Pond bank mower

[wickedinhere]

I have been trying to figure a way to mow my pond banks instead of using a string trimmer. I was thinking of buying a push mower and hook a chain at all 4 corners then hook all the chains to one eye hook. I would then attach a 12 foot 4x4 to the fel bucket and attach the mower to the end of the 4x4 using the chains. I would lower and raise the mower as needed and if i hit something the chains would give. The reason for wanting to do this is that my pond banks have some erosion spots that make it hard to mow or trim and i could just drop the mower right on top of the hard to reach spots. I know it sounds dangerous and crazy but it just might work any suggestions. Please no ugly comments!

 

[bx24]

Ideally, it would be nice if you could rig up a hydraulic cutter but your tractor only flows 4-6 gpm and I don't think you could get a motor that would work.

I think your idea would work, but I would worry about the motor smoking itself with all of the oil always leaning on the one side. If you have an old mower ... what have you got to lose

 

[zac]

in our town they use flail mowers, but these mowers are like bckhoes except on the side and there mowers, really cool, probably real expensive.

 

[toy]

I have been trying to figure a way to mow my pond banks instead of using a string trimmer. I was thinking of buying a push mower and hook a chain at all 4 corners then hook all the chains to one eye hook. I would then attach a 12 foot 4x4 to the fel bucket and attach the mower to the end of the 4x4 using the chains. I would lower and raise the mower as needed and if i hit something the chains would give. The reason for wanting to do this is that my pond banks have some erosion spots that make it hard to mow or trim and i could just drop the mower right on top of the hard to reach spots. I know it sounds dangerous and crazy but it just might work any suggestions. Please no ugly comments!

Now I'm not going to say anything about your looks especially since I have never met you, but I would like to tell you about them clearing the power line rightaway recently in my area, they had a bar with about 10 or 11 saw blades on it hanging down from a helicopter. It did a real good job, my electric was out for about 8 hours and phones were out for several days. When they did it near moms house the electric was off about 8 hours or longer for about 3 or 4 days. When the electric went off at moms my son and I were changing out her commode and replacing it with a high rise one for handicapped people[she had a hip replacment and the doctor said that she needed a high rise one]. We had to use lanterns to do the change out. When I went down the next day to check it out for leaks everything was as dry as could be [no leaks].Made me feel like I was back in the semi old days when we waded knee deep snow 2 miles to school. My son and I had a good day together something that we will always remember. Enough rambling on back to the subject, that thing that they were using was awsome to watch. We could see the bottom of the helicopter pilots shoe as he leaned out of the helicopter watching his progress.

 

[toy]

I have been trying to figure a way to mow my pond banks instead of using a string trimmer. I was thinking of buying a push mower and hook a chain at all 4 corners then hook all the chains to one eye hook. I would then attach a 12 foot 4x4 to the fel bucket and attach the mower to the end of the 4x4 using the chains. I would lower and raise the mower as needed and if i hit something the chains would give. The reason for wanting to do this is that my pond banks have some erosion spots that make it hard to mow or trim and i could just drop the mower right on top of the hard to reach spots. I know it sounds dangerous and crazy but it just might work any suggestions. Please no ugly comments!

Just remembered someone a while back on the power trac forum built a bank mower using a lawn mower deck mounted on a boom . maybe you could do a search there and get some good ideas. his seemed to work real good. No harm intended in my other post to you, I beleive there are some really good people on these tractor by net forums and would not want to offend no one.

 

[wickedinhere]

Nice story toy, i like a joke as good as anyone i might be fat but not ugly.LOL
I am gonna buy one of those 99 dollar push mowers and try to see what i can do
with it. The mower wont be at much of an angle so hopefully the oil wont be a problem.

 

[jimgerken]

If you can predict which way it will tilt most often, build the contraption so the spark plug side of the engine (vertical shaft engine, spark plug usually faces forward on the deck) is up, when its tilted to work. This will work OK. The other way, you'd have oil up against the bottom of the piston, and I don't think it would stay together long with that condition.

