Tractor struggles with 5' bush hog, what about a 4'?

cghbuilder86 · Aug 17, 2015

I have a Ford 601 with a pretty worn down engine. It was sold to me from a dealer a couple years ago with a new New Holland 5' bush hog. It has never handled it quite right. From what I have read if this tractor had an engine that was working right it wouldnt have any problem. My question is if it is struggling too much with the 5', instead of buying a new tractor right now how much easier for it would it be it I find a cheap used 4' bush hog? I have tried taking less width of cut but it doesn't seem to help a lot. It seems a 4' with lighter weight construction and smaller blades would help. Plus a 4' is rated to need a considerable amount of hp less than a 5'. What do yall think? worth trying a 4' or just start looking to buy another tractor?

gears · Aug 17, 2015

Wouldn't the cost of a new 4' get you most of the way to rebuilding or replacing the worn out motor?

old · Aug 17, 2015

Which model 601 do you have?? A 4 speed model as in 641. Or a 5 speed one with live or non live PTO?? What gear are you trying to use??

tractorguy2 · Aug 17, 2015

How tall of weeds/grass are you mowing? A lot of people think they can mow 6ft tall weeds. not going to happen!

old · Aug 17, 2015

Plus they want to do it in 3rd gear if a 641 or 4th gear is a 5 speed and that is not going to happen either. Many people do not understand you brush hog in first gear unless your mowing a lawn

Ultradog MN · Aug 18, 2015

A half decent running, 23 hp 8n will handle a 5' brush cutter fairly easily. And it will cut some pretty tall, thick stuff in 2nd too.
Hard to believe your 601 which was originally about 34 hp won't do as well or better even if the engine is badly worn.
I wonder if you don't have something else going on - like it's only running on 3 cylinders or some such.
Have you done a tune up on it lately?

James Wilson · Aug 18, 2015

Make sure your governor is working.

Tiger Joe · Aug 18, 2015

I would attempt to fix the tractor or replace the tractor before I bought a new brush hog.

just for an example, I looked up the specs for a bush hog 4ft vs 5 ft cutter.

4 ft min hp- 15
5 ft min hp- 20

If the machine is struggling with a 5, I highly doubt it would do much better with a 4.

nlastovi · Aug 18, 2015

(quoted from post at 18:46:49 08/17/15) It has never handled it quite right.

What do you mean by "never handled it quite right"? Do you think that it is too heavy and leaving the front end too light? Or that the tractor's engine is not able to maintain rated PTO RPM? Or something else?

sotxbill · Aug 18, 2015

I would start with a correct tuneup, and setting the carb main jet for the load.... If carb set wrong or dirty, you will have trouble with anything.

Are sparkplugs gap correctly and are the correct type?

Is air filter clean or restricting air?

Are you using lots of oil? blue or grey smoke? plugs fouled and not firing correctly? running on 3 cylinders instead of 4?

run a compression test.. dry and wet?

souNdguy · Aug 18, 2015

agreed.

While I don't really like N's anymore, last time I use dmy 8n, it was with a 5' KK mower and in 7' tall weeds, max throttle and 1st gear.. I was standing on the running boards trying to see.. occasionally hitting a patch of bramble would nik the rpms a bit, but never enough to do anything about. keeping throttle at max kept pto speed about right ( actually about 600 ).. but a bit fast carried it thru thick stuff.

I had to stop every 15 minutes to clean the 1" layer of chaff off the radiator.

souNdguy · Aug 18, 2015

something is drastically wrong with your 6xx if it barely runs a 5' mower taking a 4' cut.

tune her up all around.

the 'take a 4' cut on a 5' mower' usually handles all issues of power thru thick stuff.

the extra couple hundred pounds of mower riding along makes little difference to your 6xx. the extra blade width and weight of a 5' mower making a 4' cut actually HELPS you as it is a flywheel storing kinetic rotational energy.

