Re: Bush Whacker T180 Flex Wing

[Anonymous-0]

In Reply to: Bush Whacker T180 Flex Wing posted by RickB on December 20, 2007 at 03:21:17 and BTP on December 22, 2007 at 18:09:30

http://www.todaystractors.com/ttforum/messages/18397.html

You guys have to be kidding me.... Who do you work for? Bush-Hog? Woods? Land Pride? Rhino?

I'm a fleet mechanic for a state contractor in southeast LA. My employer bought 3 used, 4 year old T-180s from Coffee County, Alabama early this year before grass season started. They had been through abrasive red clay grit hell and needed various repairs, but I was able to assemble 2 working cutters using parts from all 3.

We used those 2 old cutters all year long and only had one gearbox go bad, which could have been prevented if the operator had notified me at any point during the two days that it took to leak all the grease out. There is nothing wrong with the gearboxes. True, they are smaller than the gearboxes on other HD batwings, but I have been working on this stuff for several years, and I can tell you that the HP ratings and the warranties of the gearboxes count for nothing when you lose a bottom seal and all your 90W oil leaks out in a manner of minutes. The Bush-Whacker gearboxes are filled with a low viscosity grease and have superior seal protection to anything I have seen elsewhere.

And as far as the structural design criticisms go, please..... if you want to criticize them for something, criticize them for the obstructive nature of the top of the decks, which makes them difficult to clean off, causing grass and dirt to accumulate.

Functionally though, no one approaches Bush-Whacker for price/performance. They sell a heavy duty cutter for the price of everyone else's light/medium duty. And as Forrest Gump would say...... Thats all I have to say about that, right now.

 

[Anonymous-0]

In Reply to: Bush Whacker T180 Flex Wing posted by RickB on December 20, 2007 at 03:21:17 and BTP on December 22, 2007 at 18:09:30

http://www.todaystractors.com/ttforum/messages/18397.html

Not sure what happened to my other text body but anyway....

You guys have to be kidding me. Who do you work for? Bush-Hog? Woods? Land Pride? Rhino?

I'm a fleet mechanic for a state contractor in southeast LA. My employer bought 3 used, 4 year old T-180s from Coffee County, Alabama early this year before grass season started. They had been through abrasive red clay grit hell and needed various repairs, but I was able to assemble 2 working cutters using parts from all 3.

We used those 2 old cutters all year long and only had one gearbox go bad, which could have been prevented if the operator had notified me at any point during the two days that it took to leak all the grease out. There is nothing wrong with the gearboxes. True, they are smaller than the gearboxes on other HD batwings, but I have been working on this stuff for several years, and I can tell you that the HP ratings and the warranties of the gearboxes count for nothing when you lose a bottom seal and all your 90W oil leaks out in a manner of minutes. The Bush-Whacker gearboxes are filled with a low viscosity grease and have superior seal protection to anything I have seen elsewhere.

And as far as the structural design criticisms go, please..... if you want to criticize them for something, criticize them for the obstructive nature of the top of the decks, which makes them difficult to clean off, causing grass and dirt to accumulate.

Functionally though, no one approaches Bush-Whacker for price/performance. They sell a heavy duty cutter for the price of everyone else's light/medium duty. And as Forrest Gump would say...... Thats all I have to say about that, right now.

 

[RickB]

I work at a dealership that sells Landpride, Woods, and Bush Hog. The dealer principal had the misfortune to stumble upon BushWhackers and got some in, one of which he bought for his own custom business. They are without a doubt the worst batwing anyone at the dealership or for that matter, any of the buyers, have ever had anything to do with.

"Abrasive red clay" doesn't hold a candle to good old New England rock.

 

[Misterfixit]

If I assume you're being honest (which I'm having to strain really hard to do at this point), then I'd have to point out that mowing in rocks isn't a good idea in the first place. Or did you think that I mean the Alabama DOT guys who used those old mowers from '04 - '07 were plowing fields with them?

