How to Mow Tall Weeds - Billly Goat Outback Brush Cutter Review
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- čas přidán 24. 08. 2018
- In this video, home renovation brothers Dave and Rich show you how to mow tall weeds and review the Billy Goat Outback Brush Cutter.
This machine weighs about 275 pounds and is quite awesome at mowing down dense weeds of any height.
We recently purchased farm land. We needed to mow thick weeds that were over 6 feet tall to create a grass road from the entry road to the the back portion of the farm.
We are also clearing land that will hopefully be used by our local humane society to exercise and train their shelter dogs.
The Billy Goat Outback Brush Cutter isn't too difficult to use, but the blade is only 24 inches and it doesn't move very fast through tall brush. However, it does a great job of taking down the weeds.
To start it, flip the switch to the on position. Pull out the choke. Pull the starter cord. Put it into the gear you want, reverse, neutral, first, second or third.
At the beginning you should try first or second gear. When you get the feel for the handling of it, use 3rd gear to go as fast as possible.
Press the lever on the left handle to engage the blade. Press the lever on the right handle to get into gear and move the machine.
Sometimes you will miss cutting some of the weeds, they might bend down by the front bar. Just go back over those for a nice cut.
Use caution when going into reverse, especially if you have uneven terrain.
If the machine gets stuck, go back and forth between reverse and first gear. You should be able to get out of the hold because the tires are pretty big and offer good traction.
This machine and trailer cost us just a bit over $100 for a 24 hour rental.
Depending on the amount of land you need to clear, this is a great option, because it is affordable.
If you have a very large area to clear, maybe rent a tractor. In our area this cost $300 per day.
Hope this helps!
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That is very cool of you to help the animals out. Thanks bro
I saw this at the Home Depot today and was on the fence about it but your video just convinced me. Nice looking piece of property. Good luck on your project and future endeavors! Thanks for the review!
Hi JJ ESQ, if we weren't planning on buying a tractor we would purchase a Billy Goat. Hope you like yours. Good luck with your Billy Goat and let us know if you like it. Thanks for your comment!
Thanks Dave and Rich. Very informative! I have a tremendous amount of tall, wild blackberry vines all over my property and was looking for a good solution to cut them down. I thought of hiring a gardener but your video has convinced me to rent a brush hog. Thanks!
Hi Brian, we think this will be a great solution for your project. It is a bit of a workout, but effectively clears tall brush. If you rent one, let us know how you like it. Good luck and thanks for your comment!
Great review, thanks for the video.
Hi Josh, hope all goes well if you rent or buy the Billy Goat! We recently got a tractor, so mowing tall weeds has become much easier. However, the Billy Goat really can do the job if a tractor isn't in your budget. Thanks for the comment!
I use to use one of these from Sunbeam rentals every day, if it breaks down you can exchange it right away, but these things are like mini tanks I would haul one in and out the bed of an extended S10 every day. I was constantly amazed by how much it could chew up or how good it worked at cleaning the edge of a pond. Def a beast of a mower, the only other mower I know of that is underrated as this is the White MTD Z-180/200 those things would pull a wheelie while cutting head-high grass.
Hi J. Gunter, we bought a 32 acre farm. The Billy Goat was awesome for our areas that had tree root ball holes because we didn't want to risk damaging our tractor there. This is great for mowing weeds, unless you have a several acres to mow, then a tractor would be a better option. Thanks for your comments!
Lol just rented one the adder morning it was good but very hard on my body
I’m looking in getting a tractor 🚜 but like you say it is good for now .we just got 13 acres land only and the grass is tall 👍
Hi Radu, wow, you are using the Billy Goat to mow 13 acres??? Well, you won't need a gym membership! This machine is probably ideal for mowing an acre or two. More than that a tractor is definitely the way to go. We now have a tractor and it is actually fun to operate. We got a Massey Ferguson 1734e and we love it. The good news is that the fields really only need to be mowed a couple times a season, so maybe you could rent one until you can afford to buy a tractor. Thanks for your comment and good luck!
Good video. I think I'm gonna rent this exact machine next week. We just purchased a couple acres and its overgrown grass right now with some brush and saplings toward the rear of the property. I was gonna get a zero turn mower but I prob won't get much use from it after the first initial cut.. until next year after we've build our new home and moved in. So I think I'll wait till next year to buy the zero turn.. and just rent this machine for a day or two and clean up the field. Cheers...
