I'm Aaron Graber with Ventrac and today we are on site with a 4520 and our boom mower. We're on the
property of a relatively new home construction build, and as you can see, they've got a pond in
their front yard. It's a pretty nice pond that they use for a bunch of different activities. So we're
going to help them maintain it today. So we're gonna take the boom mower which as you can see
has plenty of reach to do this property. And just kind of go around the pond, clean those areas up.
They've also got on this property a few other challenges. So there are some areas of another
lot that's adjacent that aren't maintained and that's kind of encroaching in on them.
And there's a creek that runs from the back to the front and it kind of runs the perimeter of
the property. So what we want to do is get rid of a lot of that vegetation that's encroaching
in from the creek, open that up so they can see the creek, and so they can maintain it
a little bit easier into the future. We'll use the boom mower to reach across the creek and
kind of skim that vegetation away. Really get it so that it's easily maintainable
after we're done, and then also so that it just looks nice and you can avoid the many hours of
hand work that it would take to do this with a string trimmer or with other manual tools.
The number one biggest reason this setup is better is speed.
Usually what you're cutting with this boom mower would be an area that you could only
trim with a hand trimmer and that takes forever. Typically, this boom mower would allow a single
operator to do the job of multiple people with string trimmers in a fraction of the time.
And of course, if you're using a setup like this you're likely a professional
user getting paid by the job, so efficiency is key. The faster you can knock these jobs out, the
more of these jobs you can do, more efficient you'll be, and the more money you'll make.
Now we're going to get straight to the work and show you how it functions.
Now would be a good time to go over the controls for the boom mower. It's a question we get pretty
frequently because it's just it kind of looks bizarre. "How are you making it do all of the
different movements that it does?" So we are using a dual auxiliary hydraulic and a 12 volt. And
then with the combination that that gives you, you can control all the movements of the boom
mower. So, we're always running the attachment in float. I have it on weight transfer setting
number four as well, which is probably what I would recommend. There's really no reason
to go any less on weight transfer. So you leave the attachment in float and then you can drive
forward. I have a foot pedal on this tractor which is kind of nice for this because you're
using so many of the control buttons. You can drive forward with the SDLA or with your foot
pedal. And then all of the movements of the boom mower are back on this secondary SDLA. So when I
flip the 12 volt switch, I'm just going to move the key here, and you can see the red light up
next to the cutter head. When I flip that switch on and off you'll see the light go on and off.
And when the light is on, you're concentrating your movements on the head the cutter head.
So if I move this SDLA the secondary to the right, that head will rotate like this clockwise.
And back to the left, rotate counterclockwise. If I hold the green button and do the same thing,
then the whole boom will translate out. If I move it right and back in if I move it left. And then
if I switch back off of the red light with a 12-volt switch, then that same lever will now
control the height of the boom. So the boom will move up or down. So down if I move to the right.
Up if I move to the left. And then the combination of all of those movements gets you that full range
of motion. When the light is off, it's actually the same motion that you get when the whole when the
green button is held down. So no matter which mode you're in that does the same thing which
is translate in and out. So operationally what you want to do is basically kind of pick your
your setting based on the terrain. So going around the pond when I can see that for the
next 30 yards there's a consistent grade. And the angle of the pond bank is the same. I'll switch
to the red light on, and then I'll translate I'll rotate the head, the cutting head, so
that it matches the angle of that. And then I'll switch that back off and I'll only use
the height and the translate. So that between the tractor movements and the height and translate, I
can basically cruise for that next 30 yards and not have to change anything with a cutter head.
When you're in situations that are like this back in all this brush, next to the creek and all the
things that are more variable, you have to switch back and forth a little more often with that
button. So it's actually pretty intuitive once you get used to it. And again, your hand doesn't move
from the standard operating position that it's used to for all the rest of the attachments. So
there's no extra buttons anywhere. There's no extra leverage to manage it's all still on the SDLA.