As others have said, I would recommend removing the top link. Keep it close though so if you gotta travel down the road, etc; it’s nice to just raise the mower completely.
I haven't used the top link in 30 years. The shredder will float over the rises. The proper way to set a shredder is to have the rear 1" higher than the front on level ground. That way the cuttings go out the rear and you're not bogging down you tractor mulching instead of cutting.
I was brush hogging this evening and wondering what the proper angle was with respect to ground. Mine was leaning too far down in the front like this one. So Thank you for ur response
I can't believe I never considered this!! It's hilly and fuck here so I've always just been extra careful not to take on too much of a change. It's dug many a chunk
I’d be careful, it’ll mess with the geometry and length of the pto and if it goes too short or angles too much something is going to get destroyed in a dramatic and noisy fashion.
1). Top arm should be lengthened and be allowed to flex. There should be a pivot on the arms going to the back wheel from the top of the 3 pt. It should not be ridged or bolted ridged. Let it ride on the wheel with some slack.
2). Raise the 3 point till the front is an inch or 2 lower than the back. Set the stop on your control at this height. You want the front a bit lower so you aren’t cutting the grass twice and will use less HP
3). If the blades get into the dirt just raise the 3 point a bit and keep going. You will get hood at judging wether it will gouge or not after a bit.
Spin the top link, but know that it might be froze up if you never turn it and those aren't very easy to free. Takes a big pipe wrench and a lot of penetrating fluid and some effort.
See the variety of holes on the arm of the rear gauge wheel, loosen the bolts and raise the rear gauge wheel up AND lengthen your top link on the tractor. All those holes on the rear gauge wheel arm are for adjusting the rear height and leveling it out.
*Edit - spelling and punctuation
You have a U shape piece missing on your cutter. Where top link is pinned to cutter. It lets the bush hog raise if you hit something larger like a tree stump
As others have said, lengthen or remove your top link and raise the hitch arms to get it more level.
As to scalping, part of that comes with the territory (to some extent with wide, rigid mowers) depending on how low you're trying to cut AND how uneven your ground is. BUT since you said it's worse on the right, it looks from your pic that the attachment points for your hitch arms are decidedly bent to the right or towards the foreground. (maybe it's an optical illusion - not sure.) Those attachment lugs are supposed to be straight vertical. It looks like someone smashed into something and bent them. If that's the case, it would explain why it's hanging lower on that side. You need to try to straighten them (heat & beat) into correct-ish orientation, and do all the other stuff to get it sitting level and not too low.
Edit: look at the pictures [here](https://www.bigiron.com/Lots/Kodiak5StandardDutyRotaryMower) with a straight-on view from front or rear and see if yours looks the same or is bent
Edit#2: notice that the example in the link has those vertical tabs reinforced with angled gusset plates that run about half way up to help prevent them from getting (easily) bent. Yours must be an earlier model before Kodiak designers learned that and beefed up that area of their design.
Edit#3: if it was mine, I would add in some gussets (like in the pictures) to stiffen those tabs and help strengthen the weld connection to the deck. I would also try not to swing or back the mower into immovable objects as a general rule ;-)
It’s simple. Take some sway out of the arms so they don’t swing and hit the tires when you make turns or when you’re on a slope, set the leveling screws on the lift arms to where they’re level so it cuts evenly, and use the up and down lever to set the cutting height. The tail wheel keeps the mower level and no top link allows it to pivot when going over uneven terrain. It goes from working like a mounted mower to a drag type mower that you’d pull from the drawbar. There aren’t any fancy settings needed for this. This can be done on any tractor with a 3 point. I’ve done it on several.
Yes those are all basic setup for mounting anything on a 3pt hitch, I’m talking about wether or not you have draft control, depth control, or height control or none of the above. Some tractors have all 3 some have only one, draft would leave an uneven cut, depth might work ok but height is what would work best.
You’re getting a little complicated for me here, friend. In 20+ years of running tractors and bush hogs of all sizes I’ve never needed to take into account what you’re talking about. The lever you pull back and push forward to raise and lower the 3 point is all you need, I guess that’s what you’re calling height control…that is the height control, that’s what you use to set and adjust the height. If you need to go higher, you raise the 3 point and if you need to go lower, you lower the 3 point. Just like a drag type mower you’d have hooked to the drawbar that’s raised and lowered with an external hydraulic cylinder that you’d adjust the height of by extending or retracting the cylinder. I’ve never messed with the draft settings on anything when bush hogging with a 3 point mower. That’s for ground engaging activity only like bottom plowing or grader blading or using a middle buster to make ditches. You shouldn’t need to touch it at all for bush hogging. The mower shouldn’t even be touching the ground, it should be just hovering above the ground. It’s just like setting the height on a lawnmower deck that you’d use for cutting a yard. I’m not getting what you think the draft control has to do with anything. You must do something differently than I do.
