My New Sickle Bar Mower(s)

[Neophyte]

wrangler6831,
When you refer to breaking guards like glass, are you referring to the individual tooth guards as seen in picture SBM1-6 above? I noticed that there were a few broken on the unit. The unit included several replacements guards. Have you replaced these before? What is the method for replacing these? It looks like they are riveted in and then the rivets are hammered down flat???

Tom_Veatch,
I have heard the comment about dogs on several occasions. Has someone actually had a bad experience along these lines or were they just close calls?

Jerseyguy,
Do you connect only 1 hydraulic line or are you connecting 2 hydraulic lines? That is, how many hydraulic lines are coming from the lift cylinder on the sickle bar mower? Do you happen to have any pictures you could post?

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Jerseyguy]

There is only one hydraulic line from the mower's hydraulic cylinder. It was attached to one of the tractor's remote couplings of which there are two (there is only one remote on the tractor). This was done at the dealer and I have since taken the mower off the tractor. I think the next time I attach the mower to the tractor I will use the other coupler as I believe this will reverse the actuation lever direction on the tractor. The way it was hooked up by the dealer at delivery, pulling the lever back during operation dropped the sickle bar and pushing it forward raised it. I would prefer to operated the lever to raise the sickle bar by pulling it backward which makes more sense to me. This is logical as the tractor's hydraulic lift lever on the 3-point pulls back to raise and pushes forward or down to lower. I have pictures of the complete hook-up. It would be easier for me to mail you copies as I use dial-up and it is time comsuming to post that way. Let me know where to mail them.

 

[Neophyte]

Jerseyguy,

Thanks for the clarification. I need to order the hydraulic kit sometime in the next couple of weeks. No big hurry since I will not be using this mower until next season. Thanks for offering to send the pictures. I think I will be fine without them for now but I will contact you in the future if I need them.

 

[wrangler6831]

Yes the guards are the part that stick out in front of the knife. When you replace them you actually replace two guards at once. If I'm not mistaken there are two (2) different ones. The ones down where everything rotates have bigger rivets in them, larger diameter. and the rest are all the same. To replace them you have to drill the old rivet out, install the guard with the proper size rivet than mash the snot out of them with a hammer. I always used heat and let them cool real slow and make sure they are down flush.

Rich