Mowing Sickle Bar mower for B7610

[hagman]

I am on 3.5 acres with about 2.5 or so cleared. There are woods on 3 sides of my property. It is composed of honeysuckle etc. It requires that I trim it back continously to keep my driveway open, keep the wooded area from infringing upon what is already cleared etc. It takes the better part of a day to use a hedge trimmer and then pick up the trimmings. Most of what I cut off is 1/2- 3/4 of an inch thick so we're not talking bush hog material. My thought was if I could find a used sickle bar mower that would operate in the upright position I could use it for trimming rather than doing it by hand with hedge trimmers. Anyone ever used a sickle bar mower for this and is it possible to do so?

Hagman
B7610 w/MMM, FEL, Box Scraper & Trac Vac

 

[hill]

Sickle bar cutters don't seem to be as common or available now as they once were. Probably they've been deemed to be too unsafe, but I don't know that to be the problem.

In any case I could sure use such a thing but the only one I have seen anywhere is in Northern tools for what I think is a very high price. Some $4K unless my memory fails me (again).

My father had one that mounted to the 3PH and operated to one side only-the right side. It could be swung from verticle to horizontal and had pin holes for setting to angles between. At about eight feet of cutting blade made of teeth that worked against stationary teeth like some hedge trimmers, that thing was awesome for clearing away blackberries and other vines that constantly overgrew our 1/4 mile entry road.

If someone could steer me to a reasonably priced version of that old gizmo I'd take it today. My own 1/4 mile entry road is now just like my father's was and it sure makes the UPS guy crabby!


Well....Jeeez! All of this and then I read down to this: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-owning-operating/104861-sickle-bx2230.html#post1189827

I'm an idiot, officially.

 

[RoyJackson]

I'm an idiot, officially.

Nah...we all do that. Of course, maybe we're all idiots at one time or another...

 

[peterc38]

I don't know what it cost but how about this?

BEFCO - Products - Hay Equipment - Sickle Bar

 

[MFL]

Hill,

Don't know it's so much a safety issue as an efficiency issue. A sickle bar takes much longer than a modern drum mower or finish mower, depending on use, to do the same job. A sickle bar also tends to clog a lot easier than more modern types of mowers.

That said, one of our neighbors uses a SB mounted on a Ford 8N to mow his pastures. He told me the rig had been in his family for thirty five years and he didn't see a reason to replace it if the thing keeps running. As to the point about running it vertically, Ronald (our neighbor) can set his SB so that it runs pretty close to vertical and he uses it to cut the hillside along one pasture. Works slick!

Short of a knuckle-boom mower similar to what the county uses ($$$$), it's the only way to cut along the hillside without using a hedge trimmer or weed eater.

Course the cost of a new one is pretty steep if you're just looking for a hedge trimmer you can sit on while using! Getting to be like hens teeth to find used, too.

 

[Grrrr]

They work great for doing light hedges We had a really old one and used to do lots of hedges with it. We have a boom mower now so it is no longer used.

Hedge cutting has got to be one of my favourite jobs with the tractors. Just seems fun to me (Especially with the flail boom we've got now that will munch it's way through anything, like trees )

We found the knives used on the one we had, which was a MF, were the same as are now used on the MF combines still made today.

 

[hagman]

Thanks to all that replied. looks like I need to start looking at auctions if I'm going to find anything affordable.

Hagman

 

[studway]

I have a sickle bar that I have used to try to keep woods from infringing on roads, driveways, and orchards. I rarely use it for this purpose any more because I have broken several teeth this way. I don't know what your honeysuckle and other stuff looks like, but I've used it on maple, oak, and beech trees and the problem I have is that it's very easy to accidentally catch a branch that's too big to cut, or get a few branches bunched up. Also, my 7' sb can only reach up 7'. That's just not high enough to do a proper job. Maybe you've got lower, smaller diameter, softer stuff. If so a sb might work great for you.