Deck mounted weedeater

[gates]

Does anyone have any experience with the weed eaters that mount to the side of the mower deck. You can mow and weed eat at the same time.

Ron

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Does anyone have any experience with the weed eaters that mount to the side of the mower deck. You can mow and weed eat at the same time.

Ron )</font>

What are you talking about?

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Does anyone have any experience with the weed eaters that mount to the side of the mower deck. You can mow and weed eat at the same time. )</font>

I think mounting a goat to the side of your mower would be against the law.

But to answer your question: no, I haven't heard of that, although I would love to see a photo .

Cliff

 

[LBrown59]

Where can i find them to look at one?

 

[gates]

Lbrown,

There are two manufacturers, Peco & 4m. They are for all intent and purpose an electric weed eater that mounts to the side of your mower deck. The Peco unit is a little primative and costs ~$400. The 4m unit is more refined, but the refinement comes with a cost, ~$850. The question with both units is what effect it will have on the mowers electric system. I have heard stories both positive and negative, no pun intended. 4m has came out with a hydraulic unit that is driven off of a stack pulley on your deck. They claim you can ride as fast as you want , no matter how tall the grass and not stop the trimmer. This alleviates the electric issue but obviously at a cost,~$1800.
My curiousity is two fold. I not only have 3 miles of vinyl 3 rail fence to maintain but Iam considering becoming a dealer for the 4m units. It is a large investment to become a dealer. I have done extensive research with the design and construction. Know I am trying to find someone, not refered by the manufacturer, who has hands on research . There is a vast cross section of people, from all over, on this forum.I would think that someone would have some input. If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I can probably save you a lot of time.

Ron

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Does anyone have any experience with the weed eaters that mount to the side of the mower deck. You can mow and weed eat at the same time.
Ron )</font>
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Just got off the webb sites of both.
Found they both have the same shortcoming as the swisher, fence hog, tow behinds, offset mowers and everything else everything else I've looked at.
That is they all have to short of a reach out from the host vehicle.
There is no way I could trim along and across my 2 to 4 foot wide ditches with any of them.

 

[JN4310]

Here's what I used, until I sold the tractor. It required removing the deck, but on this little mower that was no big deal. It worked incredibly well. When I get time I'm going to adapt it to my X595, but I wish I would have kept the LX266 just for trimming.

 

[JN4310]

Here's another pic. It clipped on to the mower deck mounting points and was raised and lowered by the mower deck lift lever. It pivots out of the way of fence posts. At about half throttle, this thing was absolutely unstoppable. The string life was really good as well.

 

[gates]

JN4310,
That looks like it would work great for me. I am looking for a trimmer for 3 rail fencing. Did you fabricate that entire asembly or did you piece meal it together. If the latter, if you do not mind, what parts did you use to build it.

Ron

Lbrown59,
IMO it sounds like you need a small sickle bar to reach into those gulleys. They come in all different lenghts and can operate at different angles.

Ron

 

[JN4310]

The spindle and its housing are from an Ariens walk behind big wheel trimmer. I took the engine off and ran a longer belt over to the mower deck drive clutch. I fabricated the mounting frame that mounts it to the mower deck attachment points.

It worked really well, except that in the initial configuration (in those pictures) all the weight was on one side and it tended to droop. The mower deck lift didn't have enough lift height to raise it up over really uneven ground. I solved that by extending a weight bracket off to the other side and hanging one or two JD suitcase weights (42 lbs) on it. That not only balanced it out so I got full lift height, but made a billy goat out of the little tractor. The thing would cling to the side of my saddle trail ditch and never slip or spin the tires. Really amazing.

I sold the tractor, but am now going to adapt the trimmer to my X595, using hydraulic lift and the front PTO to drive it. I've got 1200 feet of fence, 1200 feet of ditch and about 2000 feet of pond and wetland edges to trim, so it really comes in handy.