Mowing finish mower

[Cord]

Ok, can somebody please explain how the 3pt finish mowers work? Some I see have short links that go between the mower and the 3pt. Others don't have the links. Some links have pivot balls like the hitch arm so the mower will sway a little. A different link design has the links guided so they won't sway at all. When a mower doesn't have the links do the arms move enough to allow the mower to semi-accurately follow the grade? What about the top link? The area that I'm looking at mowing has some steep ditches and I'm wondering at what point the top link will bind. Do we ever need to use a chain instead of a rigid top link?

 

[Tractors4u]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( When a mower doesn't have the links do the arms move enough to allow the mower to semi-accurately follow the grade? )</font>

Yes somewhat. It depends a lot on what condition your lawn is in. I have never owned one with the short mini arms but have ran ones without. My yard was relatively flat with a few dips here and there. The rigidly mounted mower performed fine. I ran 5 and 6 foot mowers. The thing to remember is the wider the mower is, the more imperfections in your lawn show up.

 

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Cord

I have a 5' finish mower that I use on about 5 acres. The one I have has the short arms with the rotating balls. One end attaches to the 3ph and the other end (with rotating ball) attaches to the mower and I run your every day top link.
My land has some rolling hills and I mow these sideways not top to bottom. The mower "floats" to the right or left, but you never notice.
When I was growing up, we had a JD850 with a finish mower and ran with a chain as the top link. Never had any problems doing it this way; just allowed the end of the mower to tilt up towards the back of the tractor.

 

[Cord]

Thanks guys. For the record this isn't my yard that I'm mowing. It's a light industrial area and things are not well graded. The tractor is a 1110d and I've been told that it doesn't have the power to swing a 60" deck. The one I'm looking at is a 48" rigid mount Woods. There are some pretty deep ditches with steep banks along the road. For the majority of the ditch I can mow parallel to the grade, but sooner or later I'll have to climb out. It's when I'm hitting the approach angle that I'm concerned about the mower-tractor binding and either leaving me high centered or actually breaking something on the mower. That's why I was thinking of the chain top link. When the chain top link is used, how does the mower pick up? Does it just droop? If I recall correctly, my tractor does not have the plate for the top link, instead it has the cutout to receive a chain. I suppose if the mower hangs too low, I could just shorten the link for transporting.

 

[kayssupply]

Be careful. If you use the chain and get it in a really steep angle you could bind your PTO shaft. The shaft can be replaced but damaging your PTO on the tractor might be a different story.

 

[fig]

Cord,

When I was using the JD850; the chain (top link) was adjusted to were the mower would not sag. It lifted just as if you had a solid top link. It would just allow the end of the mower to tilt up and towards the tractor.
Like Kayssupply mentioned; just make sure that if it does tilts up towards the tractor that you don't put it in a bind. If you just pay attention while "climbing out" of the ditch; I think you would be o.k.
(is this where the disclaimer goes about taking responsibility if something happens to the mower /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

 

[Cord]

Ok, so the chain must have gone straight back to the top link connection on the mower deck. I was thinking it lead down to the deck it's self.

 

[fig]

Cord,

That is correct. You just have to make sure that you get chain with large enough links so that you can push the pins through (on back of tractor and at mower). We only had about three feet of chain and used the same pins that you would have used on the solid top link. That was more than enough to handle that.