cghbuilder86 · Aug 18, 2015

Thanks for the replys. Maybe getting a 4' bush hog is not the way to go. I have done all the tune up stuff. new plugs, wires, points, yes the gaps are set correctly. Ran wet and dry compression, they were around 90 dry and a lot higher wet. blow by smoking is pretty bad. Enough that I smell like burned oil anytime I crank it up. The tractor handles the weight of the bush hog fine, its the cutting that it is not handling. The weeds are probably 2-3 feet high, and I am leaving a good 6" on the ground. Pretty light duty cutting unless you have the time to cut as often as you mow your lawn. I am running 1st or 2nd gear. 3/4 throttle hopefully that is around 540 rpm. not sure. Also not sure how to adjust the main adjusting screw on the carborater (while under load)? Not sure about the governer? Other than that I think I have tuned or adjusted everything I can.

cghbuilder86 · Aug 18, 2015

also the PTO shaft has a bit of forward backward play. it has leaked some of the fluid before but doesnt seem to lately. and it always has a rattling sound when I am letting of the clutch to engage the blades. (that may be the bush hog making the vibration) Once it gets up to speed it's quiet. Any chance this could be affecting cutting power?

showcrop · Aug 18, 2015

(quoted from post at 16:50:51 08/18/15) also the PTO shaft has a bit of forward backward play. it has leaked some of the fluid before but doesnt seem to lately. and it always has a rattling sound when I am letting of the clutch to engage the blades. (that may be the bush hog making the vibration) Once it gets up to speed it's quiet. Any chance this could be affecting cutting power?

Your initial post made me assume that the mower is keeping the tractor from coming up to RPMs in other word pulling it down due to lack of power. This last post makes me question is that what you mean by "struggling with" and "not handling right" or is it something about the cut or noise?

paul · Aug 19, 2015

I would spend my money on fixing the tractor or finding a better one.

4 foot mowers aren't so many around, and is narrower than your tractor, and you still end up with an underpowered bad tractor. Just not a good
solution any which way.

Attack the problem.

Paul

NoNewParts · Aug 19, 2015

agree, fix the problem...the engine.
It's not hard and not too expensive if you do the grunt work yourself.
Good little motors in those 601 series.
Parts should actually start breaking behind it before that engine will whimper.
(see ericlb's post on the N board of mowing with his NAA..same basic engine)

flhr62 · Aug 19, 2015

Do you have the mower set up so the front is slightly lower than the rear? If not,it should be.

cghbuilder86 · Aug 19, 2015

yes front is 3/4"-1" lower than the back. bush hog manual says 3/4".

cghbuilder86 · Aug 19, 2015

Yeah the problem is that it doesn't have much power. Grass has to be very light. Sometime if I have already made a pass over heavy grass running back over the already cut spot just the mowed down grass will drag it down some.
I was looking at the governor setup yesterday and when it is at full throttle the the rod attached to the carburetor is not nearly opened up all the way. And I believe I remember the guy that sold it to me telling me to run the bush hog a full throttle. I wonder if the throttle stop is adjusted to stop it around 540 rpm? Since the tach has been out for a long time. I have no way to know though so I have ordered a tachometer and cable to find out. That might explain why I have little power if I have been running it around 3/4 of the set 540 rpm.

showcrop · Aug 19, 2015

(quoted from post at 16:51:17 08/19/15)
Yeah the problem is that it doesn't have much power. Grass has to be very light. Sometime if I have already made a pass over heavy grass running back over the already cut spot just the mowed down grass will drag it down some.
I was looking at the governor setup yesterday and when it is at full throttle the the rod attached to the carburetor is not nearly opened up all the way. And I believe I remember the guy that sold it to me telling me to run the bush hog a full throttle. I wonder if the throttle stop is adjusted to stop it around 540 rpm? Since the tach has been out for a long time. I have no way to know though so I have ordered a tachometer and cable to find out. That might explain why I have little power if I have been running it around 3/4 of the set 540 rpm.

When you set the throttle handle under the steering wheel the throttle is not supposed to open all the way. That is what the governor is there for. It opens the throttle more, as you load the engine more, to keep the RPMs where you set it for with the control..

Texasmark1 · Aug 22, 2015

Throwing my hat in the ring too. No 4'. Fix the tractor. BTDT numerous reasons.

Tractor struggles with 5' bush hog, what about a 4'?

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