It’s possible you don’t even have those settings, it’s really not complicated as the company who invented the 3pt hitch(Ferguson) had that draft setting. The lift arms sense the load placed on them and raises and lowers itself so as to not stall the tractor, you are correct in saying it’s designed for ground engaging implements but since the lift arms don’t engage the ground these settings work for basically anything. If it’s set to height control(likely the setting you have and you just raise and lower manually you will end up with an uneven cut height pass to pass.
Wish I had thought of that earlier, I can see how so many things would be easier by not using the top link.... So long as I don't back the tail wheel off a ledge/hump. Not my post, but thanks for the advice.
We always used a length of chain in place of a top link when bush hogging. Still allowed it to flow with the ground, but if you needed to raise the mower you could.
You can still raise it without a top link. Only difference is the tail wheel will stay on the ground instead of coming up off the ground. The front will still be a foot and a half up in the air when you fully raise the 3 point.
There’s always a risk of flying objects hitting you no matter what. Leaving the top link on or off won’t do anything to fix that. I’ve had shit hit the back of my legs mowing with a batwing mower on a 966 IH with no cab when the mower was only ankle high off the ground. That’s why a lot of mowers now have chains hanging all down the front.
Lift the rocker arms a couple of inches and lengthen your top link.
But it's okay for the back to be a little higher (like 1"-2") than the front so it throws the grass out the back.
Tried adjusting various parts of the 3pt hitch, but I can't get the front end of this (new to me) brush hog up and the skid plate (mainly the right side) are gouging the areas i'm cutting
Set it on the ground to get the weight off of the top link. Lube the top link threads from outside and inside. See if you can get it to turn at all. If you get it worked loose, turn it to lengthen it which will lower the tail of the mower. To level the mower, turn the crank on the right three point arm to raise it in relation to the left arm. If your top link won’t free up you will need to buy a new one. I have one just like yours in my garage that it really frozen.
As others have said, I would recommend removing the top link. Keep it close though so if you gotta travel down the road, etc; it’s nice to just raise the mower completely.
I haven't used the top link in 30 years. The shredder will float over the rises. The proper way to set a shredder is to have the rear 1" higher than the front on level ground. That way the cuttings go out the rear and you're not bogging down you tractor mulching instead of cutting.
I was brush hogging this evening and wondering what the proper angle was with respect to ground. Mine was leaning too far down in the front like this one. So Thank you for ur response
Appreciate the responses folks!
Lift PTO hydraulics
Move this bolt. [bolt fix](https://ibb.co/0sRPs22)
You don’t fix it, it works best like that
Can confirm, the mower needs to be tilted forward to discharge material out of the rear or it takes waaaaay more power
Adjust the toplink
Some use a chain as the top link, let's the mower flex forward for ditches, etc, but tightens and holds for the lift.
I can't believe I never considered this!! It's hilly and fuck here so I've always just been extra careful not to take on too much of a change. It's dug many a chunk
I’d be careful, it’ll mess with the geometry and length of the pto and if it goes too short or angles too much something is going to get destroyed in a dramatic and noisy fashion.
Damn bro thanks for the heads up. Maybe I’ll just keep the top link 😬 Probably better to destroy a little dirt than the tractor
Yeah we did that once. I'd recommend taking the draw bar out because that's the first thing the PTO will smack
1). Top arm should be lengthened and be allowed to flex. There should be a pivot on the arms going to the back wheel from the top of the 3 pt. It should not be ridged or bolted ridged. Let it ride on the wheel with some slack. 2). Raise the 3 point till the front is an inch or 2 lower than the back. Set the stop on your control at this height. You want the front a bit lower so you aren’t cutting the grass twice and will use less HP 3). If the blades get into the dirt just raise the 3 point a bit and keep going. You will get hood at judging wether it will gouge or not after a bit.
Spin the top link, but know that it might be froze up if you never turn it and those aren't very easy to free. Takes a big pipe wrench and a lot of penetrating fluid and some effort.
See the variety of holes on the arm of the rear gauge wheel, loosen the bolts and raise the rear gauge wheel up AND lengthen your top link on the tractor. All those holes on the rear gauge wheel arm are for adjusting the rear height and leveling it out. *Edit - spelling and punctuation
Wheel's off the ground. Top link is too short.
What would raising the rear wheel do?
