Sickle Bar Sickle Mowers

   / Sickle Mowers #1  

MarkV

Super Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2000
Messages
5,670
Location
Cedartown, Ga and N. Ga mountains
Tractor
1998 Kubota B21, 2005 Kubota L39
The sides of my road are to steep to drive with a Bush Hog and I was wondering if a sickle mower might do the job? Can anyone tell me how well these work for this type of job? Is the bar ajustable up and down to work the side of a slope or down an edge? Any better attachments for this type of situation? My tractor is a Kubota B21 with 21 hp and 14.5 pto hp. Thanks, in advance, for any advice you can offer.
 
   / Sickle Mowers #2  
Yes, the "right" sickle bar mower will do the job of mowing banks, in fact, before the new rotary mowers on arms and flex wings that what the highway department used here in Virginia. What to look for is that the bar can be operated at up and down angle that you will be moving, and that the mower is not too heavy for the tractor. A good many of today's sickle bar mower that hang on the 3pt are too heavy for compact tractors. I attempted (I was told that it was to heavy, but wanted to prove to myself) to attach a JD 350 on my JD 790. Couldn't keep the left rear tire on the ground even with 300 pounds of weight on it. Didn't even attempt to move the tractor. My guess is that I would not be able to steer it with 7 feet of mover in the hay. Tried a neighbor's old trailer mower and it worked good, but you don't want to have to back up much, especially with the bar down. Hope this helps.
 
   / Sickle Mowers #3  
Mark,
The older style sickle bar didn't picth downwards to a point also put upwards depending on your controls.

You mention bush hog. I hope you don't have to cut any thicker 1/4" or more and double check for obects,for you will have to have a file to sharpen or extra bar. {frown]

Please be extra careful also wtach out for others or pets.

Thomas..NH
 
   / Sickle Mowers #4  
Mark, As much as I like to find things to do with the tractor I must admit that when it comes to cutting areas like that I use my Troy-Bilt walk behind sickle bar. It was $500 reconditioned from a factory store near me 6 years ago. It rolls over rocks and turtles and in and out of wash ditches. Can't imagine taking care of these small rough areas without it.

It there was a way to hook it to the Kubota I would.

Kevin
 
   / Sickle Mowers #5  
Kevin, my brother-in-law has one of those he bought new a couple of years ago; nice machine. It's that "walk behind" part that I don't like./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird
 
   / Sickle Mowers #6  
Bird, I have to concur with you on the "walk behind". Stepping in a hole you can't see in the tall grass can sure be painful and mess up a nice day of working outside.

Don't know how much longer we'll keep the sickle bar around as we brought home a new model 12 Bush Hog last night. Only had a few minutes to use it then the rain started. We've received over 5 inches of rain since last night.

With the Bush Hog and loader on the L3010 I can fit it in the shed with 1 foot to spare.

Kevin
 
   / Sickle Mowers #7  
5" of rain? That ought to produce a little flooding. This weather is sure crazy, isn't it? We had a severe drought here last year, the creek at the bottom of the hill was dried up, but it rained the last two Sundays, our lake is full and the road at the creek has been barricaded for 2 weeks now because it's under water, while 75 miles north of us one of the lakes that supplies Dallas' water is still over 12' low, according to the news media. Neighbors yesterday were baling hay that was cut over 3 weeks ago, then the field was flooded, and just now dry enough for them to get in there and bale it; won't be very good quality, but they need to get it out of the field.

Bird
 
   / Sickle Mowers #8  
Has anyone tried to put a Sickle Mower on a Kubota B2910? Here's my situation... I'm fairly close to purchasing a B2910. Originaally, I had planned to put a 6 foot rear mount finish mower on the machine. But I have a few hundred yards of streambank that I like to keep clipped. So... I'm thinking about going with a belly mount 6 foot mower, and perhaps adding a rear mount Sickle Mower. The belly mount mower would be great for 99% of the mowing that needs to be done. But the stream bank can be a bit soft at times, so it's best not to get a tractor wheels on the edge of the bank. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
--Wayne
 
   / Sickle Mowers #9  
Wayne, it seems like a great idea. I've not had an opportunity to try it personally, but like some of the other messages in this thread, all that I've read indicates it would just be too heavy for the tractor unless you come up with some kind of a monster counterweight and a way to hang it off the left side of the tractor.

Bird
 
   / Sickle Mowers #10  
Instead of a sickle mower for the tractor, why not consider a DR Field and Brush mower or DR trimmer mower for the streambank. (www.countryhomeproducts.com) Either would cost substantially less than a sickle bar and have many other applications.
 
 
 
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