Remote control brush mowers, brush hogs and brush cutters
The short answer. All three names point at the same class of machine: a mower built for woody growth, driven from level ground by an operator with a handset. The number that decides whether you need one is not the slope and not the acreage, it is the thickness of what you are cutting.
The makers publish that figure and it clusters in one place: RC Mowers rates its R-52 and R-60 to cut brush up to 1.5 inches in diameter, and Gravely rates its Ovis 40 RC for stalks and saplings to the same 1.5 inches. That is the brush class, and it is commercial: the two RC Mowers machines weigh over a ton each and Canycom's CG750 weighs 6,614 pounds.
The remote control mower this site can actually point you at is a lawn machine with a 21 inch deck, rated in inches of grass rather than inches of stem. If your ground is tall grass that got away from you, that machine is the answer. If it is saplings, it is not, and nothing we earn on is.
The three names are one market
Brush mower, brush hog and brush cutter get used as though they were three product categories, and shoppers reasonably assume the words are doing work. In the remote control corner of this market they are not.
Search any of the three with "remote control" in front of it and the same manufacturers come back: RC Mowers, Canycom, Gravely, the tracked European machines. Sellers pick whichever of the three words their customers type and describe the same hardware underneath it.
What does vary underneath the names is the cutting head, and that distinction is real. A flail head carries many small blades on a horizontal drum and chops material into short pieces, which suits fibrous growth and leaves less windrow behind. A rotary head swings a smaller number of heavy blades on a horizontal plane, which suits thicker stems.
Canycom lists the CG750 with a standard flail mower and Gravely's Ovis 40 RC is a flail style deck, so if you are comparing machines, compare heads and stem ratings, not the word on the page title.
The number that decides is one and a half inches
Every other specification on a brush machine is negotiable against your ground. This one is not, because it is what separates a mowing job from a clearing job.
RC Mowers states that both the R-52 and the R-60 cut brush up to 1.5 inches in diameter. Gravely states that the Ovis 40 RC handles thick stalks and saplings up to 1.5 inches in diameter, and separately that it cuts material 40 inches tall. Two makers, two different machine layouts, the same published ceiling.
Measure a few stems on the ground you are worried about before you shop. If they are grass, weeds and brambles, you are not in this category at all and the machines below are several times more machine than the job.
If they are finger thick woody stems, you are exactly in it. If they are thicker than a broom handle, you are past it, and the honest answer is a different kind of equipment entirely rather than a bigger mower.
What the commercial class actually is
It is worth seeing the size of these machines before deciding you want one, because the marketing photographs flatten it.
| Machine | Cutting width | Engine | Weight | Rated slope | Ground pressure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RC Mowers R-52 | 52 inch deck | 37 horsepower Vanguard | 2,030 pounds | Up to 50 degrees, with no winch | 2.2 PSI |
| RC Mowers R-60 | 60 inch deck | 40 horsepower | 2,100 pounds | Up to 50 degrees, with no winch | 2.2 PSI |
| Canycom CG750 | 72.8 inch cut | Turbocharged Kubota diesel rated at 54.6 kilowatts | 6,614 pounds with the standard flail mower fitted | Up to 40 degrees | Not on the page we read |
Those are not garage machines and they are not bought with a card on a web page. They are sold through dealers, they arrive on a trailer, and the ground pressure figures exist because the buyers are mowing wetlands, canal banks and bridge embankments rather than gardens.
If you are a homeowner reading a brush hog page because a corner of your land has gone feral, this class is almost certainly not your answer, and knowing that early is worth more than a ranked list.
Both RC Mowers machines are also stated to maintain signal up to 1,000 feet. Canycom gives no signal figure on the page we read, which is why the column is not in the table.
Why there are no prices on this page. We print prices only where we have read them on the maker's own page. Canycom's CG750 page lists none.
The starting figure that circulates online for the RC Mowers R Series was not on the maker's own page when we checked it in July 2026, so we did not print it then and do not print it here. An unsourced number in this class would be off by more than most readers earn in a year.
