What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[Shawn T. W]

I have a similar model, mines 65 gallons and 12' - 7 nozzle boom, but has a "6 roller" PTO driven pump ... Which also fits on my QH.

 

[junhy]

Hammers swapped for Y-Blades. What I have learned is:

Hammers are better for woody weeds and trashy cutting in overgrown undergrowth, but not so great with thick pasture grasses or stringy weeds that tend to wrap around the hammers, or worse yet, around the drum. HOWEVER, they do an excellent job on short grass (lawn).

Y-Blades are worthless in viney/woody weeds because they don’t have enough inertia and tend to just bounce off. Too sharp is a thing on mower blades because of the quick wear that occurs on a sharp edge. The blades’ original edge was not very sharp at all, so I tweaked them a bit to maybe do a better job with tougher weeds. They excel in tall thick grass and stringy weeds, but leave a lot to be desired for cutting lawn type grass because the shape of the cut leaves very visible ridges under each knife path. No real surprise there, though.

I have seen some brands with L blades which should leave a much better finish on a lawn, and maybe work okay in light weeds too.

I’m still exploring mowing options for when my 15 year old Husqvarna rider bites the dust. SUzie can’t do a belly mower (no midmount PTO) so unless I get a rear finish mower, I’ll likely just get another rider or Zturn.

That’s a really useful comparison. I’ve always wondered how much difference the blade style actually makes once you get into taller grass and weeds. The part about the hammers wrapping with stringy weeds is something I hadn’t really considered, but I can see how that would become a pain pretty quickly. It sounds like the Y-blades would make more sense for rough grass and pasture, while the hammers are the better all-around choice when there’s a lot of woody stuff mixed in.

I’d be interested to hear how the L blades work out if you get a chance to try them. Getting a decent finish without giving up too much ability to handle light weeds seems like the sweet spot. And a 15-year-old Husqvarna has definitely earned some retirement planning by now!

 

[LBZ]

Hammers swapped for Y-Blades. What I have learned is:

Hammers are better for woody weeds and trashy cutting in overgrown undergrowth, but not so great with thick pasture grasses or stringy weeds that tend to wrap around the hammers, or worse yet, around the drum. HOWEVER, they do an excellent job on short grass (lawn).

Y-Blades are worthless in viney/woody weeds because they don’t have enough inertia and tend to just bounce off. Too sharp is a thing on mower blades because of the quick wear that occurs on a sharp edge. The blades’ original edge was not very sharp at all, so I tweaked them a bit to maybe do a better job with tougher weeds. They excel in tall thick grass and stringy weeds, but leave a lot to be desired for cutting lawn type grass because the shape of the cut leaves very visible ridges under each knife path. No real surprise there, though.

I have seen some brands with L blades which should leave a much better finish on a lawn, and maybe work okay in light weeds too.

I’m still exploring mowing options for when my 15 year old Husqvarna rider bites the dust. SUzie can’t do a belly mower (no midmount PTO) so unless I get a rear finish mower, I’ll likely just get another rider or Zturn.

I think you must have some thicker grasses and weeds in Alabama than we have in southern Iowa. I've run hammer blades through pasture grass that hadn't been mowed for 2 or 3 years, multifloro rose and small saplings. The only thing that has fouled the hammer blades has been a section of woven wire fence.

 

[D2Cat]

IMO that is better situation than forgetting to put a pan under before removing the plug.

Or forgetting to put the plug in before adding oil.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Or forgetting to put the plug in before adding oil.

Or finishing the perfect flare, then seeing the nut sitting on the bench.

 

[DaveFromMi]

Today I mowed off some overgrown trails. Tomorrow, around some out buildings and a corn field. I'll give the johnson grass another day to die.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Haven’t been on mine since the hip replacement beginning of the month. Cut grass before the surgery. Took it for a ride to see how the new hip handles the bumps. Did good. Will be cutting grass this week.

 

[beckmurph]

Did a little bush hogging:

 

[Farm Fun]

Nice setup. I am looking at adding a sprayer but am undecided on one for the RTV or, a three point version. I do like the fact yours fits oh the quick hitch.

