Video: Open Front Brush Cutters Were Too Expensive. So Blue Diamond Rethought Everything.

In this episode of Machine Heads, we take a detailed look at Blue Diamond’s new Heavy Duty Open Front Brush Cutter. This attachment is here to fill a huge gap in the brush cutter market. Rather than make customers choose between more expensive production-level cutters they don’t need and budget-friendly closed front cutters that aren’t productive enough, Blue Diamond reimagined the open front cutters design entirely. Here’s how they did it and what kind of cost savings you can expect.

The Market Gap

If you’ve ever priced out an open-front brush cutter you know that these attachments don’t come cheap. Open front cutters are designed to process thick, dense material, and they’re designed to do it efficiently. That requires a lot of steel and a lot of engineering and testing time. As such, prices can easily stretch into the $20,000 range.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the market, closed front cutter designs are much more budget friendly. However, these closed front designs have a definitive ceiling in terms of how quickly they can process material and on how thick and dense that material can be. Put one of those closed front designs in the wrong environment and your job can quickly grind to a crawl.

As a result, customers looking to buy a brush cutter that can tackle serious material in a timely manner, stand up to the abuse and do so without breaking the bank were left without many good options.

So that’s where this new Heavy Duty Open Front model from Blue Diamond Attachments comes in.

Where Does it Fit?

Since this new model is aimed at the middle of the market, it makes sense that it fits right in the middle of the company’s offering of brush cutters: below the full-time commercial capability of its Extreme and Severe Duty Cutters, while sitting above its more affordable closed front options.

The Heavy Duty Open Front Brush Cutter runs on standard-flow hydraulics with a flow range of 15 to 22 gpm and a maximum operating pressure of 4,000 PSI. It delivers a cut width of 72 in. and is designed for host machines up to 75 hp. The attachment weighs in at 1,370 lbs.

Blue Diamond is pricing it at around $10,000 — half the cost of some of its more powerful open-front designs.

Why Open Front Design Brush Cutters are More Productive

With those specs and the attachment’s open front design, it’s capable of cutting trees up to 4 in. in diameter and processing material much faster and with less effort than a closed front option.

On closed front cutters, material has to bend down and feed under the deck before the blades can engage it. For light grass and smaller brush, that’s fine.

But when you start getting into bigger saplings and denser material — stuff in that 2- to 4-in. range — closed-front designs start to bog down.

The open-front design solves this. You just keep the cutter on the ground and drive forward. As you do, material feeds into the cutting zone and the blades engage it from the side, which is actually the most effective way to cut. You’re using the tool the right way, you’re working safer and you’re moving faster.

The best way to think about it is as a medium-duty option. It doesn’t have the reinforcement, weight and power of Blue Diamond’s Severe and Extreme Duty open front cutters, which can tackle trees up to 10 in. in diameter, but it’s a much more productive cutter than the closed front designs below it in the range.

Who is this Brush Cutter for?

As a result, this is aimed at a specific type of customer: The weekend warrior who’s got a back forty that needs clearing. Smaller contractors doing a bit of everything who want a versatile and productive land clearing tool in the stable. Smaller municipalities keeping rights-of-way in check. The rental house looking for a durable attachment that can serve a wide range of customers.

The Engineering Puzzle

Blue Diamond’s engineers were challenged to design a cutter that boasted a reinforced deck without adding too much cost. They landed on a 1/4-in. steel deck design with structural cross-bracing. This adds the rigidity and strength you need without unnecessary mass. Here are some other key features to note:

• Direct drive: Blue Diamond’s direct drive system uses pressure relief valves to protect the motor instead of sacrificial components. This means less maintenance, fewer failure points and more consistent power delivery to the blades.
• A 130 CC 2000 Series Eaton hydraulic motor: It’s a respected unit with an integrated pressure relief system. It lives inside a fully enclosed motor compartment, and that enclosure is doing double duty: it keeps debris away from the motor and hoses to reduce overheating and it physically protects all of those components from branch strikes and material fallback.
• Robust blade design: The Heavy Duty Open Front runs three 1/2-in. blades mounted on a 3/4-in. blade carrier designed to keep the blades moving at higher speeds. The blades themselves are hardened, heat-treated steel for wear resistance. Plus, they’re double-sided.
• Bi-directional cutting: From the cab, the operator can reverse the hydraulic flow and switch the blade rotation from clockwise to counterclockwise, instantly.

Machine Matching

When pairing this attachment to your loader, start with making sure it can support the cutter’s 15-22 gpm flow rate.

Blue Diamond recommends pairing with a loader at or below 75 hp. Higher-horsepower machines can generate enormous pushing force that can exceed what the cutter deck is designed to handle. You also risk structural damage to the attachment.