Mini ex brush mower

[CM1995]

If this has been posted before sorry in advance. The search didn't turn up anything.

Has anyone owned/operated a mini-ex (8k-12K) LB range with a brush mower on it? I have a 334 Bobcat with aux. hyd. and I think it would be a great attachment for sensitive/ tight areas like around my pond and walking trails in subdivisions. Any thoughts or ideas?

A couple of things I can think of is overheating, production and wear & tear on the machine.

[murray83]

A member here minimax has one on a Deere 35 he'd be the best one to talk to.

[atgreene]

My father runs a Kubota 161 with a 40?" US Mower. He has had some issues with it (the mower) but the machine handles it pretty well. His biggest complaint is that initially it ran in reverse ( had to mow from left to right, so visibility sucked) after he changed it over to run right to left it worked better to see what you are mowing. He also wants an on-off switch, rather than to have to keep his foot on the pedal.

Rockhound is the same mower, but with some modifications. Apparently, the guy who helped invent/perfect the US Mower left the company to make a better mower, the Rockhound version.

I have looked at getting a Rockhound 30" for my Takeuchi 135, but haven't secured enough contracts as of yet to make it worthwhile.

As far as mowing, it does a good job, eats up whole trees pretty well. He has had to have some welding done on the drum, as the teeth wore through it where they slap back and hit the drum itself.

[CM1995]

Thanks for the info guys. The first place I go to for equipment inquiries is HEF!:thumbsup

The rockhound mower looks like it would be a nice attachment. I would assume that you would need a good welder if you run any type of mower full time. My limited experience with forestry type equipment tells me you better have or be a good mechanic.

I would like to have a Takeuchi TB153FR with a mower. A buddy of mine has a TB145 and it has been a very good machine. Takeuchi didn't have much of a presence here in my neck of the woods back in '00 when I bought my Bobcat mini-ex. Of course the almight cash flow god means I will have to make it work with my 334- since it is paid for.:cool:

Manual labor cost so much and the way vegetation grows down south it is a constant battle against mother nature.:rolleyes: Maintaining retention ponds in subdivisions would probably be its major work but my back yard down by the pond really needs some help.:D

[Ford LT-9000]

Same here on the West Coast it is a never ending battle against black berry brambles and salal bush etc. If I had the money I would have a brush mower a guy could make decent amount of money with it. The highways dept has mowers with a flail head on them and can do a good job. The problem with the tractors they are mounted on is the boom and arm is too short and the tractors are 2wd. They also have them mounted on ITC Cats but the boom is still too short. A private contractor had a brush mower on a Gradall it worked good too but couldn't go anywhere offroad.

The mower heads are the most expensive to fix. I know the highways dept employee broke the shaft that spins the wheel with the hammers on it.

I started out in the brush clearing business doing it buy hand with a chainsaw,brush cutter (FS-85 Stihl) and hand loppers. Its a horrible job your scrached to h*** from the brambles and if your lucky no bee stings.

As Murray said Mini Max has a mower on a brandnew Deere 35 and he would be the better people to ask.

[Squizzy246B]

http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=117

Third post in this thread.

[minimax]

I have a US mower 40" head on a 35 deere(both a C and D model) and it runs the head great.I have had some overheating probs. but was caused by a bad "MPV" valve and that is the only prob. I have had. Wear and tear is not that bad, mostly on tracks I run steel with bolt on rubber pads.Production can be from as Littie as a 1/2 acre to as much as 5 acres a day,has to do with how much downed trees,wet ground,stumps,etc. Here is pic of my new machine:D :D 6182
minimax

[digger242j]

Interesting pic. Nice looking machine. :thumbsup

How do you use that for best production? Do you make long passes, walking the machine forward and back, or do you make big sweeps from side to side, and then move forward, or something else? :confused:

[CM1995]

Minimax - thanks for the info it is greatly appreciated. That is a great looking setup. :thumbsup Do you have any pics of that little giant in action?

What is the largest size tree you can take down? What kind of work do you normally perform with the mower? Also what digger asked.

Sorry for all the questions - just interested.

[KSSS]

You might be better off with the bobcat than the TK for this application anyway. Although I can't recall what the gpm is on the Bobcat, it is around 17 for a TK 153. That is on the low side. Although I have never run a mower on a mini ex, I would assume that the more GPM the better. Bobcats cooling capacity on their mini ex has been an issue in some applications on some machines. You may want to speak to your service department and see what they say. Be sure to give them all the info you can on the attachment, you may want to make some mods to the excavator. The Deere/Hitachi machines have a very good GPM spec.

[CM1995]

KSS

Yeah GPM and cooling issues are forefront. I don't want to overheat or have poor performance on the mower. I would like to use my bobcat since I already have it but you know how this usually goes - looking for an attachment and come home with the attachment and a new machine.:Pointhead Of course my mini doesn't have a cab and A/C and it would be very painful to hit that yellow jackets nest.:o Minimax's Deere does look sweet!

