Hey all,
New-ish tractor owner here and I’m clearly missing something basic about setting up my 3-pt rotary cutter.
Setup:
What I’m seeing:
What I’ve done so far (very basic):
What I’m hoping you can walk me through:
I’d really like to get this squared up so I can safely mow a pasture tomorrow without tearing up the PTO, the cutter, or the tractor. I’m sure this is Tractor 101 stuff, but right now I’m guessing more than I’d like to.
Thanks in advance for any step-by-step guidance or “here’s how I set mine up” explanations.
New-ish tractor owner here and I’m clearly missing something basic about setting up my 3-pt rotary cutter.
Setup:
- Kubota compact tractor
- 3-pt rotary cutter (brush hog style, see pics)
- Standard 540 PTO
What I’m seeing:
- The cutter wants to sit cocked slightly to the left, so the deck is closer to my left rear tire than the right. From the seat you can see it’s not perfectly perpendicular to the tractor – it’s on a very slight diagonal.
- When I make sharper turns, I get a pretty ugly noise – somewhere between:
- PTO shaft complaining
- 3-pt arms / mounts groaning
- or the tire and cutter getting too close
- The whole setup just doesn’t feel “square”:
- I’m not convinced it’s perfectly level side-to-side
- I’m not convinced it’s set correctly front-to-back either
- I’ve watched a few “it’s super easy!” videos but they skip over the exact adjustment steps, so I’m still lost.
What I’ve done so far (very basic):
- Hooked up lower arms, top link, PTO.
- Adjusted top link a little until the front of the cutter looked roughly level with the rear.
- Set cutting height with the 3-pt and tail wheel.
- Haven’t really touched the side link / leveling box or any sway chains/bars beyond whatever the dealer last did.
What I’m hoping you can walk me through:
- Side-to-side leveling and centering
- Which adjustment(s) on the 3-pt should I be using to:
- Get the deck level side to side?
- Get the cutter centered behind the tractor so it doesn’t favor the left tire?
- On this tractor I’ve got an adjustable right lift arm/leveling box and stabilizers – what’s the correct order of operations?
- Which adjustment(s) on the 3-pt should I be using to:
- Front-to-back pitch
- For pasture mowing, where should the front of the cutter be relative to the back (slightly lower, perfectly level, etc.)?
- Is that set only with the top link plus tail wheel height, or should I be using anything else?
- Noise in turns / PTO binding check
- How do I confirm the PTO shaft length and angle are OK and that I’m not binding the shaft when I turn or raise the 3-pt?
- Any “do not exceed” guidance for how tight I can turn with the cutter running?
- General sanity check
- Looking at the attached photos, does anything jump out as obviously wrong in how I’ve got this hooked up (pin positions, link orientation, etc.)?
I’d really like to get this squared up so I can safely mow a pasture tomorrow without tearing up the PTO, the cutter, or the tractor. I’m sure this is Tractor 101 stuff, but right now I’m guessing more than I’d like to.
Thanks in advance for any step-by-step guidance or “here’s how I set mine up” explanations.
