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Building a skid steer brush mower

Mike_IUOE

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2019
Messages
63
Location
St Louis area
Occupation
Operating Engineer
I thought I'd share one of my projects with everyone. Last year I built my own brush mower for my track loader. I've been wanting to do it for a while and have been grabbing scrap steel here and there. The one I made is 80" and uses all off the shelf parts that I can get at my local farm store. I use this for light brush cutting and mowing tall grass. When testing it out I knocked down and mulched up around 2" diameter small trees with not much effort, but I did not design this to be a super heavy cutter or forestry mulcher.

Framework- I mostly used scrap metal That I gathered up over the months. I had to buy a few pieces for it. For the frame I used 6" channel with an additional 3" channel on top of it. The plate is 1/4" diamond plate and the bracing is 3" channel. I made the quick attach plate using the 1/4" plate and 3/8" flat stock.

Hydraulics- Most of my hydraulic parts came from Surplus Center, and I used their online calculators to do the math on deciding what motor to use. At the time I had a high flow machine, but I made this to run with standard flow. It took alot of playing around with the numbers and combing through available motors to find one that would give me good power and the right rpm. I added a bypass valve to allow the blades to spin down after shutting off the hydraulic flow. This prevents a sudden stop of the blades when it is turned off. The valve I used was a pressure relief and also had a crossover relief to allow spin down. My motor connects to the gearbox using a coupler that slides onto the gearbox splines and has a shear pin on the motor.

Gearbox and blades- For this I used all off the shelf parts. I did not build or fab anything. All the parts used were designed to be used together and I knew there would not be any problems with it. I used a 72hp Omni gearbox that goes on any run of the mill brush mower. I can easily buy parts for it at any Tractor Supply or Rural King. Attached to that I used a 2" hubbed blade pan with 2 rotary mower blades.

Once all that was built I had the hoses made and gave it 2 good coats of Industrial Rustoleum. I did add SEM RustShield catalyst to the paint to add hardness and speed up the dry time.

And there it is. It's been a good mower so far. It doesn't get used a whole lot, but is really valuable when I do need it. I think my next project is going to be a power rake. After using a few different ones and looking at others online, I think I can make one that will fit my needs. Plus I enjoy the time in the garage building things. I'll try to take more pictures on the next build.

IMG_2009.JPG IMG_2055.JPG IMG_2058.JPG IMG_2538.JPG
 

Tags

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
1,610
Location
Connecticut
Looks like you put a lot of work into that, doesn't look much different than one you would buy from an attachment dealer. Nice job, always feels good to build something that fills a need instead of buying it.
 

Mike_IUOE

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2019
Messages
63
Location
St Louis area
Occupation
Operating Engineer
Thanks Tags. Yes I'd much rather build it than buy it. Gives a little bit of pride. Plus I saved some money. I've got about $700 in it. The hoses were the most expensive part of it.
 

Mike_IUOE

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2019
Messages
63
Location
St Louis area
Occupation
Operating Engineer
Thanks, The skids are 3" wide and 3/8 thick. When I run it I have the arms up just a bit so it's not riding on the ground to help reduce wear.
 

check

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
800
Location
in the mail
The hoses were the most expensive part of it.
Nice job! I have seen many Chinese 72" skid steer mowers sell at RB auctions for around $1700 new, but no warranty or support on them at all. I noticed they had 1/4" ID hoses which made me go HMMMMMMMM. Yours will run long after they die.
 

Mike_IUOE

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2019
Messages
63
Location
St Louis area
Occupation
Operating Engineer
Nice job! I have seen many Chinese 72" skid steer mowers sell at RB auctions for around $1700 new, but no warranty or support on them at all. I noticed they had 1/4" ID hoses which made me go HMMMMMMMM. Yours will run long after they die.
Thanks. Yeah you sure wont get much flow out of those!
 

B_Campbell

New Member
Joined
May 5, 2019
Messages
2
Location
Prince Edward Island
Turned out great. What are some of your thoughts about building a power rake? I am in the planning stages of building one as well and would like to bounce around ideas with someone doing the same.
 

Mike_IUOE

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2019
Messages
63
Location
St Louis area
Occupation
Operating Engineer
Turned out great. What are some of your thoughts about building a power rake? I am in the planning stages of building one as well and would like to bounce around ideas with someone doing the same.
I'm still looking at different ones. I've used a few different rentals, but never took any good pictures or got and numbers off the motor. I'm probably not going to make it power tilt, I was thinking a 6" drum with weld on teeth. Main thing I'm looking at now is what motor to use. I think I'm going to go chain drive vs. direct mount on the drum. I saw one that goes on a tractor that stated it it was a 1:1 gear ratio and PTO shaft speed is 540 rpm so that gives me a window on rpm, so I just need to figure out the torque needed. Next time I get a rental I'll probably get the motor number off of it to get me in the right direction
 
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