Sickle Bar Which sickle bar mower

   / Which sickle bar mower #1  

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Here's the deal. I need a sickle bar mower for my Kubota L2850. They're very expensive new, so I'm looking at used ones. I found a couple JD's.

Mower 1 is a "JD 9". The bar is slightly bowed but all the sickles seem to sit pretty close to the tooth guards. This mower has a gear drive between the pto and the pitman. It has a crankcase that holds the gears and gear lube. Asking price: $500.

Mower 2 is a "JD39". The bar is straight but the teeth don't sit as flush, I suspect the sickle bar itself is a little tweaked. The main difference is that this mower is a belt drive. Greased bearings instead of a crankcase. Asking price: $700.

Both mowers are 7'.

What do you think?
 
   / Which sickle bar mower #2  
I'd ask to run both of them and see which one I liked the best and which one cut better.

18-35034-TRACTO~1.GIF
 
   / Which sickle bar mower #3  
IMHO, I'd go with the belt drive. Gear boxes can hide lots of worn out and expensive parts. I have a Case Model 10, 7' mower that has belt drive, I few generic bearings and an off the shelf belt. Typically, new rock guards and or mower sections will cure clearance problems. Before you buy, assume the worst and price out belt and bearings for the 39 vs a replacement gear box for the 9. Replacement rock guards are basically the same for both and go for about $4 for single type. 7' bar has 28 single guards or 14 Duals, so figure on $100 for all new guards. Mower sections are less than $30 and are the same for both.

Mine also has some 'bow' to it when in the up position.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Steve

Steve
"Give me Anbiguity, or give me. . . . . . . .something else"
 
   / Which sickle bar mower #4  
From my stand point I would take the belt drive unit. The belt is used as a safety or as a clutch to absord what you don't want or shouldn't cut due to the machine's limitations. The pitmans are expensive when you can find them and are normally the reason people get rid of them. The belt drive is the newer than the pitman and would be the better machine any way you cut it.
 
   / Which sickle bar mower
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks guys. I picked up the belt drive one today. I think I will replace all the tooth guards, most of them have dull cutting plates and one of them is missing a plate. The sickle sections themselves I'll just sharpen. Basically give it a good tune-up. The gear drive unit didn't need a tune-up, but I think I made the right choice, between the two units.
 
   / Which sickle bar mower #6  
Hey D just out of curiosity, what did you have to give for that unit? Inquiring minds want to know /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

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   / Which sickle bar mower
  • Thread Starter
#7  
I got him to come down to $650.

The tooth guards mostly ought to be replaced and the sickle sections have a few sharpenings left in them, but I'm going to change all the guards and slide in a new sickle bar. It's been a wet spring and we'll have a thick first cutting. So I'll be putting a couple hundred into it before I even use it. The gear drive mower wouldn't have needed quite as much attention, and could've been picked up for $500, but I wanted the belt.

Prices on new sickle bar mowers are just outrageous, generally $4000 and up is the price of admission. There's some foreign stuff that's cheaper but the ability to use standard readily available tooth guards and sickle sections is important to me. So I chose to go with a used JD. The newer stuff is mostly double action and have haydraulic lifts, though.

Sickle bar mowers seem like they're going out of style. Everyone is either going to swathers or disc mowers. But I don't have enough land in hay to justify spending that kind of money on it, I need to get it done cheaply and using my little 34hp Kubota.
 
 
 
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