Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 22, 2020 9 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said: looks great! now just shoot it green and yellow 😉 by the new design ... i take your lieving the timing belt cover off... ? IMO thats a great idea ... now you can check the condition of that timing belt at a glance, plus keep that area clean of debris kicked up. Funny enough, I quite like the grey, it looks galvanised from a distance! I will have guards over the pulleys, but where the tensioner is, I will leave it bare so I can see if the lower belt is slipping or not. The rear wheels also need a front mud guard to stop dirt flicking onto the deck when travelling to or from a field 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Wilson_™ 6,567 Posted August 22, 2020 i gatcha .. i just like old school johndeere equipement ... can you post a video of the machine running at low rpm ? and focus in on the drive belts ? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 22, 2020 2 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said: i gatcha .. i just like old school johndeere equipement ... can you post a video of the machine running at low rpm ? and focus in on the drive belts ? As long as it's not yellow again it doesn't bother me what colour is it😂 Yeah I'll try get my friend to video it later on, I have a 3 hour drive to get to his place and its currently gale force wind and rain here, hopefully tomorrows weather will be better 🤞 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Wilson_™ 6,567 Posted August 22, 2020 looking forward to the video..... i hope the storm aren't bad. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 29, 2020 On 8/22/2020 at 4:04 PM, _Wilson_™ said: looking forward to the video..... i hope the storm aren't bad. I have a video, I just have to post it on YouTube and will drop a link here. On to the next challenge, I fit 4 more blades and spent the last hour timing it so no 2 blades clash! I think it will help reduce some pressure on the engine when cutting. Dad and I are going down the country tomorrow with it to clear a few paths through game crops and roadways for one of our pheasant shoots. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Wilson_™ 6,567 Posted August 30, 2020 ill agree 4 blades should reduce stress on the engine .. looking forward to the updates. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LedFTed 1,127 Posted August 30, 2020 this is an idler tension pulley, not a guide pulley. just wanted to show you a picture. most cars these days have something similar, rides on the back side of the belt. guess it could ride on the front side. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 30, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, LedFTed said: this is an idler tension pulley, not a guide pulley. just wanted to show you a picture. most cars these days have something similar, rides on the back side of the belt. guess it could ride on the front side. I had to make up something similar but I had to use a bolt and the belt itself as a tensioner. (I had to use whatever I I to hand). I think it works fine, when the bolt is tightened up, the tension keeps it tight and it cannot slackened off due to the belt tension pulling at it. Edited August 30, 2020 by Turbo Twister 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluezulu49 99 Posted August 31, 2020 Turbo is back at work today so I'll take up the story. We went cutting yesterday and it quickly became apparent that having 8 blades rather than 4 was putting an extra load on the engine. We were lucky in that the landowner happened to come by and had an 8mm allen key which we needed to remove the blades. Once the mower was back to 4 blades it ran much better in the high grass. I must say that I was sceptical as to how well the mower might work but Turbo did a great job and it works extremely well. It can cope with nettles, briars ( blackberries) and even small willows which grow wild everywhere on the shoot. The game crop in these pictures was just over knee high. It includes millet, sunflower, maize, cornflowers, facelia and some others unknown to me. We wanted to make a path through it so that the pheasants would have a dry space to wander in and to provide access for the feeding quad. I have videos as well and will post them when I figure it out! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shadetree 5,869 Posted August 31, 2020 19 minutes ago, Bluezulu49 said: Turbo is back at work today so I'll take up the story. We went cutting yesterday and it quickly became apparent that having 8 blades rather than 4 was putting an extra load on the engine. We were lucky in that the landowner happened to come by and had an 8mm allen key which we needed to remove the blades. Once the mower was back to 4 blades it ran much better in the high grass. I must say that I was sceptical as to how well the mower might work but Turbo did a great job and it works extremely well. It can cope with nettles, briars ( blackberries) and even small willows which grow wild everywhere on the shoot. The game crop in these pictures was just over knee high. It includes millet, sunflower, maize, cornflowers, facelia and some others unknown to me. We wanted to make a path through it so that the pheasants would have a dry space to wander in and to provide access for the feeding quad. I have videos as well and will post them when I figure it out! something you may have over looked ?, but having 8 blades