Improvised pull mowers

[Mpking]

I looked into reel mowers as well. I wasn't sure they'd work well with my lawn and since I wanted to try to do this as cheaply as possible I went with gas power. Long run reels would pay for themselves but I have no experience with them and keeping them sharp and functional.

Turns out keeping them sharp doesn't look too hard.

http://www.reelmowers.info

From what I could tell, its as simple as painting on some sharpening compound and cranking in reverse with a cordless drill. Probably takes as much time as taking mower blades to the saw shop or sharpening them at home. I might have to give it a try this summer.

The reel mowers are a bit more expensive than gas powered on craigslist. Suprised me.

 

[J2E]

The reel mowers are a bit more expensive than gas powered on craigslist. Suprised me.

That was my finding too. Additionally the ones I found were 14"-16" which is pretty common on reels I guess. I wanted to go a little bigger and for an intial attempt I didn't want to try to struggle with more than 2. With gas going up so much though I may be looking into reels or electric charged by solar. I may have to borrow a reel mower from a friend to see how it cuts on my lawn before investing in them for a gang setup.

And I too would love to see pictures of your setup LBrown59.

 

[mullins87]

Here are some pics of the offset mower I am building to pull behind my riding mower. It has a 16hp motor and a 48" deck. I'm almost done with the welding, I just have to make a hitch and do a couple of other small things, then paint it and mow.

Please don't make fun of my shop. I built a house in 2008-2009 and it's all I can afford at this time. I had plans for a 40x40 shop, but when diesel hit $5/gallon and the price of EVERYTHING went through the roof, something had to give. Guess what that "something" was.

 

[aczlan]

Here are some pics of the offset mower I am building to pull behind my riding mower. It has a 16hp motor and a 48" deck. I'm almost done with the welding, I just have to make a hitch and do a couple of other small things, then paint it and mow.

Looks like the front forks came off of a zero turn. Nice job.

Aaron Z

 

[mullins87]

Looks like the front forks came off of a zero turn. Nice job.

Aaron Z

Thanks, hopefully it will look a lot better when it's painted! Yes, the forks came off a Toro Commercial mower that caught fire. There's a salvage yard not too far from where I live that has nothing but commercial and golf course mowers. The engine, deck and rear wheels are off a Snapper LT16 that the wife used to lovingly refer to as "The Beast."

 

[handirifle]

Please don't make fun of my shop. I built a house in 2008-2009 and it's all I can afford at this time. I had plans for a 40x40 shop, but when diesel hit $5/gallon and the price of EVERYTHING went through the roof, something had to give. Guess what that "something" was.

Are you kidding? I just got a shop about 6 months ago. That after 36 years of marriage, and about 6 homes. Patience. ANY SHOP is a GREAT shop. They are what you make them. Read an article in Handyman magazine, where this guy that lives on an island, has a large CLOSET in his carport, where he stores his woodworking tools. When he needs to work on something he rolls out his woodworking tools out on carts they are stored on.

Ya use what ya got.

 

[mullins87]

Oh yeah, I understand the "use what ya' got" routine. The shop is nothing more than a 12x30 portable garage with battery/generator power. Problem is, I'm still going through withdrawals from the last house. That shop wasn't huge, but it was a nice 30x30 with a 100 amp service in it. What I love about a larger shop is not having to drag everything out to do some work, then having to put everything back up. And, if it's raining or really cold, then I'm outta luck.

 

[mullins87]

I'm getting closer on the mower. I got everything painted this weekend. Now hopefully I can get it put together this week. Other than mounting the controls, all the fabrication on the mower is complete. Once I get the rider out of storage, I'll fab up a hitch, which shouldn't take too long. I'll try to get some more pics up next weekend.

 

[mullins87]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had a beautiful last two days to work on the mower. I still have to get a belt for it, but other than that it's ready to go. I can't wait to try it out!

Here's a few pics I got this afternoon....

 

[handirifle]

I didn't see it the first time I looked over the pics, but now I see the left to right pivot point is at the tractor. All I first saw was the up and down pivot at the pull mower.

I like the look of your home built unit. I WOULD like to see more details of the gearbox or transmission you use to transfer power from the engine to the mower deck. I had ponderded that a bit when i was considering making a 3 pt mower out of a mower deck, to put behind my MF1010.

 

[Ductape]

Awesome ! :thumbsup:

 

[mullins87]

Thanks guys!! The device used to turn the belt is a mule drive off a Snapper lawn tractor. Basically it's nothing more than two pulleys that allows the belt to make a 90 degree turn. It may take me a couple of days, but I'll post a pic of another one that I have in the shop, that way you'll be able to see it better.

 

[LBrown59]

I shudder when I see anyone around a push mower other than the one doing the pushing.
Too much debris that can be shot out at by-standers and the guy on the pulling tractor is a by-stander.
Tending the running mowers while getting on and off the pulling tractor is another concern.

Why would pushing it with the tractor be any differnt than the guy pushing the hand mower himself ?

 

[2manyrocks]

I think the concern is if something is thrown out of the push mowers, it might hit him on the head while riding. It has to do with the position of the discharge chute on the push mower to one side of the operator instead of walking directly behind the mower.

Every so often, someone will get run over by their own tractor while bushing hogging around here. Sort of hard to figure out what happened sometimes, but there is often suspicion that the bush hog threw a rock that knocked the operator out and caused him to fall and be run over.

 

[mullins87]

Here is a pic of the mule drive;

This is what it looks like mounted on the frame;

This is the view looking down into the mule drive;

Here is a side view. I know it's not a very good pic, but it's the best I could do;

 

[boggen]

just WOW, that looks awesome! mullins87

just about to create a thread for getting 7 gang reel mower. then i had to see this post first :drool:

 

[mullins87]

just WOW, that looks awesome! mullins87

just about to create a thread for getting 7 gang reel mower. then i had to see this post first :drool:

Thanks boggen!! That's high praise for a shade tree mechanic with a stick welder. Believe me, it was very easy to make.

 

[handirifle]

Mullins that is outstanding work and a great idea. After all that, a directional discharge chute would be an easy way to resolve any safety concerns mentioned here.

Once my marshland dries up, I plan on rigging up a pull behind mower for my garden tractor that will allow me to mow the short, steep banks of my seasonal creek. no way will I want to do 200yds of creek bank with a push mower or even my weed whacker. I have done it with the whacker before and it's a PITA.

 

[mullins87]

Thanks. I've got the chute, I just haven't installed it yet. I have to get a spring for it. I've had an issue with the deck belt rubbing an idler pulley on the deck. This morning and fabbed up a bracket for another idler pulley and got it installed, now I need another belt. Hopefully I can run to town tomorrow morning and pick one up.

 

[mullins87]

Picked up a new belt this morning and got to try out the offset mower. I am very pleased with it. However, it started raining so I had to stop. I've got a couple of fine tuning issues to work through, such as getting the two decks mowing at the same height. But I'll have to wait for more grass to grow to be able to do that.