Swather Converted To Brush Cutter

Swather Converted To Brush Cutter SWATHERS Swathers Jim Rife of Roy Montana likes the front-mounted brush cutter he made by converting a Deere 800 swather      I had used the swather for many years and just retired it but the motor was still good he points out I also had the 8-ft wide cutter for a number of years Both units had more than paid for themselves     The cutter is the kind used on the state highway pulled behind a tractor to cut the ditches Rife bought it for cutting road ditches and around his farm buildings but he never liked the fact that since you drove over everything first it would be laying flat and the cutter would miss it     As a winter project Rife took his cutting torch and trimmed the 15-ft wide swather back to 8 ft and removed all the sickle and guards Then he welded some brackets onto both the old swather head and the mower so the two pieces could be bolted together          I had one shaft machined for the drive on the cutter he explains It had a 3-pt hitch with a pto drive and I just took that off and had the shaft made It s driven with a V-belt pulley and is real simple to hook up     Rife says the rotor cutter is real safe as far as throwing stuff compared to a Bush Hog and he has hardly any money invested in the front-mounted unit      It will cut up to 3/4-in dia brush if it s green and height doesn t seem to make any difference he points out You can go into stuff that s 3 ft high and it chops it up     This will be Rife s second year of using the unit and he really likes how it cuts without running over it first      It has very good visibility and it maneuvers just as good as with any little mower With the swather controls zero turn radius you can spin right around in one spot he says It really works good for clearing brush roads anyplace     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jim Rife Box 269 Roy Montana 59471 ph 406 464-5341

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