on it could make the engine very unbalanced as well ?!. but yeah, 8 blades on a small horse power engine wont end well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluezulu49 99 Posted August 31, 2020 Some more pictures 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluezulu49 99 Posted August 31, 2020 I hope these work. Mower Idling 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Wilson_™ 6,567 Posted August 31, 2020 from the thick / tall vegetation he's bush hogging .... Its doing a great job, but with that engine pulling down some .... if any change I'd make would be a more powerful engine ... but for now ... I'd keep like it is .... just keep the blades edged up ... the videos were perfect! keep them coming... :-) might i ask what rpm the engine was running at ? and that 300 does have a engine cooling fan ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 31, 2020 3 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said: from the thick / tall vegetation he's bush hogging .... Its doing a great job, but with that engine pulling down some .... if any change I'd make would be a more powerful engine ... but for now ... I'd keep like it is .... just keep the blades edged up ... the videos were perfect! keep them coming... 🙂 might i ask what rpm the engine was running at ? and that 300 does have a engine cooling fan ? I wouldn't be able to lift anything heavier, it's hard enough to physically move the mower as is. I'll have to check the specs for engine speed, but the quad does indeed have a cooling fan that works! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Wilson_™ 6,567 Posted August 31, 2020 i figured weight would be an issue after you... rebuilt the deck with thicker steel. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 31, 2020 1 hour ago, _Wilson_™ said: i figured weight would be an issue after you... rebuilt the deck with thicker steel. Yep, to buy a 4ft flail mower new here would cost me over €2500 and weigh about 300kg which is too heavy for the 300 in my opinion. I've spent around €1100 total (not including my labour) but it's now built to my own preference. I will probably add some sort of jockey wheel to it down the line to aid with moving it around by hand. I reckon this one weighs about 120-140kg gross. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shadetree 5,869 Posted August 31, 2020 pulling it too fast, the blades are not cutting very well, more like just knocking them down some , other than cutting them, but great job !. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_Wilson_™ 6,567 Posted August 31, 2020 a jockey wheel ... would work good .... I'd think... you might as well call that cutter a miniature bush hog. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 31, 2020 8 minutes ago, shadetree said: pulling it too fast, the blades are not cutting very well, more like just knocking them down some , other than cutting them, but great job !. It was admittedly too fast at times yes, but I have found that travelling a little faster and then going back over it the opposite direction at same speed or slower takes it down nicely. It still needs a few tweaks here and there but its taking shape. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 31, 2020 1 minute ago, _Wilson_™ said: a jockey wheel ... would work good .... I'd think... you might as well call that cutter a miniature bush hog. I plan to make up my own custom jockey wheel, keep it compact and rotatable on the hitch. I also plan to change the angle of the hitch so that the front linkage is a little higher off the ground, the front frame that the toplink bolts to likes to dig down into the ground the rare time so a mod in hitch angles should fix the problem there. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TBRider 1,407 Posted August 31, 2020 Can you disengage the cutters and have the engine just idle, or is the belt on the engine pully always tight? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 31, 2020 9 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said: might i ask what rpm the engine was running at ? 3300 rpm according to the book 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Turbo Twister 545 Posted August 31, 2020 25 minutes ago, TBRider said: Can you disengage the cutters and have the engine just idle, or is the belt on the engine pully always tight? Yes, I have an adjustable shimmed bolt that can be undone to start the engine without rotating the drums, although we have found out after chewing through 2 V belts, that it seems better go start the engine with the drums engaged. I deliberately built the engine on a sliding frame so it can be removed with 4 bolts undone and lifted off for direct maintenance to the underside of the deck or go the lower timing belt. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fishfiles 20,145 Posted August 31, 2020 What about different size pulleys on the mandrel / spindles on the engine to make it spin faster and some different blades 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PROV 1,440 Posted September 1, 2020 We were at our hunting shack this weekend to put in culverts and mow 5 miles of trail. My buddy with the tractor had a wheel break off the mower and had to improvise. Good thing the loader also had a front mount brush hog that would eat up to 4" trees. Got lots of work out of my Rubicon hauling firewood, tools, power poles, crusher screen and culverts. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites