Attachment for mowing a pond waterline....

[Boeing]

Just wanted to share an almost real bad thing that happened last week. I don't have a pond but I was mowing along my drive that has a fairly steep bank. It has been raining alot in Virginia and the ground was fairly soft (think pond) My wheels sunk in at the edge of the bank and it started slipping over the edge. I hit the brakes and turned the steering back up.......the rear wheel started going further down the bank. I put the tractor into lowest of low and 4WD and both the front and rear wheels that were over the edge started spinning and I went FURTHER down the bank. Now the TILT was approaching 30 degrees (I have an inclinometer) Everytime I tried to move it would slip FURTHER over the edge and more tilt angle. I shut it down and gently got off the machine. I hiked back up to my shop and got the 4WD BLAZER and a winch. I tried several different attach points but could not budge the tractor....it actually pulled the Blazer closer.
Finally I found a neighbor who came to help. He pulled with the Blazer while I ran the tractor, spinning all the way. We finally got it turned and pointed DOWN the hill stopping the ROLL fear. Relocating the Blazer we were able to pull it back up the hill.
I know this isn't exactly what you were writing about but there are very simular possibilities....... If I were in your place I think a STRING TRIMMER might be a better idea. Good Luck.[/B]

 

[Biggreenavalanche]

Sickle bar mower ? Otherwise, have fun building, would love to see result as I have same issue...

Rich

 

[Deerherd]

I mow driving across the pond bank now, from (close to, not too close though) the waterline up to about 3/4 the way up the bank, then it gets too steep for my pucker factor and I back up the hill at that spot. I used to mow it all up and down but it takes forever.

Mowing sideways it's anywhere from 15-20* on my tilt meter on the tractor. Down by the water it's 15* which is fine. However, I don't want to put a lot of heavy weight like a sickle mower hanging off the down hill side. I figured the push mower deck would be much lighter, even more so with a counter weight on the other side.

...

The majority of weight on a sickle mower is low and behind the tractor. IMHO running a tractor and whatever twenty some inch deck is a very inefficient way to get the job done. You would need to make 4 to 5 passes to equal the cutting width of a sickle mower and the sickle mower would be able to cut right into the water.
Whatever you decide remember what Boeing wrote and be safe!

 

[MNBobcat]

I have a tow-behind rough cut mower that I pull with my ATV. It has an offset hitch on it that allows the mower to drop over the edge of a bank while the ATV stays on flat ground.

Its similar to this

This works way better than trying to mow a bank with a tractor.

 

[RalphVa]

Leave it unmown to discourage the Canada Geese.

 

[ericher69]

Leave it unmown to discourage the Canada Geese.

A 3" 12 gauge turkey load will discourage them...

 

[number9L]

Here's a couple pics of what I have to mow. It's mostly just the weeds I can't reach on the tractor. I don't want to spend $$$ on something to do this with, like was mentioned before, it'd only be about a 10min job each time I mow. I think it would work really good and plan to build one. It may not be right away as I've got rear remotes and TnT to install and that's gonna take a bit of mockup and fitting.

...

 

[Biggreenavalanche]

Wow, Very beautiful pond !

Again, I think your best bet, after looking at the pictures of the terrain/pond, would be a 6-7 foot sickle bar...if you just like building/tinkering, buy a used beat up sickle bar and restore it...anyway, whatever you come up with I'm interested...got much the same at Casa De Rich...

Rich

 

[oliver28472]

I vote for the sickle bar also. Get one that uses a belt instead of a pitman arm to run the sickle. The pitman won't give you near as much angle up and down.

 

[radioman]

How about using a 2 cycle engine to overcome the starved oil issue to your first picture idea?

Or why not build a pto powered string trimmer with a SA cyclinder and use the out port as your float?

Or are you feeling rednecky today? strap a beam to the FEL with chain and binders and connect your string trimmer to that beam. Use FEL lift/lower and curl to adjust to land conditions.