Improvised pull mowers

[Mpking]

I looked into reel mowers as well. I wasn't sure they'd work well with my lawn and since I wanted to try to do this as cheaply as possible I went with gas power. Long run reels would pay for themselves but I have no experience with them and keeping them sharp and functional.

Turns out keeping them sharp doesn't look too hard.

http://www.reelmowers.info

From what I could tell, its as simple as painting on some sharpening compound and cranking in reverse with a cordless drill. Probably takes as much time as taking mower blades to the saw shop or sharpening them at home. I might have to give it a try this summer.

The reel mowers are a bit more expensive than gas powered on craigslist. Suprised me.

 

[J2E]

The reel mowers are a bit more expensive than gas powered on craigslist. Suprised me.

That was my finding too. Additionally the ones I found were 14"-16" which is pretty common on reels I guess. I wanted to go a little bigger and for an intial attempt I didn't want to try to struggle with more than 2. With gas going up so much though I may be looking into reels or electric charged by solar. I may have to borrow a reel mower from a friend to see how it cuts on my lawn before investing in them for a gang setup.

And I too would love to see pictures of your setup LBrown59.

 

[mullins87]

Here are some pics of the offset mower I am building to pull behind my riding mower. It has a 16hp motor and a 48" deck. I'm almost done with the welding, I just have to make a hitch and do a couple of other small things, then paint it and mow.

Please don't make fun of my shop. I built a house in 2008-2009 and it's all I can afford at this time. I had plans for a 40x40 shop, but when diesel hit $5/gallon and the price of EVERYTHING went through the roof, something had to give. Guess what that "something" was.

 

[aczlan]

Here are some pics of the offset mower I am building to pull behind my riding mower. It has a 16hp motor and a 48" deck. I'm almost done with the welding, I just have to make a hitch and do a couple of other small things, then paint it and mow.

Looks like the front forks came off of a zero turn. Nice job.

Aaron Z

 

[mullins87]

Looks like the front forks came off of a zero turn. Nice job.

Aaron Z

Thanks, hopefully it will look a lot better when it's painted! Yes, the forks came off a Toro Commercial mower that caught fire. There's a salvage yard not too far from where I live that has nothing but commercial and golf course mowers. The engine, deck and rear wheels are off a Snapper LT16 that the wife used to lovingly refer to as "The Beast."

 

[handirifle]

Please don't make fun of my shop. I built a house in 2008-2009 and it's all I can afford at this time. I had plans for a 40x40 shop, but when diesel hit $5/gallon and the price of EVERYTHING went through the roof, something had to give. Guess what that "something" was.

Are you kidding? I just got a shop about 6 months ago. That after 36 years of marriage, and about 6 homes. Patience. ANY SHOP is a GREAT shop. They are what you make them. Read an article in Handyman magazine, where this guy that lives on an island, has a large CLOSET in his carport, where he stores his woodworking tools. When he needs to work on something he rolls out his woodworking tools out on carts they are stored on.

Ya use what ya got.

 

[mullins87]

Oh yeah, I understand the "use what ya' got" routine. The shop is nothing more than a 12x30 portable garage with battery/generator power. Problem is, I'm still going through withdrawals from the last house. That shop wasn't huge, but it was a nice 30x30 with a 100 amp service in it. What I love about a larger shop is not having to drag everything out to do some work, then having to put everything back up. And, if it's raining or really cold, then I'm outta luck.

 

[mullins87]

I'm getting closer on the mower. I got everything painted this weekend. Now hopefully I can get it put together this week. Other than mounting the controls, all the fabrication on the mower is complete. Once I get the rider out of storage, I'll fab up a hitch, which shouldn't take too long. I'll try to get some more pics up next weekend.

 

[mullins87]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had a beautiful last two days to work on the mower. I still have to get a belt for it, but other than that it's ready to go. I can't wait to try it out!

Here's a few pics I got this afternoon....

 

[handirifle]

I didn't see it the first time I looked over the pics, but now I see the left to right pivot point is at the tractor. All I first saw was the up and down pivot at the pull mower.

I like the look of your home built unit. I WOULD like to see more details of the gearbox or transmission you use to transfer power from the engine to the mower deck. I had ponderded that a bit when i was considering making a 3 pt mower out of a mower deck, to put behind my MF1010.