I bought this brush Mower a couple years ago for around $1200 and it's worked well for landowner type work, mostly on brush up to 3". I've now broke the blade carrier. The welds and steel have broke in a few different places - probably from hitting rocks. The blade carrier was fabbed so crappy I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. Here is the mower and the old blade carrier.
I ordered new blades that would give me a the correct offset and I cut the circle out of 1/2" plate based on the length of the new blades. The circle was 28". It used a standard 12 spline hub and they were cheap at around $20 so I bought a new one rather than trying to salvage the old. This project was the one I needed to justify the purchase of a plasma cutter. It did not disappoint.
All done and installed. Haven't put a good test on it yet. Hoping the extra weight will make it work even better, and not destroy itself in the process. Time will tell.
That's definitively an upgrade. I have a BC brushcat that has a similar metal disc that carries the blades. You may want to reinforce where the deck is welded to the quick tach with the extra weight hanging out there. We've had to beef up our brushcat several times over the years due to stress cracks at the welds.
Thanks. I looked at a bunch of different OEM blade carrier designs. This one seemed best as long as I didn't make the circle too big. The weight adds up really quick in 1/2" plate. The attachment reinforcement is a good idea, hadn't considered the extra weight stressing that area, but it makes sense. I figure I have 60 or 80lbs more weight in the new assembly, than in the old.
Looks great, I bet the added rotational mass will help when chewing up trees. The carrier should be much more durable than the original.