How is the Takeuchi 153? I saw one at the World Of Concrete and I was impressed. I really like the articulation of the boom and the cab was comfortable for a mini. Do you have a cab on yours?

[atgreene]

Minimax, that's a sweet looking rig! Did you plumb the boom separate, or use the thumb circuit? Did you opt-out on the thumb saddle so you can move rocks etc... while the mower is on?

My tk 135 is rated with plenty of flow for a mower (only needs 8 gpm for the 30"), and has the aux cooling, but it runs on the thumb circuit, which is on the joystick. My carpal tunnel would really go into overdrive if I had to hold that button down all day. The 175's have a slide switch, a little easier on the thumb I guess, but I would like to look into putting a switch in the cab for on and off. Snap it on and leave it, no holding down on anything.

The 161 that my father runs has it on the pedal, there again, his foot gets tired.

Here's the link for rockhound http://www.rockhound.com/page4.html

[minimax]

digger242j, I make a big sweep side to side and from the top down on bursh and on trees over 2" I take the top off the tree about the 10' to 12' foot mark and lay it over and then chip the standing part of the tree to ground,then eat up the top of tree, takes about 15 to 25 sec. to chip up a 3" tree 20' feet tall.CM1995, largest size tree I can take down is about a 4" tree but anything over 3" realy gets slow if there are a lot of them.work I normally perform is road sides,right of ways,drain field mowing do to low PSI of a mini-x
real estate work, wet land mowing (county gives a mowing premit to mow so they can map the wet lands,steep slopes,tree limbing,and land clearing mowing.KSSS,yes the more gpm the better the mower run, the bobcat do run the mowers petty well US mower has video of a mower on a 331 and a 337.
atgreene,My mower is plumbed using the thumb circuit, and I do not have the thumb saddle because the thumb realy beat up the sheet metal on the back of the mower, the deeres have a lock that holds the pedal on.
Here are three pic of my machines,1st one os the view from the cab on the 35D,2nd one mowing 4' to 6' foot grass and weeds with a 35c,3rd is brush mowing in the woods with the 35c
6192

6193

6194

minimax

[KSSS]

CM1995,

The TB153 is a nice machine. It has a cab with heat and AC. The side to side boom is an awesome feature. When articulated all the way left or right you can dig without being pulled around as is typical in hard digging conditions with a typical swing boom machine. When fully articulated to the right and you flip and override switch the boom rotates up next to the side of the cab. Great for loading trucks. It also has great power. They made some improvements to the 153 over the 53 which is what I had prior. The cab is nice typical TK nothing fancy just functional. I do like their seats. I really wanted the same handles that are in the 175 and TB180 but no dice. I really get tired of holding those buttons down. I had worn holes in the buttons on my last machine in about 1500 hours. The other issues I have are small. Overall I don't think the machine can be beat in its class. It specs are very close to the those in the 18K catagory, not bad for a 12.5 K machine. If you get a chance they are certainly worth a demo or rent one next time you need a mini ex.

Atgreene,
I agree the TK machines will run the mowers but for whatever reason they don't create a lot of aux. flow. It sucks because I would like to step up a size in a hoe pac but the dismal flow rating prevent that.

[Noose]

Nice rig Minimax, looks pretty handy. I want one for getting into the wet spots. Plus staying away from creek banks and dangerous ridges,edges and cliffs and being able to manouver the trees would be very positve to the "big pockets".
How far out can you extend and work?
Do you get sway, while mulching?
How many hours, with out rocks can you get on a set of teeth?
Thanks for the pics.

[KeppleServices]

I am in the process of making one for a mini EX right now. I just sold my mini EX a week ago, but still have a small need for one so I will rent for now. I have a 72" deck from Quick attach that I am making amount for. I took an old bobcat hammer housing that I cut up and am adding the appropriate mounting positions to be able to take off the skid steer plate ont he mower and install the mini EX plate in its place. I have 2 retention ponds to mow and I use my T300 now, but its a pain in the arse to do, thus me making this plate... Should save me about 1.5-2 hours a mowing... Bringing it from 4-5 hours to 2-3 hours...

[CascadeScaper]

A mini ex. will not handle a 72" mower. The mini does not have the GPM's and pressure needed to run a mower that was designed for a skid steer, let alone the fact that the mower weighs almost 1,500 pounds for the 72". The US mower is the way to go, they are built to run off a mini.

[KSSS]

I would agree that a typical mini ex will not generate the gpm to spin the blades very fast. If your just cutting grass and you keep the blades sharp it may work. However my guess is that it the performance will be considerable less than you see with a skid steer. When you have it together and have tried it let us know how it worked. You will probably have to rent a 10K machine to generate the additional gpm and be able to fully extend the mower.

