Buying Advice Sickle bar mower for rocky fields?

[PhillipAL]

I have mowed fields for my customers for 20+ years with rotary cutters. Occasionally I get talked into mowing a rocky field. I feel for the rocks with my front loader bucket, which works very well ( not so much for the bottom of my bucket ) but I still wind up bending and dulling the blades at some point. I use a shop press to straighten the blades, and then I resharpen them. Is it any better to use a sickle bar mower for rocky fields? I have never used a sickle bar, so any advice is appreciated.

 

[Spanner]

'Rocks' vary from Pebbles to Boulders. What size are you talking?:confused3:

Generally NO. Sickle bar mowers have a mechanical drive-train. The collateral damage from impact is often catastrophic.

You should be using the Flail Mower listed in your profile perhaps?

Customers who have rocks should be told they will be billed for a new set of blades as part of the job. Or you mow at a height where you pass over the rocks.

Ps. Bent blades should not be straightened. They are already weakened and if they subsequently break and cause damage to person or property I would just remind you how litigious your fellow countrymen are.

 

[onionfmr]

As Spanner said, you need to define rock size. I do a lot of sickle bar mowing. Lots of berms, banks and hedgerows. I know of a farmer that runs a sickle bar mower for 40 hours every two weeks to cut a large field to maintain a height of 6" grass. A new sickle bar mower with hydraulics is going to run around $5,000. I don"t know about older ones, mine is a couple of years old. It requires a lot of maintenance! Mine doesn't like hitting rocks! Mine will roll over rocks that are around 1" high. Bigger than that tend to damage guide teeth and sections. They definitely have their place. IMHO, a sickle bar mower is probably not the best choice to cut a rocky field that is tearing up rotary cutter blades.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

We have a lot of rocks here. If metal hits rock something has to give and usually it's the metal. The mowers that handle rocks the best are swing blades -- rough mowers, disc or drum mowers. Sickle mowers don't have any give if they hit a rock.

 

[PhillipAL]

That's about what I figured, but I needed to hear it from some experts. Thank you for your advice. The rock sizes I'm referring to are from 6" high on up to 18" high, mostly Granite, or Quartz (very hard ). I do have an old Ford flail but it tends to lose many teeth when hitting rocks. I'm sticking with the rotary mower. I haven't had a blade break on me in all the time I have been straightening them. Once in a while, I will get one that gets twisted, and then it is time for the recycle bin! Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Rmart30]

Is it mostly grass or have any brush? Have you seen one of the chain rotary mowers? Trincia a catene Pellerano mod.ALG2 - YouTube

 

[PhillipAL]

Usually grass and tall weeds. I have tried making my own chain blades on one of my rotary mowers, but haven't found a way to securely connect the chain. Usually after impact with a bigger rock on of the chains would break away and throw everything out of balance. Haven't tried any new ideas for the chain connection lately.
I'll look into the mower you suggested.

 

[Industrial Toys]

You never said what kind of cut quality you wish to achieve. Cutting with a sickle is ugly but it's efficient and gets the job done.

We grow a lot of rocks here. I have had a couple of 917 ford flails. The first with regular knives that took a beating, and then a fine cut (which I still have) which I never use. I thought the fine cut would be a total disaster, but remarkably the stones hardly hurt the knives. They are lighter.