shoulder not clamping the blade tight. The wheels spin around on the stationary bolt.

I also agree that it may be a bit excessive and you need to replace the hardware and the blades at some point to eliminate that slop. But you could also go to where they sell new brush hogs of the same brand and see if they are loose on new or slightly used equipment.

 

[Ktrim]

After a couple of years of use, I decided to take the blades of my RCR1248 to sharpen and check them for balance.


After I put them back on, and torqued them to ~400 ft-lb as per the manual, I noticed both blades were no longer "snug"! I took one of them off again and double checked everything was seated properly. Any hints? The keyed bolts seem to be tapered so you can only tighten the nuts so far, so it looks like the washer is the key. Should this be replaced?

Is this a big deal?

I went ahead and cut our usual walking trails and it worked like new.

400 ft lbs. How long was the pipe on the wrench and how many people were pulling it?