Home Made Bush Hog on Skid Steer - Version 2 - PTO to Hydraulic Conversion

I sold my Allis Chalmers 170 tractor but kept the 3 point PTO powered King Kutter rotary bush hog mower. The mower is 72" wide and has the 60 Horse power gear box on top.
When I bought my Mustang MTL25 skid steer I decided I would convert the 3 point PTO mower to attach to the skid steer and be run by a hydraulic motor powered by the skid steer auxiliary hydraulic pressure.
I selected a motor that will deliver the PTO rpm at the working pressure and flow of the skid steer output. I am very pleased with the power of this combination. I was able to mow easily through thick brush that was 6-8 feet tall.
I welded a skid steer universal mounting plate on in such a way that the mower can be lifted up and used to trim trees as I drive under them.
I took my old 3 point bush hog and converted it to run on my skid steer. This is just the first run around my firewood lot after the conversion. I will post more mowing videos as the jobs come up.
Used a Char-Lynn Series 2000 motor that gives 525 RPM at 20 gallons per minute of fluid flow. The motor has a built in crossover pressure relief so I did not have to add a check valve for shutdown ease. My MTL25 skid steer puts out 23 gpm at 3000 psi. That means the hydraulic motor produces about 39 HP minus losses in the motor and gearbox. It has lots of power. Plus I can raise it up and trim trees and hillsides or tilt down into pond banks. I did raise it up and mow some low hanging branches and it worked well. I used 1' of cutter width should have 5 hp formula to see if my machine would run the 6 ' wide mower. I seems to be a good formula because I have plenty of power as you can see in the video. Those weeds are 7' - 8' tall and pretty dense and I could mow them at a good speed without trouble. I was mowing in a weird pattern because there was lots of firewood hidden in the weeds that I did not want to hit with the mower or run up on with the skid steer.
I love this thing.
The coupler is a 1" to PTO adapter. Local tractor store had them for $12.00
I sold my Allis-Chalmers 170 tractor that I used this King Kutter mower on. When I bought the MTL25 skid steer I decided to convert the mower to run on hydraulics and attach to the skid steer. The mower is 72" wide and has a 60hp gear box. I unbolted the gear box and turned it 180 degrees and rebolted it. I could have left the gearbox in the factory position but decided that since I was mounting the attachment plate on the back I would go ahead and turn it around to keep the motor out of harms way better. Then I made a mount for the hydraulic motor to bolt up to. Bought a universal attach plate and welded it on with some braces. I don't understand why these sell for $3,500.00 - and up when the PTO units sell for $1,000.00 and up. I paid $1,100.00 for the 72" mower with the 60 hp gearbox new as a PTO unit. Then I bought a universal attachment plate for $125.00, and the hydraulic motor for $325.00 including shipping and $12.00 for the coupler. If I count my labor and bracing steel in as well I would have around $1,800.00 in it.
I found this skid steer on craigslist for $9,000.00. It had a bad travel motor and the guy selling it did not know what to do. A new travel motor was nearly $7,000.00. I bought the skid steer and after a couple weeks of searching found a used travel from a Takeuchi TL150 skid steer for $3400.00 delivered. Sweet!!! Took about 4 hours to install the new travel motor and reinstall the track and off it went.
It has a 100 hp Yanmar 4 cylinder diesel engine. Working load of 3500 and a tipping load of 7000. I have picked an old station wagon with the grapple and carried it around before. This skid steer likes to work hard and lift heavy loads.
The tracks on this skid steer are 18" wide and weigh 600 pounds each just for the rubber track.
This skid steer is an absolute beast and a blast to operate. I love it. It has joy stick controls. The left stick controls travel forward, backward and side to side. The right stick controls the boom raise, lower, and tilt up and tilt down.
It is a 2 speed travel skid steer. There is a button on the joystick that you press to select hi or low speed.
So far the attachments I have are the 84" dirt bucket, the heavy duty 80" rock grapple, pallet forks, and a 72" bush hog that I converted from 3 point PTO to universal quick attach with a hydraulic motor drive.
Whatever job I need to do with this skid steer whether it is mowing, plowing snow, brush cutting, moving pallets of firewood, etc. it has the power to get it done.
It is the same machine as the Gehl CTL80 and the Takeuchi TL150. In fact the used replacement travel motor that I bought to repair it came from a Takeuchi TL150 skid steer.
Everyone should own one
Home built skid steer mower in action

[@troyhornback1719]

Nice build. I’m even more impressed with the detailed write up description and that you have answered all the questions you’ve received. That’s very kind of you, thanks for sharing.

