I am in the market for a "new" rotary cutter. I'm willing to buy used if the price is right. But I am looking at the bush hog bh26 and the brown 416. Who has what? And what's the better bang for my buck? Or any better suggestions? I want heavy duty. I have a howse right now and it was ok for my small kubota but I stepped up in tractor and I'm doing some debris clearing and I'm going to beat this thing to pieces before its all over and would rather just give it to my dad to cut large grass field.

Deere Mx series or Rhino is my vote. Both are super tough cutters. Land pride being 3rd.

I got a Dale Phillips and it's the best cutter I have ever owned but I heard they went out of business. I also have the heaviest land pride they make and it's a pretty stout cutter.

I was leaning towards the brown and the reason was the deck is fabbed from 7 gauge steel and every other one I've looked at has been 10 gauge so that where I was basing my "stoutness" on and it weighed much more of coarse.

Lowery made here in Alabama near Guntersville makes some tough cutters also.
http://www.lowerymanufacturing.com/LMC%20HD%20Cutters.htm

Brown, Brown, Brown, Brown.

We've got one that's got to be 40 years old and it's still going strong. I have yet to see another "bush hog" that is in the same ball park on quality. We do also have a Bush Hog brand cutter and it's a good implement but I don't think it will last 40 years.

If you really want to go big time, get the Brown Tree Cutter.

If you get a Brown, you'll also be buying an Alabama made product, or at least they use to be made in Ozark.

I can guaranty the Bush Hog is made in Alabama. I worked at the plant and drilled holes in about 1000 pins a day it seemed like when home from school one summer. On good days they let me test gearboxes. Never showed me what I was testing for, but told me I would know if it was bad. I put them on a machine that turned them at a high RPM. I guess I was listening for burrs on the gears. Then I dunked them in a vat of water looking for bubbles (leaks).

My father was a chief in the shore patrol when he was in the navy stationed in Corpus Christie. He had an occasional part time job working security at the Brown Brush Cutter plant, so in the 70's at least some of them were made in Texas.

Woods are pretty tough.

http://www.woodsequipment.com/rotaryCutters.aspx

If you are mainly looking for a pasture cutter a bush hog squealer will be good. If you want to cut larger diameter saplings get something heavy duty with a thick deck and beefy high hp gearbox. A bush hog 327 would be what i would want. Its 7 feet and capable of 4" diameter bushes.
Brown makes a very heavy duty bush hog with cylinders on the back that lift part of the deck to expose the blades. You can back into LARGE bushes and small trees to cut them down.

Well this would be a do it all cutter. I have some areas of just grass but a lot of it is small saplings and even some slightly larger stuff. I would much rather have more umph to get the job done. I have learned in my case, go bigger because I'm bound to tear something up.

I work at a Deere dealer. I'm all Deere,but if I were cutting small trees then I would go brown all the way. We sell brown tree cutters and they are bad a$$.

I don't have any experience with the Brown cutters but I want one of their discs really bad. They make the highest quality implement I've ever used. Their price reflects how proud they are of them. I keep an eye out for used ones but they don't come along that often.

We are in the market for a bush hog right now also. Keep the responses coming.

Are the county line brand that tractor supply sells worth anything or is it just a light duty unit?

Its going to take a high PTO HP tractor, as in 85-100, to run a brown tree cutter or any other true heavy duty cutter. I have a brown tree cutter and its a load for
my Ford 6610, which is 75 PTO HP.

By the way, I have a like new Bush Hog BH 26 listed in the classifieds. Just sayin.

Brown tree cuter is the heaviest made one's I know of. That's what has been on every Asplundh tree crew machine rotary cutter I've seen. Now an all around quality cutter, is Bush hog, land pride, Deere etc. But as far as clearing trees, Brown. Period

I have a 45 hp JD. I'm really not in the market for a tree cutter. I want a HD rotary cutter.




I'm not sure where you are located? But me driving to pick it up would most certainly eat up any savings I would get buying it from you unless you were reasonably close.

Light duty. No service. Avoid UNLESS it will just cut light grass and maybe an occasional briar patch.

Brown, Bush Hog/Rhino (same company owns both, Servis), John Deere, Land Pride. In that order.

Once upon a time I'd have ranked Deere first, but cutters are made in Mexico (used to be Ottumwa, Ontario, Canada) with Chinese made gearboxes.

Brown you can go to the factory where they make them (Ozark, in the middle of no-damn-where and good people to boot).

Rhino the rep lives in Cullman and is a nice guy (pm me if you need his number).

Bush Hog is made in Selma and employs people from my hometown (I have a BH cutter btw, a 296 that has been through HELL and back and is still with me).

Land Pride the rep is (was) from Selma and is a REALLY good guy. He worked for BH years ago and then for Rhino for probably 15 years, he KNOWS that business.

John Deere, well there are dealers everywhere and you can resell it if need be. Beware though, ONLY buy an MX or heavier series mower. Do NOT, NOT, NOT waste your time with the "Frontier" series of cutters they make. Garbage doesn't begin to describe them, IMHO.

Now, that all having been said, an old John Deere 709 (like was for sale here recently), or an old 7' Servis pull type (with the mushroom looking shear pins) or an old Bush Hog model 307, 407 (if one can be found, they're rare as heck) or a Rhino CY or GR series are as good an overall heavy made cutter as you will EVER need. If one of those won't work for the job, you need a dozer or a much head on a skid steer.

[quote=Robert D

Brown, Bush Hog/Rhino (same company owns both, Servis), John Deere, Land Pride. [/quote]

Bush Hog and Rhino are owned by The Alamo Group now

So I just bought a 5ft brown 462. It's stout to say the least.

Good deal! Enjoy it