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Bari..... .As the self-appointed safety preacher (grin), it is my duty and privalage to say you did the right thing by asking for advice about brush hoggin'. The most important thing is to be certain that you have an "Over-Running Coupler" on your 8N's PTO shaft. The ORC prevents all that humongus rotory inertia from the swinging hog blade from back-driving thru the PTO into the tractor's transmission and causing the tractor to keep on goin' when you clutch to slow down to make a corner, miss a fence post, edge of the stream bank, irrigation canal, corner of the barn, wifes new car.....(don't ask). There are 2 kinds of ORC's, push-button mounted, or roll-pin mounted, I use a roll pin type. Then there is the other decision to make, what size to get? The original 1 1/8 dia 8N PTO shaft and the now standard 1 3/8 PTO. You can get them sized to mix and match your brush-hogs PTO drive coupler. Some 8N's have been re-PTO'ed to the new 1 3/8 spec. So you'll have to know what sizes you have. And then finally, you will probably have to shorten your brush-hogs PTO shafts (inner & outer) you will probably have to sacrafice a couple of hacksaw blades to cut them hard suckers. PTO shafts are made to be shortened. You'll have to figure it out yourself how much to cut off. And finally, most brush-hog users also use stabalizing bars from under the tractor axle fender mounts to the brush-hog lower pins. This keeps the hog from swaying into your expensive tires. A lot of brush-hog users (specially those with weak hydraulics) use "limiter chains" that attach to the tractor's top link under the seat and then are set to limit the hogs drop-down or the mowing height you want. With chains, they collasp when you raise the mower to go over an obstical and then re-lower to your pre-determined mowing height. These are different than the "Zane Thang" which does marvellous things for 9N & 2N's with out "Position" Control" like the 8N has (the little handle under the seat should be up for position control and horizontal for draft/plowing control). One last safety message: Don't EVER pull anything from that handy dandy top-link (just under the seat) as you will pull the tractor over on top of you quicker that jack-snott with disasterous results. Your wife and children will appreciate your dilagence in observing this safety message. Keep children and dogs away. Rocks can fly a long and hard way. Go and Brush-hog in safety, ..... Dell, the self-appointed Safety Preacher.
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