sickle bar mower

[Hooked_on_HP]

The locale township cut back on their ditch mowing to save money. I have been mowing the ditches near me with my bush hog. The pucker factor is high in several places. I found a 6' sickle bar mower for sale cheap. Is there a difference in mowers for hay and for weeds? How much hp does it take for a 6' mower. Will I be constantly replacing blades. Will all sickle bar mowers lower past level. I want to keep the tractor closer to the road and lower the sickle bar into the ditch.
Bill

 

[flusher]

The locale township cut back on their ditch mowing to save money. I have been mowing the ditches near me with my bush hog. The pucker factor is high in several places. I found a 6' sickle bar mower for sale cheap. Is there a difference in mowers for hay and for weeds? How much hp does it take for a 6' mower. Will I be constantly replacing blades. Will all sickle bar mowers lower past level. I want to keep the tractor closer to the road and lower the sickle bar into the ditch.
Bill

As far as I know you can use a sicklebar in the hayfield and for weeds--at least that's what I do. I have a 7-ft MF31 sicklebar mower. My ditches are pretty shallow and not so wide so I just run the sicklebar in the horizontal position across the top of the ditch.

HP: 20 hp (pto) would be plenty.

Check that mower over thoroughly before buying. You'll probably have to replace some or all of the sickle sections (the triangular blades that move) and possibly some or all of the guards (the pointy things that protect the sections). The guards generally carry the ledger plates that form the other part of the sickle cutting edges. If the sections and ledger plates have serrated cutting edges, you have no choice but to replace these if they're worn. Hard to sharpen serrated edges. The sections are inexpensive ($1 apiece). The guards are more expensive ($5 apiece or so).

Not all sicklebar mowers are set up to lower past level. You need to check this out before buying.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

There are a multitude of threads on this forum concerning sickle bar cutters. You can search for them by typing in key words.

Most of the lower cost cutters that have a "stick" to drive the blades have a limited amount of hinge angle. Belt driven cutters have the widest possible slope capabilities.

They don't take much HP, they can be high maintenance, and most of all, never, never put your fingers in the blade area if you like having them.

 

[rbargeron]

The "stick" Kyle refers to is a pitman arm - which converts rotary motion to back-and-forth. Sickle bar mowers come in several mechanical setups - pitman drives usually have the least range above and below level for ditch banks. Mowers with pitman-less drives have more range. When the bar is fully lowered, the suspension allows the outer end of the bar to drop down, following the ground. When a sickle mower is new the clearances are small between sections and ledger plates, they cut anything well, including fine grasses. As the unit wears, effectiveness on fine stuff suffers. If your mowing is only grass and weeds, knife maintenance is easy - but rocks and debris will lead to much more knife section replacement - a bench job, so best to have a unit with easily removable knife.
Hope this helps. Take care, Dick B

 

[TwoBearBill]

How the Ford 501 for reliability and cut angle?
Bill

 

[sweettractors]

How the Ford 501 for reliability and cut angle?
Bill

For Pitman stick mowers, Most of our customer feed back is: 35 degrees below horizontal and 35 degrees above horizontal VS a "beltdrive" sickle bar mower with capabilities of mowing at 70 degrees below horizontal and 90 degrees vertical. Note the beltdrive International 1300 beltdrive mower in my avitar. That mower will actually function in the transport position you see in the picture. Ken Sweet