MF 220 too small for bush hog?

ps buskirk

New User
I have an MF 220 with a 6 ft. bush hog attached. It does very well mowing brush through the mountain trails but gets bogged down in the tall thick grass. Is a six foot mower too large for this tractor?
 
Takes about 45-50 HP to run a 6 footer in heavy grass and not get hot. Are you running at 540 PTO RPM's, very important to keep blade speed
up. Reduce ground speed, maybe?
 
(quoted from post at 12:31:15 06/13/16) Takes about 45-50 HP to run a 6 footer in heavy grass and not get hot. Are you running at 540 PTO RPM's, very important to keep blade speed
up. Reduce ground speed, maybe?

I am running 540 PTO RPM's. The tractor is only 31 HP though.
 
When you get into thick grass you can either go into a lower gear. If you already have a path cut you could just move the tractor over some so you are not using the entire width off the bush hog.
 
I looked at tractor data: per their information this tractor only has 26 hp at the pto,

I think your tractor would be much happier with a 5 ft rotary cutter, if you keep straining the drive train you might be looking at replacing a pto
clutch,

You should have no problem trading for a 5 ft cutter,

might have a neighbor that has one you could borrow and try it in your field before you buy,
 
back in the day we used a six ft. bush hog behind a TO-35 for years. with the high low range it handled anything we wanted it to handle but there times when mowing knee high blue grass the tractor was in 1st gear low range.
 
I had the same problem last year. I had just bought a TO35 deluxe and a 5ft Bush hog and I was cutting the grass too low. I read posts on here about mower height and raised the mower to about 6-7 inches and it made a big difference. I did have to make a 2nd pass with the mower lowered but it did reduce the strain on it. AS the others say keeping PTO speed up going slower in lower gear all play a part.
 
(quoted from post at 12:08:55 06/13/16) I had the same problem last year. I had just bought a TO35 deluxe and a 5ft Bush hog and I was cutting the grass too low. I read posts on here about mower height and raised the mower to about 6-7 inches and it made a big difference. I did have to make a 2nd pass with the mower lowered but it did reduce the strain on it. AS the others say keeping PTO speed up going slower in lower gear all play a part.
Aside from not cutting too low you also want to be sure the rear of the mower is 2-4 inches higher than the front by adjusting the top link. That way the grass will be able to exit and not be cut twice, which uses more power. If you keep the back higher you may actually be able to make a lower cut in one pass.
 

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