Bellymount Lift?

[RPM]

I've always wondered how much lift is generated by the belly-mount mowers on tractors (or on a regular lawn mower for that matter). It's obviously less than the weight of the deck, but what is it?

I know you can get 'hover-mowers' - I think one European brand that is well known is 'Flymo'. Would this be possible on a belly mount deck?

Just had to ask ...

 

[s1120]

Well, mowers are designed to lift the grass up to be cut. That means that it is trying to suck the deck DOWN. Now just reverse the blades, put on some skirting on it. Hover mower here we come.

 

[RPM]

I had totally forgotten about the suction effect of the deck. Must be age. Still, I wonder if the tractor was on a set of truck scales and the mower was fired up if the scales would register any increase in weight due to the down-force.

 

[jinman]

RPM, if you were standing on a bathroom scale and reached down and grabbed it by the edges and pulled up, would you be any lighter?/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Of course the answer is no./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif a tractor on the truck scales with the mower going would have the lift cancelled out exactly by the extra downforce on the tires./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif So, that won't work either. The way to measure lift would be for the wheels of the tractor to be off the scale and no weight whatsoever on the scale. Start the tractor and mower deck and see if there is lifting of the scale platform (negative weight). That's the only way the scale would work to measure lift of a mower deck. You have to isolate the tractor from the moveable scale platform. I guess we'll just have to take the engineer's word for how much lift these things have./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I guess if it's enough to get the grass to stand up and the cut grass to be expelled, I gotta be happy with it.

JimI