I have the 45 gallon UTV version with 7 nozzles in an RTV 1100. My dad purchased both a number of years ago. Sprayer works fine with a couple of issues:
1. Quality control on the boom isn't the best. One end higher than the other do to an off angle weld/assembly. Even tried a different boom but had same problem. Eventually had a local welding shop adjust/fix it.
2. Quality of the plastic manifold isn't the best. Chemicals are hard on it so I have to replace it about every 3 years as the pressure and/or boom control start having issues. Not a hard job but has to be done.
Otherwise, the RTV handles it great. Doesn't even notice there's a tank full of liquid in the back. Local Kubota dealer installed an on/off switch on the dash. It's also nice being able to spray in a cab and avoid any drift/odor.

 

[S-G-R]

I have the 45 gallon UTV version with 7 nozzles in an RTV 1100. My dad purchased both a number of years ago. Sprayer works fine with a couple of issues:
1. Quality control on the boom isn't the best. One end higher than the other do to an off angle weld/assembly. Even tried a different boom but had same problem. Eventually had a local welding shop adjust/fix it.
2. Quality of the plastic manifold isn't the best. Chemicals are hard on it so I have to replace it about every 3 years as the pressure and/or boom control start having issues. Not a hard job but has to be done.
Otherwise, the RTV handles it great. Doesn't even notice there's a tank full of liquid in the back. Local Kubota dealer installed an on/off switch on the dash. It's also nice being able to spray in a cab and avoid any drift/odor.

Thank you for the insight. Definitely something to keep in mine.

 

[NCL4701]

Spent about 6 hours finishing cleanup from recent storms, mostly leftovers from one storm a few weeks ago. All the trails and yards were cleared and big stuff taken care of shortly after the storm that did the vast majority of damage. Today was cleaning up smaller stuff by the road, pond, and woods adjacent to the yards where there was a good bit of limbs and busted small trees that were visually offensive. Also had a moderate amount of pruning dead branches that were busted but not on the ground.

Since it was all 5”- stuff either in or beside the woods, drove around with chipper and small chainsaw to chip everything in place. After finishing the cleanup, dropped the loader and chipper to swap to the bush hog. Started bush hogging the little fields with trees that we keep in grass. Didn’t expect to finish, but the 1.5 hours I spent on it today is 1.5 hours I don’t have to spend on it tomorrow.

 

[Old_Paint]

I wish

I'm interested in the L shaped flails you mentioned. That's what I was looking for originally but could only find really heavy duty versions - 8" long, 3/8" thick - so I've gone with Y blades. Do you have a link to where you saw the L blades you could share ?

I wish I had bookmarked the page, but looks like I have to struggle through the search AI that shows me everything EXCEPT what I asked for. Blades are pretty hard stuff and making a set might be outside my skill set and capabilities. I don’t think I have enough know how nor a forge to harden them, but mild steel would be easy to bend and drill. A forge is easy enough to cobble together. Keeping the weights spot on would be critical too. I distinctly remember seeing them, but don’t remember what brand they were, nor what got me to that page. Gonna try to find them again, but maybe you’re right about them being too big for my little mower. Making 48 identical blades would probably be a bit time consuming, but I bet the originals had quite a bit of weight discrepancies. The mass of each blade is so low that they probably wouldn’t have much vibration on the drum because of the phasing of the mounts on the drum.

 

[Old_Paint]

I think you must have some thicker grasses and weeds in Alabama than we have in southern Iowa. I've run hammer blades through pasture grass that hadn't been mowed for 2 or 3 years, multifloro rose and small saplings. The only thing that has fouled the hammer blades has been a section of woven wire fence.

Long grass tends to build up small clumps around the neck of the hammer and then continue growing on the shank until it fills up the spoon. A little woody stuff will clear them pretty quickly., so cutting perimeter stuff is great with the hammers. The Y-blades are much narrower and don’t seem to build up as bad as the hammers do.

The most annoying weeds in the fields Im cutting are nearly as bad as running over nylon baling mesh. They are TOUGH. I couldn’t tell much difference whether green or dried. But they don’t clog the hammers. The good grasses do that. I also found that the Y-blades don’t seem to liif up baling mesh as much either. I’m guessing that’s because they don’t create as much air flow as the hammers.

 

[BiggB]

Or finishing the perfect flare, then seeing the nut sitting on the bench.

Been there done that