Bush Hog 286

[guest]

A neighboring land owner offered me his Bush Hog 286 (6 ft, medium duty rotary cutter) for $600. It has seen some pretty bad abuse. (nice circle pattern cut into the top deck from a rock stuck in the blades, rear exit skirt is bent to heck and torn, the rear deck has a roughly 4 to 6 inch break or tear in it and the left deck frame weld is broken. He said he would get it all welded and repaired. I am thinking maybe $400 is more of a fair price. He did not mention this damage until I had arrived to look at the cutter. What do you think? New they cost about $1,500. This one is about a year or more old. My CRS may be acting up but I am pretty sure it was a 286 and not a 268. The 268 is a larger model isn't it?

[MowHoward2210]

Yup, the 268 is an 8 footer, Chief. Sounds like the 286 has taken some pretty good abuse in a short amount of time.

[jodyand]

:ditto: that much damage in a year :fing20: Sounds like he takes real good care of his stuff. :bonk:

[guest]

Yeah, they seemed like nice folks but all of their equipment seemed to be taken care of that way. Could have been that maybe he just hit some rough stuff he was not aware of.

[Archdean]

"He did not mention this damage until I had arrived to look at the cutter. What do you think? "

Welding is not uncommon to be needed on medium duty units and if done well can go along way to making them better than new!!

But I would be the one to arange the repair not the fellow who failed to mention it in the first place! just my Observation!

[Ingersoll444]

Well for that same $600 you could get a KK brand new. It the beatup used Brush hod tougher then that? Not sure of the brand, but seems like a lot to me.

[guest]

Just a follow up. I was mistaken. It was a Bush Hog 276 which is an older version of the 286. They did a pretty nice job of the repairs and I was satisfied with them. I asked to see the cutter run up to full pto rpm and cutting some brush. The owner of the cutter was not very familiar with the Ford 9700 is was mounted on and managed to bend one of the rockshaft pin mount frames when the cutter fell off the rockshaft arm due to improper installation. We got it back on. I noticed a wobble in the stump jumper pan which told me the stump jumper pan was bent or worse the gearbox output shaft was bent. The owner never did get the cutter up to full pto rpm either because he did not know how to operate the tractor or was not wanting to due to possible shake caused by the bent stump jumper pan or shaft. Bottom line........I figured I could make due with it but that it had been subject to severe abuse. I offered him $400 and he declined. I thanked him for his time and offering me the cutter but I can buy a new standard duty Farm Star 6 ft. cutter at Rural King for $729.

http://ruralking.com/rko/cart.cgi?PRODUCT=015610032&SPD=Ui250848531G7Gg

http://www.farmstar.com/mower/srtc.jpg

Not even close to being built as beefy as the Bush Hog 276 but in FAR better condition.

My neighbor came over yesterday evening and brought his new New Holland TC40A with a Bush Hog Squealer 84 inch dual spindle rotary cutter attached and he cut about 10 acres of the pasture out back. I was VERY impressed that a 40 hp CUT could run such a large rotary cutter. I ran along behind him and collected and dug out rocks he hit so he would not hit them again as well as cut the dam on the pond. I am gonna let him cut the next batch of hay off of the pasture for his horses. Seems like it is a good deal for both of us as he was having to pay $2 to $2.50 a bale for squaren bales of hay last year. He is supposed to come back today with his TN70 and cut more. Seemed like a nice fellow and turns out he is a fellow Army aviator to boot!

[chrpmaster]

Chief

I agree with Paul its seems kinda pricey for that much abuse. Sounds like you are going the right direction looking at swapping the big mowing with the neighbor for hay and getting a smaller mower for you to run that is in better shape and that you will undoubtedly maintain well.

just my .02. Keep us updated

Andy