Newbie's First Swag At Mowing With Sicklebar

[LongGone2saskatchewan]

I've been cutting with a sickle mower for a few years now and they are fairly easy to use and efficient. I've got about 50 acres of native grass and I do several miles of ditch grass. The sickle mower is perfect for the ditch. I've never had to adjust either of mine. I used an old jd model eleven for the first two years. No hyrdraulics, trail behind, wooden pitman arm.it never skipped a beat and it still works perfectly. I was given some good advice from the previous owner also. Keep the blades sharp and only cut when the dew is dry. Also make sure your swath board pulls the grass over enough so your next pass is cleared. Another good idea is to take a little used oil and pour it down the cutter bar on top of the knifes. Lifting the blade at a slight angle will let the oil run all the way down and get in between all the blades. It helps keep everything lubed and running smooth. The general rule is once you set it down to start mowing u almost never have to lift it. It definetly takes a while to get a feel for a sickle mower but I really like the speed at which the hay dries. I can have bales on the ground within three days. Two days if conditions are really good. And if it does get rained on it dries out really fast compared to a swath or windrow Cut today,rake and bale tomorrow. It is a good and fairly cheap way to cut hay.

 

[keegs]

Well..I got the MF 41 back from the shop today. Two knives were replaced, it was greased, and the bolt that sheared off was tapped and replaced. The mechanic made some adjustments to it and made some test runs with it in his field. He suggested I replace two worn blade clips and a bar that attaches the drive to the cutting blade. The blade clips are clearly worn at the ends and grass is getting jammed up between the clip and the blade. A flat bar that attaches the blade assembly was welded and may likely break again. He said the drive bearings and the cam looked good and that just the cutting blade assembly needed some more work.

I took it back to my place and started to cut. The conditions were drier than before although it was overcast with no sun at all during the day today. I cut for about 1.5 hours. I found that second gear in low range was about the best speed/rpm combo. I also found that hitting the accelerator every once in a while helped somewhat to keep the grass from clumping up on the blade but I had to stop and back up frequently in order to free the grass from the blade. I also kept the mower blade down on the ground this time. It did a pretty good job and I fealt like I was getting the hang of it. I cut about 4 - 5 acres in about 1.5 hours ....That same bolt that connects the drive to the knife head sheared off again though. I bought a tap and drill bit and will have at it tomorrow.

At this point I'm thinking this MF 41 maybe isn't going to be as trouble free as some other models. I'll replace those parts that are worn and go from there.

Thanks for all your comments.