Sickle Bar Too much horsepower for sickle mower?

[wardance09]

We have about a 75hp Ford tractor and are looking to buy hay equipment to bale between 30 and 35 acres mostly grass and clover hay. I think we have decided a sickle bar mower would work well for what we are trying to do but are wondering if our tractor if too much horsepower to operate one? Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RickB]

If you think a sickle bar mower is a good way to mow clover, you need to do some more thinking. Clover is a lush, heavy legume that lodges easily and stays wet and rank when it does. Not something one wants to tackle with a sickle bar.

At least consider a conventional mower/conditioner which has a reel to help the crop get away from the sickle knives. Much better would be a disc mower or disc mower conditioner.

 

[nwbearcat]

We've had a JD350 mower on behind a 4430 JD--about 145hp, and it survived, some other/older mowers maybe wouldn't take that. But I'd agree, and I've done it, a disc mower or sickle mower/conditioner will work WAAAYYYY better than a sickle mower will on good clover. Scattered clover plants in a stand of grass, you'll do ok.

 

[wardance09]

I should have mentioned that we are looking at a sickle mower/conditioner. The hay is in a dry, clean field and is grass with scattered clover throughout. We do live in central Missouri though where weather is not always cooperative for drying. Mostly I am just worried about the mower holding up with the HP. We have a 540 PTO. Would we need to run it at real low Rpm?

 

[Bird]

I cut a lot of hay with a 9' sickle bar mower/conditioner behind an 85 hp Oliver tractor; would never have even thought about too much horsepower.

 

[DeeDubya]

I cut a lot of hay with a 9' sickle bar mower/conditioner behind an 85 hp Oliver tractor; would never have even thought about too much horsepower.

Finding the correct ground speed is the most important aspect of cutting with a sickle bar mower. :thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

Finding the correct ground speed is the most important aspect of cutting with a sickle bar mower. :thumbsup:

Good point.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

To clear something up, an engine only develops as much power as necessary to handle the work load placed on it. The load the mower places on the tractor is going to be the same regardless of the tractor, this is for same cutting conditions. Now if something goes wrong causing the mower to come to a halt, then the engine is capabile of producing a lot larger amount of power and could cause more damage than a smaller tractor. This can be delt with with a torque limiting coupling i.e. slip clutch.

If a vote is being taken, I'll vote for a MC anytime over a stright sickle bar mower.

I also agree with need for correct ground speed and this is especially true for conventional MC and heavy crop. Even going too slow will up the power demand considerably.

 

[Andrewnewy]

You can never have to much HP, in that it all depends on how you drive your tractor. 540rpm on the PTO is the same speed regardless whether your running a 30hp tractor or a 300hp tractor the issue is normally the other way round, for example if you stick a small spray pump on a 300hp tractor it will run fine, the engine will have no load on it, but you won't hurt the pump, on the other hand stick the same pump on the 30hp tractor and the pump will still run fine, but the tractor will be under load to run it. This is why we have 540 economy mode on bigger tractor, it allows you to run the implement at a rated speed of 540 rpm on the PTO, but with lower engine rev's.
The bigger danger is if you try and engage the PTO with full engine revs, on the 300hp unit you would twist the PTO shaft and probably damage the pump from the enursa of flying from 0 to 540 in less than a second, however on the 30hp example the engine would struggle so would wind up to 540 rpm and as such probably wouldn't do any damage.

In your situation though, an 75hp tractor should be fine, round our way it would be close to the minimum most people would use to drive a mower. The mainthing to remember is engage the PTO with the engine at low rpm, the wind it up to operating rpm.

All this said, if hay cutting is what your doing have a good look at disc mowers, they are faster, less maintenance, and we you look at solely the newer machines have a better cut. There is a reason most manufacture have dropped sickles bars from their lineup (well at least round this way they have!)

 

[bigbull338]

go with the disc mower,you can cut faster an cleaner.the mow/co with the sickle bars are a pain.because you have to pull them out an replace the broken sections.as well as replace broken guards.