 

[zac]

what about an offset sickle bar?

 

[alchemysa]

what about an offset sickle bar?

How about a hedgetrimmer mounted on a pole, with a side-ways mounted wheel or skid at the bottom end so you can sweep from side to side. Can you get electricity to the site? Electric trimmers are lightweight and cheap. Don't know how long they'd last but i guess that depends on how big an area you have. 'Dabbing' with a petrol mower sounds awfuly slow and tedious.

 

[Renze]

The mower wont be at much of an angle so hopefully the oil wont be a problem.

I know guys in England that overfill their tractor engines to make sure the oil pressure doesnt drop when topping pastures at extreme slopes.

 

[1bush2hog]

I know guys in England that overfill their tractor engines to make sure the oil pressure doesnt drop when topping pastures at extreme slopes.

What happens to the extra oil when they get back on level land?

 

[bjcsc]

What happens to the extra oil when they get back on level land?

I they're diesels, it gets whipped and picked up by the crankcase ventilation system. That's when the real excitement starts!

 

[john_bud]

what about an offset sickle bar?

Exactly what I was thinking. Auctions usually have old 8 to 10 foot ones for little money. Would be much faster than a mower on a stick. Less of a conversation starter though.

jb

Like my mom use to say, "you might be slow and dumb, but you're not good looking!"

 

[mikim]

A long time ago on this site a fella mounted a deck mower off his 3 point. I believe he was able to raise & lower it using the 3 point and tilt it the same way - built a frame that telescoped out to the side and mounted the deck mower on it.

 

[MikesTractor]

This may be the thread that you remember. This was a neat build.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/89067-ditch-bank-mower-build.html?highlight=bank+mower

 

[have_blue]

I have been trying to figure a way to mow my pond banks instead of using a string trimmer. I was thinking of buying a push mower and hook a chain at all 4 corners then hook all the chains to one eye hook. I would then attach a 12 foot 4x4 to the fel bucket and attach the mower to the end of the 4x4 using the chains. I would lower and raise the mower as needed and if i hit something the chains would give. The reason for wanting to do this is that my pond banks have some erosion spots that make it hard to mow or trim and i could just drop the mower right on top of the hard to reach spots. I know it sounds dangerous and crazy but it just might work any suggestions. Please no ugly comments!

WIH,

Don't know if you caught my post on Pond Boss (This is "Bobad"), but I have been thinking about a gasoline powered hedge trimmer mounted on the FEL bucket.

I think your idea may be better... and certainly cheaper. I can't think of anything inherently unsafe about it, or any problems that can't be easily overcome. If yo drive slowly, I'm not even sure you would need a suspension, as the FEL could quickly be picked up if you are about to hit something. (don't know about you, but my pond banks are cleaner than my back yard)

Your idea immediately made me think how you could remove the mower wheels, and run 1/2" or 5/8" rods through the axle holes and use them to attach the deck to the FEL bucket.

 

[Alan L.]

I've had good luck mowing around my pond by backing the brush hog down to waters edge, even dipping the tailwheel in the water.

 

[hill]

I've had good luck mowing around my pond by backing the brush hog down to waters edge, even dipping the tailwheel in the water.

Just tried that - it worked for me too.

On the boom mounted mower - if you could get into the crankcase and rig a small pump to feed an oil passage in the engine maybe you could have a remote reservoir and pump oil to the engine from there. A dry sump system wouldn't care about the attitude of the engine.

Or try an aerobatic airplane engine. Those are cheap, used.

 

[wickedinhere]

Hey bo, i am gonna use my trimmer and get the pond banks cleaned up tomorrow before i go on vacation then i will get on this project when i return. There not overgrown but i hate the way it looks. More to come shortly.

 

[LetsRoll]

Hopefully these Plans will work for you. Its plans for a 3 point hitch gas powered sidearm cutter for ditches and banks.
By the way, its a PDF file.