Bush hogging

Bush hogged neighbors 4 acre field and had to keep stopping to clean out the radiator and that was with a piece of screen wire in front of radiator. The temp gauge was very important tool.

Brush hogging will do that. I did a field of ragweed one time - whole tractor was yellow from pollen when I was done.

Your picture is why I try to do all the heavy cutting in the spring/summer time before all the seeds start flying. But like most people, I end up cutting whenever I can.
Rick

My old ford has not seen its radiator grill since long before I've owned it. Some years back I combed the fins, keep the radiator clean, and rigged a piece of insect screen, so there was a space in between, it helped quite a bit when you have those conditions. Around here, golden rod and some kind of thistle will become an insulated mat on the front side, it is definitely wise to cut that golden rod before it fuzzes up, same with the thistle I encountered.

Years ago while employed as a heavy equipment operator, I was on a D8k pushing 627 scrapers taking top soil off, on land that just saw its last year of crops, corn and pumpkins, somewhere near or in Flanders NJ, off Rt 206. Corn was harvested, pumpkins were not. The land was trying to make its last stand as the corn and pumpkin trash was covering the radiator grills on everything. The pumpkin crop being left out there, I was pushing up piles of very nice pumpkins. All the operators took pumpkins home, it was the strangest thing, being October, you'd have thought they would have taken them off the field.

Having grown up on and around farms, something was just not right with this work we did of converting really nice fields into subdivisions, some of the layers of top soil were quite thick, NJ does have some nice soil in places.

I always watch the temp gauge pretty closely when shredding, and it usually takes about an hour for it to start to rise. This year I got at it about two weeks earlier than usual, and it never heated up and I didn't have to stop and clean it.

Took the leaf blower to it when I got home. It was in every nook and cranny on the whole tractor.

Every fall when bush hogging I say that next spring I'm gone to cut in the spring next year. I'm off next week to hunt and mow and will be saying the same thing again! At least the grill of my old IH 684 is easy to remove and makes blowing the crap out of the rad easy. Some bush hogging work sure makes my old German diesel run well though.

merlynr, I have had the same problem in tall weeds on my IH 966! I basically solve that Problem You described by using a piece of... as tight a mesh as you can find Burlap/Gunny Sack in front of the grill to catch the light trash, leaves, fuzzy seed heads and any other crap the fan can Draw into the Radiator. Just like in your pix. Clean the grill out every am, noon, Perhaps even... late pm too but it will require you to shut the tractor down.
So for me that is a Cold Shut down procedure. You also must also eliminate other air inlet sources that would let UN-filtered air get drawn into the radiator. Many yrs ago I was into a huge Shredding Contract...( 800 acres, mainly pastures ans some fields about a month and a half deal) the fuzzy crap was driving me nuts, tractor just on the verge of running hot, Mid August in Texas 100++++++ temps I was shaking out the Burlap overlay 2xs/day! The place had a power washer I could use so every other day I was washing the radiator out too. The Burlap overlay saved my Briskets and temp dropped back into the Normal range! Hope this helps!
Later,
John A.