Backhoe-Mounted Mower Makes Heavy-Duty Cutter

Backhoe-Mounted Mower Makes Heavy-Duty Cutter MOWERS Mowers (31H) 31-1-35 Being able to cut weeds and brush on both sides of a ditch was one reason Johnny Mooring built his "backhoe mower". Another was to be able to cut back the edges of trees overhanging fields. His heavy-duty cutter lets him do both, and much more. "It's often tough to run a combine alongside a wooded area, so I wanted something that could clean up the edges a bit," says Mooring. "If the branches are too big to trim with the cutter head, I can just pull down on them and break them with the arm. Then I push them back into the woods." His brush-busting cutter will cut an 8 to 10-in. branch off a live tree. Made from parts of an old M3 Gleaner combine, a Vermeer Trencher backhoe and a Hardy side cutter, it lets him go almost anywhere. Mooring stripped the combine down to its frame and then started cutting. The wheelbase remained the same but the frame that extended behind the rear axle was cut off. He also trimmed the top of the main frame by 14 in. to lower the center of gravity. He then reinforced it with 3-in. angle iron and restructured the unit. "I put the cab back where the grain tank had been," he says. The engine sits behind the cab with the double V-belt that had powered the grain table now running to the main hydrostatic drive. Electric clutches at each end of the engine power pumps for the arm and the cutterhead. Two separate hydraulic reservoirs provide oil, one for the cutter arm and head and the other for steering and hydrostatics drive. The two pumps ensure plenty of flow when working the arm and running the head at the same time. The two tanks reduce risk of cross contamination if a hose breaks, all too likely given the work the cutter head does. Mooring had to build a 3-pt. hitch to mount the Vermeer backhoe arm. The 3-pt. arms are welded to the rear axle, while the top link is fixed to a 4 by 4-in. frame. The tubing runs under the length of the tractor to the front end, where it serves as a base for a shelf of 3/8-in. thick plate. A 2,000-lb. concrete block sits on the plate, providing ballast for the cutter arm. "Without the concrete ballast, extending the cutter arm and head would lift the back of the combine right off the ground," says Mooring. The Hardy cutter head was made to be 3-pt. mounted and is powered by a hydraulic motor. The heavy-duty blade is designed to cut saplings up to 3 in. in diameter. "That blade spins at around 8,000 rpm and is attached with a 2-in. bolt," says Mooring. It will throw a hunk of wood 300 yards or more." Mooring has attached safety shields over the cab windshields and over the safety lights. He also moved the hydraulic pumps to the inside of the combine to reduce potential problems with limbs or branches interfering with belts and hoses. Mooring admits that one modification increases risk with the big cutter. He cut a corner off the shielding. ""It lets me access a limb or small tree," he says. "I traded the extra danger for convenience." When the arm is fully extended, the cutter head is a full 20 ft. from the edge of the combine. The hydraulic controls on the arm allow it to be raised, lowered and moved from side to side. Cutter head can be tilted up and down for even more flexibility. Mooring used available hydraulic controls and added more. "The lever that moved the header up and down now swings the cutter arm side to side," says Mooring. I have three other levers to control the cutter with four sets of remotes on it alone. The top link is hydraulic also, and I use a heavy-duty valve with rocker switch to control it, tilting the entire arm if need be." The combine is a perfect power unit for cutting, says Mooring. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Johnny Mooring, P.O. Box 163, Snow Hill, N.C. 28580 (ph 252 747-8772).

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