Hi Joe, nice plan, that's exactly what we did for our new 32 acre farm.
We had some areas that we wanted to clear. We rented the Billy Goat and that did a great job.
Next, we bought a Toro TimeCutter Riding Mower. Crazy coincidence, we just posted a video today about that exact mower. This could be a mower for you to consider. Here is a link:
czcams.com/video/muUHrLO3Q04/video.html
Since then we bought a tractor and a Brush Hog mower implement.
However, we use the Toro TimeCutter to mow everywhere that the tractor can't reach.
Good luck with your new land. Let us know how it works out. Thanks for your comment!
@@Housebarons I ended up not renting this machine. Instead.. I purchased a cub cadet string mower from Home Depot for $350. I used it today for the first time and it chewed up the tall grass like it wasn't even there. And it made pretty easy work of some brush too. I worked for about 3 hours today and got about a half acre cleared. I'll head back tomorrow for a few hours and should get at least another half acre cleared.
Would this brush hog cut down 1-3' kochia ?
I have a feildlike yours to mow. I am renting a billy goat! How lond did it take to mow, per acre.approx? Thanks!
How does it work with ivy? I was concerned that the vines would cause the machine to get clogged at the blades.
Also, we have a lot of rocks throughout our property, which are hard to see in the grown-up weeds. Although obviously we'd be careful, but how much can this goat take? In the video, it just looked like the land was just tall weeds. I didn't see any rocks.
Last, is it hard to handle on the side of a hill, like at a ditch?
Thank you! Our land is horrible, and I need any help I can get!
Hi Teresa, sounds like you have some very challenging property to maintain!
The Billy Goat is a beast, very powerful. We didn't have any ivy to mow, but I can't see there being any problem for this machine to mow through ivy.
Your rocks are a different concern. If you hit rocks with it more than likely the blades would get damaged.
Would the Billy Goat be hard to handle on the side of a hill, like a ditch? Yes, definitely. It is a very heavy machine. Not ideal for pushing up a hill. Also, I would be concerned about it getting stuck in a ditch. Plus it could possibly be dangerous if that thing fell over.
Okay, now some possible solutions.
First, at this time of year you could do absolutely nothing, let the weeds grow and wait for late fall, early winter when everything dies. Then you could mark your rocks with those long orange markers like people use to mark their driveways for snow removal.
Unless your rocks are absolutely everywhere you should be able to see areas where you can use the Billy Goat later this year or next Spring.
A second option is to use a scythe. This is an awesome tool that has been around in farming forever. It is the thing the Grim Reaper uses.
But get a good one! We bought ours from a company in Austria and it is awesome! It takes a bit to get used to, but once you figure out the swing you can move pretty fast. We use ours on our farm to clear areas where we don't have access for our tractor and brush hog. It is a great workout to use a scythe and I think it is actually pretty fun. We will be making a video later this summer to show what it is and how to use it.
My son, James, came up with a third possible option for you which is pretty brilliant. Find a local sheep farmer and rent his entire flock for a day or two. My son said it might take 100 sheep or more, but they should be able to clear your areas pretty well. We have four goats and they are really lame at clearing anything, so you really need to get a huge flock to actually make a dent in your weeds.
Let us know what you decide to do to take care of your challenging land. Good luck!!!
It’s crazy that all of that material didn’t leave any debris! I’m going to rent one tomorrow!
Hi Adam, if you don't have access to a tractor and you need to mow tall weeds, the Billy Goat is a great option. If you rent and use one, let us know what you think of it. Thanks for your comments!
HouseBarons I ended up renting one and was very impressed with the power! I let my garden plot go and the weeds took over! I cut it all down, then scalped it with a mower, then tilled it and it’s ready to grow a garden again! I’m definitely using a weed barrier this time!
How much does it cost
Is it possible for 2 people to pick it up and set in in the back of a pick up truck? Or is it to heavy?
Hi, the spec sheet says the Billy Goat weight 317 pounds, so in theory two pretty strong people could pick it up. We rented a trailer for about $40 to transport it.
But if you trip when you go on reverse you will relese the hold of the orange handler and then the blades will hopefully stop. Am I right?
Hi TP Scrabble, yes, the orange handle engages the blade, if you let go, the blade is disengaged. Thanks for the question!
