Side arm cutter

[EdKing]

<font color=blue>How would it be if you had a wheel out board of the deck that maintained your cutting height?</font color=blue>

I have a Swisher trailmower I purchased before I got my tractor to speed up mowing my lawn. After seeing this post I am going to use it for cutting banks. It has a wheel attached to either side.

<font color=blue>Another option instead of a hydraulic system on your upper boom arm would be to have a cable pulley system. </font color=blue>

I was thinking along simular lines, but using a chain on the end like some do with thier toplink on thier brush hogs. Have some means to tighten it up for transport, but let slack in it to let it "float" while I'm mowing. The winch sounds like just the trick for that.

 

[Kodiak]

Flash!!! This thought just occurred to me. Instead of using a mower deck on the end of the boom. One of these big wheeled string trimmers, with the wheels removed, might work just as well.

 

[chipmaker]

Adding wheels is one thing that I do intend to do. That way I can let the arm down and float while the wheels maintain sufficient height off the ground. Had also considered skids or runners, but there just something for grass to get caught on.

Right now I am researching what I need to do to add remotes to the tractor. I may have what I need or at least most of it. I also have a nice long cylinder from a front end loader about 60 inches long with 2" bore, that I could mount from the three point to the cutting decks toplink mount.

As for the phase convertor, try it you just may like them. I could not live without one Many an hour on it and never had a problem.

 

[ns_in_tex]

I do not know what phase converters cost, but presume they are expensive.
Don't try this if you don't have more info, but I will share with you what I did.
I needed a larger air compressor. Had a warehouse full of old air conditioner compressors that were going to the junk, so I had nothing to lose. Took a 4 hp 3 phase compressor, hooked 2 leads to the 2 single phase wires from power supply. Got 4 of the larger old run capacitors, connected in parallel, one side to a single phase power supply, the other side to the 3rd lead of the 3 phase compressor. I did not have a unloader on the unit, so it had to start against high head pressure. It sometimes failed to start at 125 lbs, so I took the first single phase start relay I found, hooked 2 start capacitors on it, wired it in with the run capacitors on the 3rd leg of the compressor. Worked like a champ for 5 or more years before I had a tank problem.

In case someone decides to try this, the ac compressors will pump out some of their oil, so you have to be sure to drain any oil from the tank & add oil to the compressor much more often than a normal air compressor.

 

[Tractors4u]

I think I have seen moss in one tree up here and it was probably brought in. I know people who have tried to get it to grow up here without any luck.

 

[chipmaker]

You essentially did build a convertor. Some phase convertors supply the 3rd leg with a bank of capacitors. Mine uses capacitors to balance the voltage and also uses banks of caps from both power feed discharging into the third leg. Neat thing about the convertor I made is once you power it up (mine is 3 hp) I can start another motor driven piece of equuipment of say 2 to 2 1/2 hp. Once that is running I can now start up another 3 or 4 hp unit. I routinely have my mill or lathe just idling while I use my larger 3 phase air compresor. each running motor acts like an additional phase convertor. 3 phase equipment is cheaper than single phase and the motors basically last forever plus its easy to reverse them.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Neal:
I am in the process of designing a similar gadget to mount on the front of a Power Trac. I was planning a string trimmer, but these posts suggest that maybe I sould look closely at rigid blades.
I would appreciate knowing what hydraulic motor you mounted. I have a .7 ci displacement Gresen MGG 5000 RPM motor selected for the string. (It has 9/16 keyed shaft, which didn't seem a problem until I started looking for pulleys. They're 1/2 or 5/8) It may do the job, or I might need a little tougher one. I've 15 gpm at 3000psi max available.
Thanks

 

[ns_in_tex]

I do not remember all the specs but I think I used the WW Grainger catalog information to figure which pump I needed to give me the RPM & horsepower I wanted from the hydraulic motor. My tractor pump is 9 gpm. I think I was shooting for a blade tip speed to match other 3 point mowers. Maybe around 15,000 fpm at around 1500 engine rpm or about 5 gpm. If my information is correct, the gpm remains constant for the engine rpm. Pressure and HP produced varies by load applied.

You could change blade speed with the pulleys, but I bought to fit what I already had.

My pump was a Barns pump, WW Grainger # 4F657-3. Cost about 139.00

I might also mention, someone told me, most pump bearings would not hold up under this type use without an "overhung load adapter", but I chose to not purchase this, at least for the first try. So far have had good luck.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Thanks Neal.
I am going to try to put it together with the string trimmer head and test it, perhaps to change to a fixed blade later. If I get it done, I'll post a pic.

 

[enbloc]

Time to drag this one back out of mothballs.

Did any of you other fellas get your alternative versions built? I started out thinking string trimmer, but we do have need of a bank mower for my grandmother's pond. One option I'd considered was hooking up to the FEL controls (when the FEL is not in place) - which would give me height and pitch control at the joystick. I've got an old pushmower which is err umm "fully depreciated" which I was thinking about sacrificing. I've also considered hydraulic motors for the reasons already mentioned. If the motors northern sells are suitable, I can pick one up for about the cost of a new throwaway pushmower - however that's uncharted territory for me. If I can't use the existing hydraulic system for the blade, a separate PTO pump would drive the cost up a bit.