Where the machine we can link you to stops
The only remote control mower this site has an affiliate relationship with is the Mowrator S1 line, and it belongs to the lawn class rather than this one. Its deck is 21 inches.
| What each class publishes | Mowrator S1, the lawn class | The commercial class above |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting deck | 21 inches | 52 to 72.8 inches on the three machines above |
| Tall grass claim | 51 inches on the 4WD 75 percent variant, 27 inches on the 2WD | Not among the figures we took from their pages |
| Stem diameter rating | None published anywhere | Stated, because clearing woody growth is what these are sold for |
The tall grass figures are a real difference between two machines that look nearly identical in a listing. The last row is the one that answers the question this page is about: an absence is more informative than any figure the brand does publish, because a machine that does not state a stem number is not making the claim.
That is not a criticism of it. Tall grass that got away from you over a wet month is the single most common version of this problem, it is genuinely unpleasant to clear from a riding mower on a slope, and a 21 inch steel deck driven from level ground handles it.
It is only a failure if you arrived here having typed the word brush hog and were sold a lawn machine on the strength of the word rough.
The buying guide for remote control lawn mowers ranks the four variants by the kind of work rather than the grade, and the slope mowers page sets out the three classes of machine built for ground too steep to ride on, including the two we do not sell.
Affiliate links. We may earn a commission through MaxBounty if you buy, at no extra cost to you, and it never decides a ranking or a verdict. Full disclosure.
Check price at MowratorWhat we would not tell you
That the machine we earn on covers this category. It does not, and the tempting version of this page would have hidden that behind the word "rough".
Rough is doing an enormous amount of work in equipment marketing: it stretches from long grass to standing saplings without ever naming a number, which is exactly why the makers who genuinely clear brush publish a stem diameter and the makers who do not, do not.
If you are between the two, the cheap test is free. Walk the ground and try to snap a representative stem by hand. If it snaps, it is a grass and weed job. If it bends and stays bent, you are looking at the class this page describes and at a purchase this site cannot help you with.
We would also not tell you that a slope rating settles it. Every machine named on this page is rated to a steeper grade than most domestic banks ever reach, so the grade will not be what disappoints you. The head and the stem rating will.
Frequently asked questions
What is a remote control brush mower?
It is a mower built to clear woody growth rather than cut a lawn, driven by an operator standing on level ground with a handset. The phrases remote control brush mower, remote control brush hog and remote control brush cutter are used for the same class of machine by different sellers.
In practice these are commercial machines: RC Mowers rates its R-52 and R-60 to cut brush up to 1.5 inches in diameter, and both weigh over a ton.
How thick a stem can a remote control brush mower cut?
The figure the makers publish clusters at 1.5 inches. RC Mowers states that its R-52 and R-60 cut brush up to 1.5 inches in diameter, and Gravely states that its Ovis 40 RC handles thick stalks and saplings up to 1.5 inches in diameter. Anything materially thicker than that is not a mowing job at all, it is a clearing job for a different machine.
Is a remote control lawn mower the same thing as a brush hog?
No, and the difference shows up in the unit each one is rated in. Brush machines are rated in inches of stem diameter.
Lawn machines, including the remote control lawn mowers this site can point you at, are rated in inches of grass height: Mowrator claims 51 inches of tall grass on its 4WD 75 percent variant and 27 inches on the 2WD, and publishes no stem diameter rating at all. Tall grass and woody stems are two different loads on the same deck.
What does the commercial remote control brush class actually look like?
Large and heavy. RC Mowers lists the R-52 at 2,030 pounds with a 52 inch deck and a 37 horsepower engine, and the R-60 at 2,100 pounds with a 60 inch deck and 40 horsepower, both rated to slopes up to 50 degrees with signal maintained up to 1,000 feet.
Canycom lists the CG750 at 6,614 pounds with a 72.8 inch cut, a turbocharged Kubota diesel and operation on slopes up to 40 degrees. These are dealer machines, not garage machines.
Can BackyardRated sell me a remote control brush mower?
No. The only remote control mower this site has an affiliate relationship with is a lawn machine with a 21 inch deck, and it is rated for tall grass rather than for woody stems. If what you have is saplings, we have nothing to sell you and say so here rather than pointing you at the nearest thing we earn on.