The last few times I've bush hogged I've broken several lynch pins. What was happening is when I would back down into the ditch with the bush hog and come back up it would bind the lynch pin against the top of the cutter and break it. While lynch pins aren't terribly expensive, by the time you lose 4 or 5 a day plus risk lose the top link pin it start being a few dollars and a pain in the butt having to keep stop and putting one back in. If I had a hydraulic top link I could retract it each time, but since I don't have a rear remote, I won't be getting one anytime soon. So, I had heard about using a chain for the top link, thought I would give it a try. I must say it worked pretty well. No broken lynch pins and I was actually able to mow the ditch a little bit closer than with the fixed top link. The only problem I ran into was if I didn't bring the front of the mower up high enough and it gouged the ground it would cause the back of the mower to lift up. It would drop right back down, but it would slam pretty hard. I tried to keep that from happening as it seemed pretty hard on the cutter. Once I got the height down, it work great.
First pick shows the chain when the cutter is lift. Second pic is the chain when the cutter is in the "cut" position. Last one is a close up of the chain in the cut position.
First pick shows the chain when the cutter is lift. Second pic is the chain when the cutter is in the "cut" position. Last one is a close up of the chain in the cut position.
Didn't break any lynch pins and I found the leak in my front tire. It has been leaking every since I put the wire in the side wall of my back tire back in the summer but I couldn't find the hole. I drove it today around to the front of the garage today and was putting air into the tire and where the dew had the tire wet it was bubbling a little bit. Now just have to fix it. I sprayed some paint on it so I could find it again.