A Little about my Sickle Bar Mower

[Gordon Gould]

I've been running it here for 24 years. It is a First Choice/Superior 7 footer made in Italy. Friday I saw we were going to have a stretch of decent weather so I put the sickle bar on the L3010 to do the late season mowing, I only mow the roadsides and three small rough fields once a year - in the fall. It takes me 3 or 4 days the way I work and mounting the mower is a bit of a chore so I like to do all the mowing at once. I remove the loader and mount the suitcase weights, grease the mower and drive shaft - there are 15 zerks, then I have to take off the TnT cylinders and put on the manual top link and side links. This is because there is a counter balance type chain that puts pressure on the top link. It also eliminates hydraulic drift in the TnT setup which is not a problem when doing dirt work because fine adjustments are being made all the time. But for running the sickle bar I want the initial adjustment to be permanent.

I can mow down sloping banks,

up sloping banks,

flat on the ground

or above the ground. Here I'm cutting along the top of a rough stone wall. The bar is off the ground.

From the drivers seat

gg

 

[CliffordK]

Interesting. I had thought of the old John Deere sickles that seem mostly obsolete (although a similar sickle is used on combines).

How does the blade fare when cutting twiggy brush?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Mines a New Holland 451, I think they are the best sickle mower ever made.

It will cut in any position, and they don't take much hp to run them.

Not that hard to put on and off either.

SR

 

[JDW 1]

I totally agree, one of the best attachments for trimming around ponds and road side ditches. I can even trim back tree lines. As far as small trees, on my IH 1300 if it fits between the guards, it is history without damage to the sections. Gravel and woven wire fence is a different story also have a frontier SB3108 for fields.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Interesting. I had thought of the old John Deere sickles that seem mostly obsolete (although a similar sickle is used on combines).

How does the blade fare when cutting twiggy brush?

Just fine. Stuff like black berries and rasberries or small saplings are no problem. This bank is/was mostly small saplings

gg