Sickle Bar attaching John Deere no 8 to 3 point hitch??

[redsky47]

bought an old John Deere no 8 sickle mower recently as a 'fixer upper', and I did not realize how off balance it really is; not heavy, but the arm really makes it 'tippy' - hard to even find a balance point when picking up with fork lifts. I am now wondering if I should even attach it to my 3 point hitch. Have a Kioti 3054 which has a draw bar in back - is it possible to weld a removeable support rig to that in order to keep the mower steady? How do others hook up the no 8?

 

[Creamer]

If I remember right the #8 is a semi mounted mower. This will be very handy in cutting around obstacles.

Your tractor is big enough that the one sided weight will not be an issue. The mower is so light the cutter bar makes it feel off-balance but your tractor will basically never know it.

Not sure how the front of your mower is set up but the JD semi-mounted I remember bolted to a flat rigid drawbar on the old IH Farmalls. I am thinking you could just get a drawbar for your 3pt hitch and use the two 3 pt arms to drag and stabilize the mower. If you left the flat drawbar bolted to your mower you would have a fairly quick hitch - just connect the 3 pt arms, attach the PTO and hydraulics and you are ready to go.

 

[schmism]

when the cutter is in the down postion there is a foot on the outside edge that rides along the ground to stablize the bar. Because of this it there is no need to attach any sort of addtional support.

 

[44loneranger]

I have a #8 and understand what you are talking about. I have gone up and down hills with no problems. It does feel out of balance but it is not a problem. I did modify the attachment point by taking the attachment point off of a #5 and installing it, now it attaches to the 3 point arms. Hope this was helpful.