Building a skid steer brush mower

I thought I'd share one of my projects with everyone. Last year I built my own brush mower for my track loader. I've been wanting to do it for a while and have been grabbing scrap steel here and there. The one I made is 80" and uses all off the shelf parts that I can get at my local farm store. I use this for light brush cutting and mowing tall grass. When testing it out I knocked down and mulched up around 2" diameter small trees with not much effort, but I did not design this to be a super heavy cutter or forestry mulcher. Framework- I mostly used scrap metal That I gathered up over the months. I had to buy a few pieces for it. For the frame I used 6" channel with an additional 3" channel on top of it. The plate is 1/4" diamond plate and the bracing is 3" channel. I made the quick attach plate using the 1/4" plate and 3/8" flat stock. Hydraulics- Most of my hydraulic parts came from Surplus Center, and I used their online calculators to do the math on deciding what motor to use. At the time I had a high flow machine, but I made this to run with standard flow. It took alot of playing around with the numbers and combing through available motors to find one that would give me good power and the right rpm. I added a bypass valve to allow the blades to spin down after shutting off the hydraulic flow. This prevents a sudden stop of the blades when it is turned off. The valve I used was a pressure relief and also had a crossover relief to allow spin down. My motor connects to the gearbox using a coupler that slides onto the gearbox splines and has a shear pin on the motor. Gearbox and blades- For this I used all off the shelf parts. I did not build or fab anything. All the parts used were designed to be used together and I knew there would not be any problems with it. I used a 72hp Omni gearbox that goes on any run of the mill brush mower. I can easily buy parts for it at any Tractor Supply or Rural King. Attached to that I used a 2" hubbed blade pan with 2 rotary mower blades. Once all that was built I had the hoses made and gave it 2 good coats of Industrial Rustoleum. I did add SEM RustShield catalyst to the paint to add hardness and speed up the dry time. And there it is. It's been a good mower so far. It doesn't get used a whole lot, but is really valuable when I do need it. I think my next project is going to be a power rake. After using a few different ones and looking at others online, I think I can make one that will fit my needs. Plus I enjoy the time in the garage building things. I'll try to take more pictures on the next build.

Looks like you put a lot of work into that, doesn't look much different than one you would buy from an attachment dealer. Nice job, always feels good to build something that fills a need instead of buying it.

Thanks Tags. Yes I'd much rather build it than buy it. Gives a little bit of pride. Plus I saved some money. I've got about $700 in it. The hoses were the most expensive part of it.

Great job! I like the extra support on the sides. How thick and wide are the skids on the bottom that rubs the ground?

Thanks, The skids are 3" wide and 3/8 thick. When I run it I have the arms up just a bit so it's not riding on the ground to help reduce wear.

Looks great

Very good job

Mike_IUOE said: The hoses were the most expensive part of it. Click to expand... Nice job! I have seen many Chinese 72" skid steer mowers sell at RB auctions for around $1700 new, but no warranty or support on them at all. I noticed they had 1/4" ID hoses which made me go HMMMMMMMM. Yours will run long after they die.

check said: Nice job! I have seen many Chinese 72" skid steer mowers sell at RB auctions for around $1700 new, but no warranty or support on them at all. I noticed they had 1/4" ID hoses which made me go HMMMMMMMM. Yours will run long after they die. Click to expand... Thanks. Yeah you sure wont get much flow out of those!

Turned out great. What are some of your thoughts about building a power rake? I am in the planning stages of building one as well and would like to bounce around ideas with someone doing the same.

B_Campbell said: Turned out great. What are some of your thoughts about building a power rake? I am in the planning stages of building one as well and would like to bounce around ideas with someone doing the same. Click to expand... I'm still looking at different ones. I've used a few different rentals, but never took any good pictures or got and numbers off the motor. I'm probably not going to make it power tilt, I was thinking a 6" drum with weld on teeth. Main thing I'm looking at now is what motor to use. I think I'm going to go chain drive vs. direct mount on the drum. I saw one that goes on a tractor that stated it it was a 1:1 gear ratio and PTO shaft speed is 540 rpm so that gives me a window on rpm, so I just need to figure out the torque needed. Next time I get a rental I'll probably get the motor number off of it to get me in the right direction

Any chance you could post the part numbers and brands of parts you used to build your mower?

siduramaxde said: Any chance you could post the part numbers and brands of parts you used to build your mower? Click to expand... How in the world is it, that you haven't posted in over 9 years, and your last post was on our new shop thread?? That is eeire....

Was thinking a track loader when you said track loader, not a tracked skid steer. Pictured a brush mower on a 977 or something... that would mow some lawns

B_Campbell said: Turned out great. What are some of your thoughts about building a power rake? I am in the planning stages of building one as well and would like to bounce around ideas with someone doing the same. Click to expand... I just bought a new, used once Top Cat one. They are 4.5kish from the factory. Honestly don't think a guy could build one for much less if buying everything. Even if the rake craps out, it's got a fairly nice 72" bucket.

Shimmy1 said: How in the world is it, that you haven't posted in over 9 years, and your last post was on our new shop thread?? That is eeire.... Click to expand... What are you the post monitor?

Hey, don't be so quick to get defensive. Lots of spammers come on here. Anytime I see a poster with a seemingly odd response I check their other postings to see if there's anything suspicious. The faster the mods can get pointed towards these guys, the faster they get pinched. Obviously, you're not A.I., lol. Was just caught off guard when I saw my thread from 9 years ago was your last post before today.

siduramaxde said: Any chance you could post the part numbers and brands of parts you used to build your mower? Click to expand... I’ll have to see if I can find them. Every thing was purchased through surplus center.