Track Steer - Brush Cutter Advice

[Kurley]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to the forums and would like to say "WoW" and "Thanks" what a wonderful wealth of information on so many equipment topics. Okay, on to my questions I recently aquired a 1997 ASV MD 70 Please forgive me I am a complete newbie and I hope I did not get taken by my ignorance but I had no choice considering the astranged circumstances that revolved around it. I basicly paid $8000.00 for the steer, trailer, grapple bucket, straight bucket and a set of forks, the unit has 1701 hours on it it starts right up not a drop of smoke and seems to be in really good working order from just putzing around on it out back. The unit is very difficult to find any information about it because of its age, I am wanting to clear some brush and small tree's this fall cutting 4 wheeler trails and I am lost with the whole High Flow topic, there is a lever on the lower left side of the floor that is labled PTO if pushed forward and AUX if pushed backwards does that mean it has a HF option?. When it is left in the middle the small lever on the right operates the grapples. I have included a picture of the unit. I see so many different types of brush cutters and I'm not looking to spend ton's of money as it will really only be used on my personal property, these brush cutters seem to run from $2000.00 up to mega bucks. I am hoping someone here has had some personal experience with a unit like this and can help guide me in a direction to get my best bang for the buck with out me having to trade off my first born(just kiddin). I have been able to locate a parts book and I have included a link to the only other information I could find about this machine. Thanks in advance, after scrolling around for many hours I'm sure this community is the best place to start.

http://www.asvi.com/product_comparison_include.cfm
This unit is the non-turbo version

 

[cdm123]

wow 8 grand? i am jelous.

 

[willie59]

You can get brush cutters that perform well that don't require high flow. Now, if you get something like a flail mower, that would probably be a high flow unit.

BTW, welcome to the forum. :usa

 

[Monte1255]

I'm wondering.......do you have any other hyrdraulic outlet ports? quick couplers attached to the machine?
have you checked with previous owner fer the info you need?
personally I'm not familiar with the ASV skidsteers but I do know that certain models fo New Hollands had quick change capabilities with foot pedal for example. It was actuated by pushing a toggle and runnin the foot, on my current model you push the toggle and run the right aux control on the steering levers. maybe try a few of those items out and see what actually comes of it?

 

[Digdeep]

Welcome to the forum. I'm fairly familiar with your "new' machine because I sold against the ASVs for over 8 years when I worked for a Bobcat dealer here in Wisconsin. BTW..I own a ASV RC50...and an S220.

There are still quite a few MD70s running around Wisconsin. If I remember correctly the machine"s aux hydraulics are about 25gpm. I think the pressure was either 2750psi or 3000psi. It should be plenty to run the garden variety rotary brush cutters. I currently run a Davco 504 on my RC50 an it only puts out 16gpm. I bought it second hand because the Davcos are expensive, but extremely rugged. I used to see quite a few rotary cutters made by Woods on MD70s and HD4500s that ASV made. Of course, there are many other rotary cutters out there if you google them.

I would start by calling the service department at ASV. They have been a wealth of information for me and they still remain as one of the only OEMs that you can call directly. Ask for Tim or Buck. Both of them have been a ton of help- 800 346-4367. They should be able to provide you with operator and service manuals. I can tell you from spending time with many ASV customers I was trying to "convert" that you must grease the undercarriage bogies on that machine religiously. I used to make fun of that and use it as a selling point, but that machine could do things a that a Bobcat back in the day could never dream of doing.

Good luck.

 

[Kurley]

Sorry,
I sort of fell off the deep end with some family difficulties that worked out thank God. I certainly appreciate the feed back, There are a couple of extra ports on the back of the machine but I was told that the whole lift could be switched around to be run off the back side of the unit. The two lines that are accesable are located right at the front of the entry way mounted to on the left and right side and currently operate the grapples on the bucket so I am uncertain if that is where a brush cutter would hook up. Those lines are marked 3/8 ID (not sure if that means 1/2 or 3/4 Lines). The serial number is very hard to read and I was told there is a location under the seat under the acess panel stamped into the frame I greatly appreciate the phone number to ASV will definately have a little chat with Tim or Buck. I'm very curious to see if the additional ports on the back of the unit are the AUX outlets as there is a lever on the floor that controls the front PTO and AUX. The prior owner moved to Australia so I'm out of luck there. Just having an operators manual and a little guidance will do wonders. We've decided to wait until after the Michigan hunting season is over to go in and create a whole bunch of racket .. But it's coming .. If I can get 25 GPM out of the unit I was really looking for some feed back on the brush units that are available I guess I'm looking for my best bang for the buck on a brush cutter as this is going to be used personally and Ill be sleeping in the dog house if I cook much more than $4000.00 on the cutter. I've watched some videos on utube and most of these guys that are using the cutters in my price range are mowing the grass ... Im not going to be mowing grass .. I need somthing that can do some damage with in reason the big down falls will get the chain saw and the brush will hopefully go bye-bye Any suggestions Ive been sort of leaning torwards a http://www.bushmasterequipment.com/SL601.htm or possibly http://www.brushmonster.com/ check out the videos ..anyone own these .. And thanks for the warm welcome ****

 

[CRAFT]

Looking forward to see what you come up with down there when you find the mulcher to fit your budget ...... AND for GODSAKE ! put a protective door on the machine when you do start brush cutting ! ....You will DIE if you don't.
I too have a brush cutter/mulcher on my Skid and Excavator, its a Davco 705 unit that is incredable what it can do .... I have replaced the roll-up glass in the exc. twice (and the machine has full frontal guarding/fops-rops) because of the smaller bullet sized projectiles that can possibly shoot out, when I use it on my BC A-300 I have a 1"thick marguard door on it when brushing.
The Brushmonster unit looks impressive and the price would appear to be your best bang for the buck too!
:drinkup

 

[jca57jd]

So what did we decide Kurley? I to have been primarily looking at the same two units that you are looking at for my t190. However if you have 25gpm you are a little bit better off than me. If you call brushmonster and work on them they will come down on the price. Ive been waiting to hear some feed back from somebody else with these cutters before i purchase as well. Let me know what you have found out. Thanks!

 

[rooster7102]

call atco equipment. i have an extreme duty cutter from blue diamond. it's a 72" cut and direct drive hydrolics. great for a low flow machine. and i promice that
u will not find anyone to stand behind thier attachments like these people do. my cutter is on an 864 bobcat. the only thing i may would change is the cutter size. 72" is a little hard to turn when in a bunch of big trees.

 

[DrJim]

Yes, Kurley, welcome to HEF,

I like brush cutters a lot; don't have a door or protective hardware on my Bobcat 773; the Bobcat brand BrushCat has a device--a heavy roller that is on a linkage that shuts the mower down when you lift the back edge up. The cutter works well but that particular feature is not so popular--it limits the crazy things that folks might do with the attachment, and you know how folks like to do crazy things.

I agree with Rooster. I looked at the Blue Diamond units at Atco and they look to be awesome. And I believe Atco is a top-notch company to deal with, regardless of your location.

Ah, but for ATV trails? If I had tracks, I would simply flop the bottom of the bucket down flat, and take off cross country. I have built trails with my rubber tired machine with just a toothed bucket. The mower is going to leave "stobs" sticking up that are going to play heck with the soft compound ATV tires (pronounced "tars" in TN). Like I said, I love the brush cutters, but I'm not convinced you have to buy one. Another option is to rent one a day here or there. Some places will let 'em out from 3:30PM Fri til 8:30am Monday for 1 day's rent. But if you do that, rent, buy, or rig some sort of protective door.

(If you just use your bucket, you won't have to fool with that. . .)