Mowing State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone?

   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #1  

Anonymous Poster

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Hi,

I know there have been many comments here about how those tractors mowing the grass between/beside the interstates seem to do the impossible...

But today I saw one mowing a side slope and I could not believe my eyes! OK, maybe it was only /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif about a 30 degree slope that the guy was traversing. I could get a pretty good idea of how steep the slope was, because it was between the interstate lanes, AND so close to the road with little shoulder, that had the tractor tipped the roll bar would certainly have landed in the traffic lane. So the angle I viewed the tractor from was almost from directly behind.

Further down the road I saw tractor tracks on side slopes that I might not want to go up, let alone across.

So if these guys have tilt meters installed...and from posts here I understand many states are installing them in their road maintenance tractors...what are the drivers being told to do. Not to exceed 30 degrees? 35 degrees?

The tractor I saw was pulling an assembly of three mowers or rotary cutters...

All I could say or think was...WOW /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif WOW /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif.

Curious to know...what kind of guidelines are these operators given?

Bill in Pgh, PA
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #2  
I think the slope these tractors can traverse are far beyond a slope that 99% would feel comfortable on. These tractors and their ballast including attachments have been tried and tested many times over.

I was uncomfortable on a slope in my ditch when I first started mowing it. My neighbor who worked for the county told me that my tractor would handle it with no problem. Still, it took me a few uncomfortable trips to realize that the tractor was in no danger of rolling. I do it regularly now without any concern. The hardest thing is staying in the seat, and not sliding off. The wheels will slide on the slope before the tractor will tip.

A tilt meter would be just an extra bell or whistle in my opinion. That doesn't mean others should not use them, but I don't think they would do anything for me. Too little, too late in my opinion.

Similar in the WOW category, are the racing motorcycles that lay flat going around corners. I still cannot imagine how they can get enough friction from the sides of the tires to keep from sliding out on the corner Yes, some do slide out but most just hang in there and make the corner. Probably the road mower employees roll a tractor occasionally. But they keep on mowin. Be safe.
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #3  
I felt safer on my motorcycle scraping the foot pegs than I do on my tractors on a side slope. Both do get your heart pumping. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #4  
yep! they do have some savey tractor drivers and some good tractors. i for the life of me can;t figure out how they can mow on such slopes.i get puckerish just watching them./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #5  
I have wounderd that my self. One thing I did notice. If you look at the tractors they are REAL wide. [at least the ones I see] Seems some have extra wide axles on them. That would help.
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #6  
Besides being wider,some of those tractor have smaller diameter tires,
this lowers the center of gravity...
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #7  
With the extra wide axels, the smaller diameter tires, and the heavy mulit segmented hogs' these guys are pulling, they probably stick to slopes fairly well.

The weight / surface area of those hogs on the 3pt, and their close distance to the ground probably makes a decent stabilizer.

Soundguy
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #8  
another thing i have noticed on some of the tractors is a large box type affair attached to one side, could his be for extra weight on the up side of the slope?
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone? #9  
That box of extra 'weight' is generally the oil reservoir. Several of the mowers, especially the flail mowers, are hydrostatically driven, and tend to be mounted on one side. They need the oil reservoir as they are powered off a pto driven hydraulic pump. Since the reservoir has to be there, it might as well be where it's weight is useful. Dual purpose reservoir and counterweight. Slick. Until some dummy wants to drive the other direction on the slope. I am sure it happens.

They mow mostly with big (70-90 hp or so) NH around here in southern Maryland, but we don't generally have the same slope on the side of the road as other areas.

Nick
 
   / State Rules 4 Mowing Slopes...Anyone?
  • Thread Starter
#10  
The tread on motorcycle tires, especially road racing motorcycles, wrap around enough to maintain contact even at the ridiculous anges they corner at (it sure is fun, though). I had a little JD 455 L&G tractor that would cling to the sides of the ditch in front of my house like a motorcycle. I think the 60" MMM that stuck out about 6" on each side helped. When I took my new JD 4310 with R4's on through the same ditch with no attachments as a test, it slid about a foot to the bottom and startled the daylights out of me!!
 
 
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