There is actually a brake on the power head that if properly adjusted automatically engages when the blade is disengaged. It is located around the forward blade drive pulley. The blade belt of course goes around the lower half of the pulley while the brake goes around the upper half of the pulley.
How often do you have to sharpen the blade(s)?
Hi George, we rented the Billy Goat that we used for that video. Since then we purchased a tractor and mow our fields with a bush hog. As a general guide, it is a good idea to sharpen blades after 25 hours of use. Hope that helps!
I would say between 15 and twenty hours. Depends on how many gopher mounds you power through and stumps or sprinklers you run into. The cut angle on the blade is steep so if you follow your original angle you will be maximizing blade longevity. There does exist a give and take when it comes to blade maintenance. That factory steep angle is put on as the first step. The flatter that cutting angle becomes when the blade gets sharpened, the sharper you will be able to get the blade. But at the same time, the flatter that cutting angle the quicker the blade will get dull. Sharpening can either be done with the blade still installed or removed.
Good evening pls what is the cost pls
If the machine is stuck or slipping either from angle or wetness if you put it in reverse and simply push down on the handlebars just a little you transfer all the weight of the machine to a position over the wheels and increase your traction immensely. When mowing, the blade deck rides on a couple of foot long skids, thus pushing down slightly on the handlebars takes the weight of the deck off of the skids a outside it over the wheels.
These are great little machines that perform in a big way. The blade drive belt is a little difficult to replace and is a little pricey ($75). The extra cost to get your machine equipped with the Honda engine as opposed to a Briggs & Stratton is well worth it. Dont use it on your residential lawn, it's a brush cutter not a lawnmower.
Hi Dale, awesome tips, thanks so much for taking the time to share your comments!
@@Housebarons sure thing guys, if it helps just one person sometime in the future then it was worth the two minutes it took to post the comment. Thanks for taking the time and putting in the effort to produce the video in the first place.
It looks like Billy Goat is so powerful it needs gears like a snow blower R, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Put on gear 1 and 2 slower and 4 and 5 goes faster.
Just purchased 2 acres ,I'm going to clear the property with the Billy goat
Hi John, awesome, glad to hear that! We now have 32 acres, had to step up to a tractor. Before you purchase, you might want to rent both a Billy Goat and a tractor to see which you prefer. The tractor is much easier, but way more expensive. So it just depends on your budget. Good luck, hope all goes well with clearing your land!
@@Housebarons I'm retired military and have nothing but time, I know you can't tell me to the letter ,what guess would you take for the time it would take to clear 2 acres with a Billy goat, I was gonna rent it for a week.
@@johnpratt6583 Hey John, when I rented this machine I used it to clear about one acre. I did a 4 hour rental. I was hustling, moving fast, I was able to return the machine in this 4 hour window, including driving there and back (about one hour). So, hope this helps gauge your project. If you rent it for a week you will have plenty of time to clear 2 acres. You could rent it for less time. Up to you. Let us know how this works out for you and thanks much for your service to our country!
@@Housebarons thank u you so much, I sure appreciate you
@@Housebarons thank you I really appreciate it
You had the choke still on bud
you prolly dont care but if you guys are bored like me atm you can watch all the new movies on InstaFlixxer. I've been binge watching with my brother for the last months :)
@Eden Madden yup, been using instaflixxer for months myself :D
I just wanted to tell you the levers for the blade and drive if you trip your are going to let go and the blade will stop instantly and it will stop driving also when mowing give it gas
Hi Gunner, yes, that is an awesome safety feature. Would not want to trip into the Billy Goat Brush Cutter! Thanks for your comment!
@@Housebarons I have a old brush mower that Is probable just smaller than that I have mowed large overgrown yards with it is my baby I think it is about 35 years old
Adakah agen dealernya di indonesia
Hey Rudi,
Thx for watching!
That’s a cheap rental. Now it’s a lot more costly.
i used one many times. I would never buy one. should have got a Kubota or good kiss ass Stihl weed eater.
Hi Christi, for us it seems like the Billy Goat is a good solution if a person is going to mow a tall weed field one time, or they have to mow a limited area every now and then, less than 2 acres. If the area is larger than that, it would make sense to rent or buy a tractor. Happy mowing and thanks for your thoughts!
job for a tractor and bush hog..................it seems the TRUE purpose of this machine is to go where a tractor cannot FIT !!!!!!!!!!!!