Sickle Bar More sickle bar mower questions

[BCJohn]

Holy smokes!!! I just went on the NH site to buy a manual. Price was reasonable so I started to buy, then they added shipping at $48 (up here to Canada) with no slower than courier option like good ole mail. Pffft.

[bc realtor]

where abouts are you located?hedges are a favorite of mine. I can top at 12 feet and side at 16.

[Builder]

If I have missed this in the tread excuse me. Builder, I have the impression that you want a tool that will trim the vertical sides of tall hedges, cut field areas and banks. Has the effective cutting capacity of the mowers we are talking been addressed? I think of the 6' height hedges I have been around as having 1/2"+ woody material that would need to be trimmed for the manicured look. Will a vertically cutting sickle mower do that effectively? It sounds like there are repairs on a regular basis when cutting material beyond the intended purpose of these mower, which was hay. Ditch and pond bank weed mowing sounds normal to me but heavy hedge in a vertical position has me wondering.

MarkV

Me too. These are not "pretty" hedges or anything. I would describe them as a mix of raspberry, wild rose, spice bushes, typical stickers & thickett material. Most will be in the 1/4"-3/4" range, so I would need a pretty durable cutter. I think I have finally located something that might work. It's a MF sickle that supposedly works in any position.

I just want to "beat it back" to keep it from overtaking my field. I actually use my 4/1 bucket and just "chop" them off with it now, but it leaves a lot of tire marks.

The Italians sound too light duty until I hear otherwise.

[sallymander]

I just came here and read this thread while on a google search for the manual for a IH 1500 sickle mower.
Had to join to give my input.

I've modified a MF, a Ford and now am working on the IH to mount in the bucket of a front loader and cut in any position for pruning trees and hedges.
I haven't come across any brand so far that won't cut horizontally as long as you have a way to hold them in position.
I've been powering the the mowers with a hydraulic motor and use a hydraulic cylinder to adjust the bar to any angle I please from about 15° below horizontal to 90° straight up.
With the mower bolted to the loader bucket I can cut horizontally up to 12 feet.
Most sickles will cut whatever fits between the cutter guards, usually about 1.5 inches.
Only problem cutting the top of a hedge is if the tractor front tire falls into a hole. Just a small hole can make the cutter bar instantly dip two feet!
It just requires knowing your ground and driving slow.
Works excellent.

One of my neighbors has an entirely different approach to dealing with his over ten miles of windbreak hedges.
He drives a 50hp tractor onto his flatbed truck sideways with a brush hog type rotary mower hanging off the side.
Chains it down good, fires up the mower and just drives next to the side of the hedge.
I wouldn't say it does a pretty job but serves the purpose if you have miles of hedges to trim.

[BCJohn]

I've looked at the New Holland 450 and 451 pretty close, and it looks like the 451 is trickier to hook up and heavier cause of the extra arch. There has to be a good reason for the two arches. Does anyone know what does the 451 do that the 450 won't do? Does it keep the bar level as the 3PH goes up?

[soulasphil]

You can find sickle bar hedge trimmers on the market. I personnally use a British cutter called S M A Licorne. It works with a hydraulic motor and cylinders hooked up on the tractor's hydraulics. It can cut in all positions.

[BCJohn]

That looks great. Is it pricey?

[Fly Boy II]

Wow bc realtor! That's quite a hedge trimmer. What is it?

[soulasphil]

The machine is called LICORNE and is manufactured by the British firm SMA, Po Box 18, Salford Priors, Evesham, England. I deal with their French representative in Orleans, but I don't know how they sell their products in the States. It cost me 7500 euros, mounted on the tractor and ready to use, I let you work out the $ equivalent.

[flusher]

Check out the Befco http://www.befco.com/products/hayequipment/sicklebar

They can cut 90 degrees up and 75 degrees down. They are nice and some day I will have one to mow around my ponds and ditches along with the edges of the fields.

Interesting. That Befco mower looks a lot like my old MF 41 sicklebar.



The manual says that the cutting angle is "unlimited". However, I mow hay, not hedges, so I've never tried it with the cutter vertical.