Mowing Hydraulic sicklebar mower

[jmason1205]

I have an out-of-state friend with an early Kubota B6000 4WD 2 cylinder diesel compact tractor. He has a hydraulic sicklebar mower attachment that has never been mounted or used and is willing to give it to me if I can use it on my B7200 Kubota 4WD 3 cylinder diesel compact tractor. I haven't seen the implement, but it appears to be a Kubota belly mount unit that runs off of the hydraulic system and not a three-point hitch mounted PTO drive. Does anybody out there know if this unit would work on my tractor with a minimum of modification or would it be cost prohibitive? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MarkV]

Welcome to the forum. I'll be interested to hear responses on this one. I have never heard of a hydraulically operated sicklebar mower. The small Kubota's don't have that much hydraulic power to begin with so I am skeptical that they could run a mower like that. Does his tractor have a mid mount PTO? That would be a more likely power source in my mind.

MarkV

 

[jmason1205]

Mark,
Thanks for your quick input to my question. I purchased a used manual through e-bay for the sicklebar and it is hydraulic driven, not PTO. On the B6000 it actually uses the same lever that raises the 3-point hitch to engage the mower and comes with a decal to stick next to the hydraulic lever. I believe you have to use a valve to redirect the hydraulics from the 3-point hitch to the sicklebar. I haven't really read through the manual thoroughly yet, but it's pretty confusing and doesn't show any good overall photos of the unit; however, it is very clear that it isn't PTO driven.

 

[teg]

Very interested in this too. Is it new or older unit. Can you take a photo of the manual? (I tried to google it, but failed).

I saw some newer models that were rated for a minimum 10-12 GPM (up to max 20-25gpm) - that might be a problem with your tractor. It list yours as 17 hp and only 4gpm (???) is that correct? that seems low... BUT you could hook up a PTO hydraulic pump and not use your tractor's system.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=9-1047-1&catname=hydraulic

Would love to see this thing, and if he/you wants to sell it, let us know :laughing:

 

[jmason1205]

teg,
Thanks for your reply to my question. The sicklebar was bought new with the tractor in the very early 70's and never mounted or used. Whatever the pump requirements are, I have to believe that my 7200 would be able to handle it because it is a larger and more powerful tractor than the B6000 the unit was intended for. I can try to scan the manual for you to look at and e-mail it to you if you could give me your address. Your idea of using a separate PTO driven pump is a good one, except that I don't want to put that much money into rigging it up. If I had to do that, I think I'd look for a used sicklebar or small bush hog that was adapted for my machine. If I can't get it working on my Kubota, I'll keep your offer to buy in mind!

 

[MarkV]

Mark,
Thanks for your quick input to my question. I purchased a used manual through e-bay for the sicklebar and it is hydraulic driven, not PTO. On the B6000 it actually uses the same lever that raises the 3-point hitch to engage the mower and comes with a decal to stick next to the hydraulic lever. I believe you have to use a valve to redirect the hydraulics from the 3-point hitch to the sicklebar. I haven't really read through the manual thoroughly yet, but it's pretty confusing and doesn't show any good overall photos of the unit; however, it is very clear that it isn't PTO driven.

Well that is really interesting. If you found the manual it must be a hydraulically driven mower. That is new one to me.

One thing is for sure. The original tractor had to have some sort of hydraulic attachment port and a return port to hook the mower too. I will bet that is where you will run into problems adapting to your tractor.

Let us know what you learn from the manuel after you have had a chance to go over it.

MarkV

 

[teg]

...I believe you have to use a valve to redirect the hydraulics from the 3-point hitch to the sicklebar...

I could not find what type of hydraulics the 6000 is... Yours is open center which means that implements work in series, one after the other, if one uses the flow, anything behind it doesn't have full flow and this might use all of it. Your valve will have to have a "motor spool"...

Thanks for the offer but I don't need the manual... just wonder make / model.

Can your friend snap some shots of it?? (and shoot, no rush just looking for something like that).

Found this one... I like it except for the price and the flow is only 3.3gpm!
Sabre Samurai | Features

 

[David s Von Gieserbrechta]

I think that it should work just fine and be an easy mod. the biggest problem would be the lifting mechanism. I would imagine that it runs off of a orbital motor and if so the oil flow requirements would be quite low, perhaps 3 gpm or so.

I sorta built a hedge trimmer for my BX2350, well I really didn't build much, rather I just took it off of a swather that wasn't being used anymore and added some attachments and beefed it up just a tad. It the sickle mower was mounted vertically on the swather pickup to cut snarly crops like rapeseed that tend to intertwine and will stop a swather dead. This little toy when mounted on the bucket will trim 1.5" branches like they weren't even there. It works and looks just about the same as the Sabre Samurai but it was like a lot CHEAPER as in almost free.

I'd go for it
David

 

[jmason1205]

Thanks David. I think I will give it a try and hopefully I'll be able to make it work.

Jay

 

[jmason1205]

teg,
The sicklebar is called the Hydra-Sickle Model L-175 and was made by Didier Mfg., Co. for the Kubota B6000.

Jay

 

[teg]

Thanks :thumbsup: Let us know how it goes... Did you get it yet?

 

[soulasphil]

A hydraulic sickle bar should not require that much GPM. I have something like that I use for trimming hedges on my JD 3520. It is fed through the rear QCs and the only thing I had to change was to create a direct return to reservoir for the hydraulic motor (small black tube going to small silver QC). The motor is at the foot of the sickle bar. Works fine, even with the tractor engine idling.

 

[jmason1205]

Thank you so much for your input. It looks like it should be something that I can adapt to my tractor and I will have to make a trip to snatch it away from my friend.

Jay

 

[dennisgw]

That looks like one nice unit. How many Euro's if you don't mind my asking?

 

[soulasphil]

Sorry, it came in June 2009 with the tractor and various implements, I have forgotten the price. The documents are at my place in the country and I cannot answer your question just now. It's a very nice unit and at long last I can now keep up with the growth of my hedges. But trimming hedges with it is far from easy : much of the time you cannot see the blade and just have to guess what it's doing, the ground is rarely absolutely flat and with the long lever the smallest bump requires a large correction, at the end of the day you've got a sore neck from looking behind you all the time ... It nevertheless is my favourite implement because of the many cylinders and hydraulic motor.