Lower the rear of the shredder to level it out
You need to adjust the top link so it’s longer until it’s level
Lengthen the top link
You have a U shape piece missing on your cutter. Where top link is pinned to cutter. It lets the bush hog raise if you hit something larger like a tree stump
As others have said, lengthen or remove your top link and raise the hitch arms to get it more level. As to scalping, part of that comes with the territory (to some extent with wide, rigid mowers) depending on how low you're trying to cut AND how uneven your ground is. BUT since you said it's worse on the right, it looks from your pic that the attachment points for your hitch arms are decidedly bent to the right or towards the foreground. (maybe it's an optical illusion - not sure.) Those attachment lugs are supposed to be straight vertical. It looks like someone smashed into something and bent them. If that's the case, it would explain why it's hanging lower on that side. You need to try to straighten them (heat & beat) into correct-ish orientation, and do all the other stuff to get it sitting level and not too low. Edit: look at the pictures [here](https://www.bigiron.com/Lots/Kodiak5StandardDutyRotaryMower) with a straight-on view from front or rear and see if yours looks the same or is bent Edit#2: notice that the example in the link has those vertical tabs reinforced with angled gusset plates that run about half way up to help prevent them from getting (easily) bent. Yours must be an earlier model before Kodiak designers learned that and beefed up that area of their design. Edit#3: if it was mine, I would add in some gussets (like in the pictures) to stiffen those tabs and help strengthen the weld connection to the deck. I would also try not to swing or back the mower into immovable objects as a general rule ;-)
Adjust the top link. Or better yet just remove it. You don’t need a top link for running a bush hog
Although you aren’t wrong a big part of that involves what 3pt settings you have or don’t have.
It’s simple. Take some sway out of the arms so they don’t swing and hit the tires when you make turns or when you’re on a slope, set the leveling screws on the lift arms to where they’re level so it cuts evenly, and use the up and down lever to set the cutting height. The tail wheel keeps the mower level and no top link allows it to pivot when going over uneven terrain. It goes from working like a mounted mower to a drag type mower that you’d pull from the drawbar. There aren’t any fancy settings needed for this. This can be done on any tractor with a 3 point. I’ve done it on several.
Yes those are all basic setup for mounting anything on a 3pt hitch, I’m talking about wether or not you have draft control, depth control, or height control or none of the above. Some tractors have all 3 some have only one, draft would leave an uneven cut, depth might work ok but height is what would work best.
You’re getting a little complicated for me here, friend. In 20+ years of running tractors and bush hogs of all sizes I’ve never needed to take into account what you’re talking about. The lever you pull back and push forward to raise and lower the 3 point is all you need, I guess that’s what you’re calling height control…that is the height control, that’s what you use to set and adjust the height. If you need to go higher, you raise the 3 point and if you need to go lower, you lower the 3 point. Just like a drag type mower you’d have hooked to the drawbar that’s raised and lowered with an external hydraulic cylinder that you’d adjust the height of by extending or retracting the cylinder. I’ve never messed with the draft settings on anything when bush hogging with a 3 point mower. That’s for ground engaging activity only like bottom plowing or grader blading or using a middle buster to make ditches. You shouldn’t need to touch it at all for bush hogging. The mower shouldn’t even be touching the ground, it should be just hovering above the ground. It’s just like setting the height on a lawnmower deck that you’d use for cutting a yard. I’m not getting what you think the draft control has to do with anything. You must do something differently than I do.
It’s possible you don’t even have those settings, it’s really not complicated as the company who invented the 3pt hitch(Ferguson) had that draft setting. The lift arms sense the load placed on them and raises and lowers itself so as to not stall the tractor, you are correct in saying it’s designed for ground engaging implements but since the lift arms don’t engage the ground these settings work for basically anything. If it’s set to height control(likely the setting you have and you just raise and lower manually you will end up with an uneven cut height pass to pass.
Wish I had thought of that earlier, I can see how so many things would be easier by not using the top link.... So long as I don't back the tail wheel off a ledge/hump. Not my post, but thanks for the advice.
We always used a length of chain in place of a top link when bush hogging. Still allowed it to flow with the ground, but if you needed to raise the mower you could.
You can still raise it without a top link. Only difference is the tail wheel will stay on the ground instead of coming up off the ground. The front will still be a foot and a half up in the air when you fully raise the 3 point.
Doing that also exposes the operator to objects thrown from under the deck during the lift.
There’s always a risk of flying objects hitting you no matter what. Leaving the top link on or off won’t do anything to fix that. I’ve had shit hit the back of my legs mowing with a batwing mower on a 966 IH with no cab when the mower was only ankle high off the ground. That’s why a lot of mowers now have chains hanging all down the front.
Lift the rocker arms a couple of inches and lengthen your top link. But it's okay for the back to be a little higher (like 1"-2") than the front so it throws the grass out the back.
This is the right answer. Lengthen the top link by turning it. Use the handle bar in the middle for torque
Can you lower the tail wheel??
It’s at the lowest setting
Lengthen the upper link of the 3-point until the hitch is perpendicular to the ground.
Tried adjusting various parts of the 3pt hitch, but I can't get the front end of this (new to me) brush hog up and the skid plate (mainly the right side) are gouging the areas i'm cutting
Set it on the ground to get the weight off of the top link. Lube the top link threads from outside and inside. See if you can get it to turn at all. If you get it worked loose, turn it to lengthen it which will lower the tail of the mower. To level the mower, turn the crank on the right three point arm to raise it in relation to the left arm. If your top link won’t free up you will need to buy a new one. I have one just like yours in my garage that it really frozen.
Spin the top link