I didnt say you said anything about a blur. I believe it was mentioned in the thread as an example of too fast -- too much flow. Whatever is necessary to decrease the flow to acceptable level must be done. I think your tractor will need a spitter since its a HST drive. ... Altho, if it will travel at lo idle youve got a shot at using the cutter w/o a splitter
Here's what you said: "I have seen no disagreement that flow should be limited to an amount such that the sickle is not a blur."
Yes, I talked to the mfg before I bought mine about 10yrs ago.
,,,,If you had been reading my posts you would know all this already.
I read, and have read all posts to my threads, including yours, so don't falsely assume what I have or have not done. I don't commit to memory each and every statement one may make, and I've been traveling Europe for the last month on va-ca, so things beyond this thread have been of higher priority in my life than whether you spoke to the manufacturer ten years ago.
To elaborate, there was no stipulation of a 500psi limitation - merely a statement that that is what it normally runs at. I immediately questioned whether that was idling or cutting and was told that it was under light cutting conditions and would spike hi as it cut larger stuf. I inquired whether it was OK up to normal tractor hyd relief of ~2500 and was told that was the market it was designed for. The main problem would be too much flow on larger tractors. We talked about running the engine slow to get the flow down. I was fortunate to be talking to someone knowledgeable about hydraulics and the system. I would not have bought it if I had been faced with the info the mfg has reportedly supplied to inquiry by those in this thread. Hopefully it is currently the same system as the one I have. If they have degraded it to the point that it wont work safely on tractor pressure it wont be worth having.
To my understanding only upgrades have occurred, like I mentioned about bracket improvements, etc. There is no 'supposedly reported info from the manufacturer', there are instances in which I have spoken to the owner on 2 occasions, and he has said that if I as the tractor owner is the only sickle operator then I can assure that the operation of the sickle is at cutter speeds below a blur of the cutters, then I should have no issues. That by controlling engine RPMs, and thus ground speed, and keeping an eye on what I'm cutting, the unit will function as designed/intended.
There has been some talk of putting in a gauge. It will be hard to interpret because youll be seeing average pressure. The load on the motor is cyclic, following cutter oscillation, and the pressure cycles to match the changing load. The gauge needle will not be able to keep up with the pressure changes. You wont ever see the full pressure changes in the different parts of the stroke, much less the spikes inherent in cutting larger stuf. It probably wont last long either due to fatigue of the gauge components.
larry