keegs
Veteran Member
I just looked at a video of the Dearborn 14 15 and the outboard shoe appears to be adjustable. I've also seen the outboard shoes rigged up with a small wheel. Not sure if the wheel was OEM or a modification.
I don't have much experience with a sickle bar mower yet but I've had the latch safety release on mine (an MF Dynabalance) a few times now and it seems to happen most often when something breaks the plane of the blade ...like an ant hill or some other kind of mound or when the outboard end of the blade meets a steep rise in the grade. Could it be that you just need to be more alert to what can cause the release?
I'd be careful with restricting the safety release operation unless I was sure that's where the problem was. I just greased the latch and the pivet points on the swing frame on mine to make sure it would operate.
I don't have much experience with a sickle bar mower yet but I've had the latch safety release on mine (an MF Dynabalance) a few times now and it seems to happen most often when something breaks the plane of the blade ...like an ant hill or some other kind of mound or when the outboard end of the blade meets a steep rise in the grade. Could it be that you just need to be more alert to what can cause the release?
I'd be careful with restricting the safety release operation unless I was sure that's where the problem was. I just greased the latch and the pivet points on the swing frame on mine to make sure it would operate.