I'm starting to think that you really don't know anything about long term wear-and-tear on equipment, or why 100 grit soil is of any consequence with regard to the longevity of a piece of equipment that operates to closely to the ground. I'm talking about conditions that in 4 years ate the bottom two links on the chain guards completely off on the front chain guard sections of the mowers. This isn't a game to us and we aren't fiddle farting around mowing hundred acre fields a few times a year. We cut tens of thousands of acres of thick, tough, bahia grass annually. The uptime on these machines is severe, amounting to six to eight hundred hours of operating time in an average year. The batwing never leaves the tractor it is attached to, and only in cases of severe breakdowns do they ever leave the leave the field for any reason. 95+% of maintenance and repair work is conducted on site, because it has to be.

I'm sorry man but you sound more and more like a paid shill for one or more of the companies I mentioned before. The fact that you've admitted to working at a dealership that sells them is tantamount to an admission of guilt. Feel free to provide evidence to the contrary, though.

In contrast, my opinions, as outlined here (in very explicit detail), come from actual FIELD experience as a fleet maintenance and repair consultant and mechanic.

Let me clarify something in the interest of diplomatic relations. I am not saying that you can't buy a heavier duty machine than a bushwhacker T-180 when it comes to 15' batwings. If strength at any cost is what you want, go plop down $20k on a Rhino Flex 15 Nitro and be happy. What I'm saying is that you can't buy an equivalent machine for the money. For example, the same $10k - $12K will get you a Bush Hog 2615L, a Woods BW180, a Land Pride RC3515, or a Rhino SE15. And after a year of field testing beat up, worn out, 4 year old equipment vs NEW equipment, side by side in the same terrain, it has been clearly demonstrated to my satisfaction that none of those have the structural wherewithal to stand up to "good old" south Louisiana mud, tire caps, and other road debris as well as the Bush-Whacker. Period.

 

[RickB]

I have been working with and on farm equipment for most of my 51 years and if you can't understand that folks have differing opinions of most anything man builds, you have lived a sheltered life. I have been a dealership mechanic for the last 15 years and if that makes me a paid shill in your eyes, so be it. The BushWhackers I have had to work on have been less than acceptable to everyone associated with them. It is true that you can't buy a better batwing for the money. They are the least expensive mower in this market, and frankly, they still aren't worth it. Good Bye.

 

[Misterfixit]

I have lived a sheltered life actually, but not sheltered from the realities of baseless partisanship as you would seem to suggest.

When I decided to dig up this old thread from last year and reply to it, it wasn't because I doubted your experience or anyone else's. How could it be, since I don't even know you? All I did was draw certain conclusions based on statements that flew in the face of very CAREFUL observations that I have made this past year about the type of equipment in question.

I'm not interested in politics for the sake of politics. You gave your reasons why you thought the way you did, and I would have left it at that if they were not virtually 180 degrees out of phase with what I have witnessed in with my own two eyes, and in close proximity. To quote you: "Too much metal in all the wrong places, weak gearbox shafting, soft blades". I read those things almost in disbelief, and find it hard for me to even know where to start rebutting you. But I had to say something.

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 21:58:37 12/15/08) To quote you: "Too much metal in all the wrong places, weak gearbox shafting, soft blades". I read those things almost in disbelief, and find it hard for me to even know where to start rebutting you. But I had to say something.

Misterfixit,
I re-read both of RickB's statements and I still didn't find a "quote by him" as you stated. Are they in another thread??????.

PS I've never seen or heard a Bushwacker before now.

 

[Misterfixit]

Yeah, sorry I don't know whats going on. Posts are moving around and disappearing from this thread.

The original thread I linked I replied to is here:

http://www.todaystractors.com/ttforum/messages/18401.html

No clue what happened to my original reply.....

 

[RickB]

So a personal attack was all you could come up with. If you ever get away from the Delta, go to an area with rocks that are as common as the dirt around them. They are a part of the landscape, not a random obstacle. It just might open your eyes.

 

[Misterfixit]

I never said that you were definitely a shill, just that there was such a disparity between the "facts" that signs seemed to be pointing in that direction.

If you ever get away from Crabapple Cove, you might realize that Alabama is a long way from the delta. And if you think there aren't places here in the south where the soil contains rocks, you"re kidding yourself. Notwithstanding, I've learned that these machines have had a loyal following amongst state DOTs here and in the mid-west for years. They just keep going back to them, even though the "big four" have them out-flanked on all sides in terms of dealer locations and logistical support.