[@kakinumakaori6431]

awesome

[@BigIronTV]

+Kakinuma Kaori thanks. I have reworked the mount twice so far. The first one was solid and broke after two hours of use. So I made the mount floating. The floating worked great but the mount was not heavy enough to handle the 12,500 pound 100 horse power skid steer and started bending. So I have plans for a third revision to do the same style mount but out of heavier metal. Thinking this time will be a final solution. appreciate you watching and commenting.

[@6855l]

do you think that same setup will work on case 60xt flows 21 GPM relief pressure 3000 but hp is somewhere between 60 and 70 i think thanks for any help

[@BigIronTV]

I believe it should. I read once that you should have at least 5 hp per foot wide for a bush hog to perform well. You would have an input hp of 36 hp per this calculator. www.calcunation.com/calculator/hydraulic-pump-horsepower.php

[@vicvary]

How big is the pump

[@BigIronTV]

+vicvary Used a Char-Lynn Series 2000 motor that gives 525 RPM at 20 gallons per minute of fluid flow. If you call Char-Lynn and tell them the flow you have and what you want it to do they will tell you which displacement size you need. Check the description for more details. Thanks for watching.

[@snowairdirtwater]

Any chance you have the complete "long" model number for the char Lynn motor? I would like to order the exact same one that you bought as all my specs are the same and I would like the built in cross over relief for spool down. If I just order the 104-1003, I don't think that it well have the relief valve built in. Any info would be great. Thanks.

[@BigIronTV]

Hi, this is the part number I ordered. Product Name Part No. Quantity Item Price Total Price Char-Lynn 2000-Series Hydraulic Motor P/N:104-1003 I think this is the current part number for the motor. www.shopcross.com/product/char-lynn-104-1003-006-lsht-geroler-hydraulic-motor-546-rpm-20-gpm. Says that the -006 has the built in relief crossover option

[@snowairdirtwater]

Ok. Thanks.

[@mattkuchmak8024]

What did you use to connect the pto to hydraulic motor ?

[@BigIronTV]

Here is a couple places. If you have a farm store near you check with them. Look in the sprayer section. The big sprayers use an adapter from motor to PTO that will work for coupling the hydraulic motor to the PTO on a bush hog. www.agrisupply.com/1in-coupler-x-6-spline/p/18162/?sid=asf10&eid=Easf10&GoogleShopping&CSE&MerchAdv&zmam=77232640&zmas=1&zmac=1&zmap=18162&NB_PLA_PTOShaftsAccessoriess_CP_GOOG&|pcrid|194359043959|pmt||pkw||pdv|c|&&gclid=CLP7j9zQgtQCFQGSaQod_x8Bxw www.surpluscenter.com/Power-Transmission/Shaft-Couplers/1-Piece-Solid-Couplers/ www.sprayerdepot.com/Shop-by-Category/PTO-Couplers-Adapters

[@backwoodsadventures1]

Really cool ! What hydraulic motor did you use ?

[@BigIronTV]

backwoodsadventures1 Hi, Thanks. Char-Lynn 2000-Series Hydraulic Motor P/N:104-1003. $325.00 delivered. Here is another video mowing the same area a couple of months later kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5XKo2WVmZiMrbc If you are thinking about building one yourself you would need to get the motor displacement specific to the flow and pressure of your machine. Just tell them the flow and pressure and your desired output shaft rpm and they can calculate the right displacement motor www.buycharlynn.com

[@kmann1430]

How many gpm is your pump?

[@jaredcochran1684]

what band is singing that song on the video?

[@BigIronTV]

Hey Jared. It is All Else Fails singing Seminole Wind. allelsefails.bandcamp.com/track/seminole-wind

[@FluidTekPH]

Hi guys. how to contact with you?