home made batwing mower?

bobodu · Oct 31, 2009

Whoa...you guys are a tough crowd!!
My neighbor GAVE me a six foot Land Pride finish mower because "the gearbox was shot"..it needed a $38 bearing. That was a hard pull for my old worn out WC...but I coupled that with the $100 five foot Swisher I bought from another neighbor and could cut 11 feet for $138!!

I had almost forgotten about this contraption...

Soundguy · Oct 31, 2009

I agree... 11' is big, as the 11' is the overlap cut.. it's actually more blade width.

soundguy

brin · Oct 31, 2009

geez, all you guys take this stuff to seriously, if you ask me, and you didn't but I will say so anyway. each to his own I say - what works for one may not work for all...so what the fun is in the doing and getting by with what you have to work with. JMO

Donsyl · Oct 31, 2009

brin said:
geez, all you guys take this stuff to seriously, if you ask me, and you didn't but I will say so anyway. each to his own I say - what works for one may not work for all...so what the fun is in the doing and getting by with what you have to work with. JMO

Brin if you notice, i said the same thing in post #30. " What might work for one might not work for another" . I like to see what everyone has for ideas and stuff like that. Thats why this site interests me so much....Don

radioman · Oct 31, 2009

ok - what do u need to do to "gain extra pto HP" if you go wider here ? I am just thinking outsidde the box for a min here. Can it be acheived with lower pto speed with reducer to overcome the great mass of more then one blades spinning ?

rj's barn · Oct 31, 2009

The ability of the machine to turn that much metal was another booger I was trying to factor in. I believe it would turn the contraption but I would have to hit a crawling ground speed. But Idunno. The 15' batwing the county uses have 150hp or bigger New Hollands turning them and even that machine is moving pretty slow. I only have a 5th of that. Thats one of the BIG reasons I posted that question here. I figured if it would be a bad idea for one reason or another somebody would chime in and let me know.
I saw a post about needing 5hp per foot. I might be able to get away with scabbing 2 5ft cutters together and making it work to tackle some of the work the old 6ft cutter wont do. Not sure just yet. I may just need more tractor to handle the bigger plots. I thought about renting but I cant get the rental and cover labor for what my competition can do.
I'll hafta sit and stew over it for a bit. I much appreciate all of the responses! Gives me quite a bit of new information to stew on before I start the cutting and welding.

Soundguy · Nov 1, 2009

150hp is a tad excessive.. like.. a factor of 2x for a 15' mower.... 75 hp should get you by on a 15'er.

soundguy

rj's barn said:
The ability of the machine to turn that much metal was another booger I was trying to factor in. I believe it would turn the contraption but I would have to hit a crawling ground speed. But Idunno. The 15' batwing the county uses have 150hp or bigger New Hollands turning them and even that machine is moving pretty slow. I only have a 5th of that. Thats one of the BIG reasons I posted that question here. I figured if it would be a bad idea for one reason or another somebody would chime in and let me know.
I saw a post about needing 5hp per foot. I might be able to get away with scabbing 2 5ft cutters together and making it work to tackle some of the work the old 6ft cutter wont do. Not sure just yet. I may just need more tractor to handle the bigger plots. I thought about renting but I cant get the rental and cover labor for what my competition can do.
I'll hafta sit and stew over it for a bit. I much appreciate all of the responses! Gives me quite a bit of new information to stew on before I start the cutting and welding.

Donsyl · Nov 1, 2009

Hey RJ"SBarn, think about this for a second. Maybe you can get 2 or 3 grass cutters, that you can hook up an engine to. The mounted engine can run the mower and you can pull it. Northern catalog has some in there that you pull with a 4 wheeler. Maybe you could make up something on your own that is similar to that......kinda like post #31....check it out...Don

Soundguy · Nov 1, 2009

I think a gang-reel mower setup would be more elegant.

soundguy

Donsyl · Nov 1, 2009

Gang reels cut really nice as long as you dont let the grass get to tall then it lays it down rather than cut it. My dad mowed a bunch of lawns for years with the gang mowers, and they look awesome when completed......if you can keep up with the cutting, that would be a good idea for RJ"sBarn................Don