[minimax]

Cutting grass takes more power than cutting brush.

minimax

[minimax]

Noose,I can extend fully(17') and still work.I don't know what you are ask about "sway"??? I get about 200 hrs from each side if the teeth and i'm in very rockie ground.

minimax

[KeppleServices]

The machine I had was a 435, and the rental will probably be a 331 or 334 bobcat. I figure nothing is lost for trying, I didnt pay anything for the materials, and its only a little fab time to give it a go. The ponds im mowing have some steep banks, and i have to run the T300 up and down the bank, I cant side cut roughly 40% of the bank, thats why it is taking me so long... Im trying to cut down my mow time, even ifi only use the mini ex just for the bank i cant get with the T300. The bobcat dealer is about 2 miles away, and I have a very good relationship with them. They know what I am attempting to do, and want to see the outcome as well.

[Noose]

Hope this works. The operator seems alittle rammy but there is some bounce or sway, over that much length it may be enevitable.
http://www.fecon.com/media-room/action-videos.asp

[minimax]

Has to do operator and what the ground the machine is sitting on.

minimax

[NateV]

minmax

if you dont mind me asking how much did you pay for your mower? i called one dealer who sells the rockhound cutter and he told me it was aroud $5,000 so im guessing the us mower is about the same?

Thanks

[atgreene]

I was told $6500 for a 30" Rockhound last year. I need to call your guy, NateV.;)

[trailmaker]

I am in the process of buying a tb138 for trail construction and maintenance. I'm getting the rockhound for brush clearing, mainly poison oak. We have some existing trails that originally had nice views but are slowly becoming tunnels through the brush. An excavator flail mower seems like a good solution. If all goes well I'll have the machine in a few weeks so I'll post the results.

[Countryboy]

Welcome to HEF trailmaker! :drinkup

[minimax]

I payed $5200 for my mower head with hoses and the QC interface in 2004.

minimax

[trailmaker]

That's a nice setup minimax. Your post has been really helpful. My dealer wasn't sure if the tk 138 was big enough for for that mower, but if you can run that mower(650lbs) on the Deere 35(7600lbs/17gpm), I should be able to run the 30 inch mower(500lbs) on the 138(8300lbs/15.6gpm). Are my numbers right here? It seems like my proposed setup should work but I could be overlooking something.

[minimax]

That should run that head just fine. Make sure you put some underguarding under the house of it machine, hose covers on the hoses from the mower head to the machine.

minimax

[trailmaker]

Thanks minimax, I'll be sure to do that. You mentioned earlier that you can fully extend with that mower. Is that over the front only or over the side as well?(I'm talking level dry ground, I know there will be a lot of variables in the field) I got to operate a U35 with a 30 inch mower briefly in my dealer's yard and it seemed to me that as long as you are really smooth (no jerky stuff) you can really move that mower around. Thanks again for your, and everyone else's posts. These discussions help me feel like I'm not quite wingin' it as much.:beatsme

[CM1995]

Minimax-

What is your garage built out of in the picture in post #7? It looks like limestone blocks.:beatsme

I know, I know - I hijacked my own thread.:o

[minimax]

trailmaker, I can fully extend the mower over the front and the side with the standard counterweight and work in some petty steep ground. On the 35D I added the add on counterweight to this machine which realy helps in the realy steep stuff ( the kind of ground you have to use your seat belt to stay in the seat):eek: :eek:
CM1995, the garage is built out of ICF's, foam blocks that you pour concrete in they work good.

minimax

[Ohio Takeuchi]

You can get a detent switch for the takeuchi. Not that expensive. So you dont have to hold it down

Minimax, that's a sweet looking rig! Did you plumb the boom separate, or use the thumb circuit? Did you opt-out on the thumb saddle so you can move rocks etc... while the mower is on?

My tk 135 is rated with plenty of flow for a mower (only needs 8 gpm for the 30"), and has the aux cooling, but it runs on the thumb circuit, which is on the joystick. My carpal tunnel would really go into overdrive if I had to hold that button down all day. The 175's have a slide switch, a little easier on the thumb I guess, but I would like to look into putting a switch in the cab for on and off. Snap it on and leave it, no holding down on anything.

The 161 that my father runs has it on the pedal, there again, his foot gets tired.

Here's the link for rockhound http://www.rockhound.com/page4.html

[jkiser96]

I am in the process of making a 4' bushog to fit my Bobcat 430. I am mounting a hydraulic motor on the deck and running the mower off a belt so if I hit something I don't shear pins or gears. Does anyone have a thought on this setup? I am open to anyone suggestions or other ideas. This is just a project that I started last fall with retention ponds in mind.:usa