sickle bar mowers love them or hate them?

[super55]

Whats your thoughts on sickle mowers. My experience is only based on about 20 feet of mowing before I had a catastrophic failure of an old MF 41 3 point sickle mower.

I obviously bought the thing used but it was in great shape for it age other than the drive belt. Put a new belt on lubed, up all the joints, ran a rasp file on the knives to give it a new edge and checked to make sure none of the knives were binding or had excessive clearance. Everything was good to go so I thought but boy was I in for a surprise.

So I went to go start my perimeter swipe. Mowing a winter wheat/fescue type field. I decide to try and start slow since this is the trial run. End up getting hay bound up between the bars and hear the belt starting to squeal. Shut her down clean out the bar and decide that maybe I was going to slow and instead of laying the hay down I was dropping it down on the bar and it was clogging the sickle. Attempt #2 I decide to kick the speed up just a tad. Make it about another 10 feet and then notice the PTO is spinning but the bar is not cycling. After inspection, I noticed I blew out the cast housing that has a connecting rod to the sickle bar. Tried to weld it but being cast metal the weld didn't hold and immediately broke again which I figured it most likely wouldn't.

Needless to say my experience with the sickle type mower wasn't a pleasant one. I know a lot of people use them on here and have very good success with them but my experience was less than desirable. Fortunately I didn't spend a lot of money on it. I've decided to start putting money away for a small drum mower next year. A drum mower from what I seen on youtube vids seems to be a lot more forgiving and a lot less maintenance than a sickle.

 

[oldballs]

I always thought a sickle bar was a beautiful machine and produced beautiful results, even though I've never owned one. Apparently they are prone to maintenance issues if used very much. There just better ways nowadays.

 

[Thomas]

Sickle bars are great for mowing around fields w/over limbs/branches and some ditch mowing,than drag behind mower,hard to beat drag behind mower for mowing and down time.

 

[super55]

I had researched long and hard watching videos on youtube and such before my initial decision to try my luck with a sickle mower. Price was the first deciding factor and the second was that this technology has been around for over a hundred years now and people are still using them.

I'm sure that me breaking the housing was a lack of experience with the mower, the thickness of the stand and possibly the housing having a hairline crack in it. There's always a learning curve with any piece of equipment. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time with it before I had a major breakdown with it to learn the tricks involved with this piece of equipment.

I agree with you oldballs the machines when working correctly are a thing of beauty. I was always impressed how the horse drawn wheel driven ones could lay a field perfectly.

 

[cqaigy2]

They are pretty cool looking and don't throw stuff so pretty safe in that department. Only thing is they don't mow rocks and metal very good. Not that my brush hog mows that material well either but it doesn't break like the sickle bar mowers do.

 

[davepg1]

When they are adjusted properly, they do work well IF the field is clear of anything that can break the knives. My MF sicklebar lasted a long time, but on the new tractor it shook the **** out of it, so sold the sickle bar.

 

[/pine]

I have a 7' MF model #41...
Are there any indications of the pulley on the head rubbing on the bottom of the frame? ( a sign of bad bearings)

Chances are you can find another head...but the last time I worked on mine I was unable to acquire some of the (OEM) bearings/sleeves etc...some were available but others were marked N/A...so I had to do some improvising...

Good Luck...

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I have a NH 451,

I think they are probably the best sickle mower ever built, and will run in ANY position... Any more, I only use it once or twice a year to mow around my ponds and keep the edges of my lanes trimmed....

It's been a trouble free mower...

SR

 

[jimmysisson]

I never got used to all that shaking (Old McCormick converted to PTO, Ford 515), but there are many in use. I also had trouble with plugging, much less likely if you're mowing hay rather then weeds.
Jim

 

[rgr33]

Many years ago, when I had more energy than money, I bought a sickle bar to use behind my $800 tractor a Ford 8n. The tractor required at least an hours work to get started. I had no skills and no clue back then, the mower needed unclogging about every 60-70 feet, I couldn't resolve that either. Somehow, I managed to mow six acres , sixty feet at a time.
Time passes, energy levels decline, free labor goes away to college, cattle get sold, and a better use of the land is found. Still mowing though,with flail and finish mower. No sickle bar mower will be found on this property. If I was still doing hay, a drum mower would be my weapon of choice.i