Pull Behind Sicklebar Mower

[Steelfan]

Anyone out there seen a pull behind sicklebar mower. I posted here about a month ago about a rear PTO sicklebar mower for my TC21d, and found out weight may be a problem. This week I was driving down the road, and saw a pull behind sicklebar mower connected to a garden tractor. Anyone have any ideas about price or where I can find one of these mowers? I mentioned my plans to a few local farmers, and the rear PTO is up in the air. If I can find one, I'll give that a try also. I'm told a lot of the weight of the mower is on the skid under the arm of the sickle. I'm still trying to get answers. Thanks Guys, Kent

 

[SteveV]

Pullbehinds are right out of the horse drawn era. One horse if you weren't doing much or two to get something acomplished. Sickles are fickle, they don't work well dull, They have a nasty habit of throwing the operator when they jamb. The steel wheeled McCormick I delt with had a rib with cross slats for a tire pattern and we were successful pulling it with a jeep. The guy with the garden tractor was just giving kiddie rides! If the field wasn't cut and picked up last year, don't even attempt a sickle until its burned over or cut and raked. Once everything is sharp and oiled, a field comes down real fast. Speed is limited by what the eccentric and pitman can stand without flying apart. So aside from the total lack of guarding, two operators required and the ability to quickly loose a finger handling the bar, they do work. To me a modern rotary cutter is a vast improvement! SteveV

 

[Steelfan]

Now, I've learned something. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I live in Amish Country, but never knew about the pull behind. I'm mainly looking for a mower to keep the weeds off of my creek bank. It about 100 yards long, and grows like crazy. If I had a mower to cut it, I'd do it every week. Thanks for the info. Kent

 

[Kodiak]

There are several Italian made 7 ft sickle bar mowers made, that are light enough to attach to a compact tractor. I'm thinking Caroni or Sovema makes them, but I'm not positive.

 

[SteveV]

The best solution I've seen for the creek banks would be the 3PH mounted independently powered offset mower that has been displayed with pictures here. The picture has been up within the last 6 mo. but the search engine only displays one page worth, which doesn't seem to go back far enough to find this thread. Maybe somebody else remembers the name of the thread. It was a piece of 2 in tubing to a mower deck salvaged from an old lawn tractor. Had a verticle shaft motor to power the deck. Suggested improvement from the discussion were loader mounting and adding skids to the mower deck to allow its use on uneven shorelines. SteveV

 

[Steelfan]

Thank you, thank you, thank you Guys. I hate weedwacking all that. I'll check all of this stuff out. Kent

 

[SteveV]

Found it: "Side arm cutter" in the Build it yourself forum. The thread was moved which took a little longer to find it. SteveV

 

[normde2001]

Kent, due to the inherent dangers of operating a tractor on a creekbank it sounds like you could use a "DR. field and brush mower. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.drfieldbrush.com/>http://www.drfieldbrush.com/</A>. I use a Troybuilt cyclebar mower for that purpose which I bought before I knew about the DR and it is a pain to operate plus it doesn't cut very well if the weeds are a little bit damp and the blades require an awful lot of maintenance.

 

[Steelfan]

Thanks again Guys. I really hated to give up on my dream of troublefree weed removal. I guess I'm stuck with the walk behind type weedwacker. Thanks again to all. Kent

 

[KYFARMER]

Steelfan, it will probably work just fine for what you want. All mowers were sicklebar until 50-60 years ago when farmers started buying bushhogs for clearing overgrown fields.
Until the last few years, all hay was still cut with sicklebar mowers. A lot still is.
The old pull/horse machines has a long pitman rod that connected the sicklebar to the gearbox. If the sicklebar is raised creating too small of an angle formed by the sicklebar and the pitman rod it will bind up and not move. That would only be a problem if your mower was on, say flat land, and the bar was on a raTHER STEEP BANK.
Hope i haven't confused you too much

 

[Steelfan]

<font color=blue>Hope i haven't confused you too much </font color=blue>

Not at all Kyfarmer. I'm just happy that you took the time to reply. I remember my Grandfather mowing his fields with a sicklebar mower. I've talked to some of my neighbors, and they seem to think that a sicklebar will work for me. I guess I'll have to try it. Thanks for the input. Kent

 

[tude]

Try this site and look at their trailer sickle mower.

http://www.ruralheritage.com/iandj/haying.htm

 

[Steelfan]

Thanks tude,
The trail behind is very nice. I'm think a bit pricey, but I'll look into it. Thanks again Kent

 

[tude]

Do a search on www.agdealer.com and www.ironsearch.com for used sickle mowers. You may find a cheaper used one near you.

 

[Golfgar4]

Hey Kent,

I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a review for a 1972 NH Sicklebar RF mower in the Review Section. Here's the link if you want to read it - <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/reviews/reviews.pl/reviews/55> NH Sicklebar RF Mower </A>

 

[Steelfan]

Tude, Thanks for the tip. I'll keep on eye on those sites. I also have a local shopper, which may help. Thanks again. Kent

 

[Steelfan]

Thanks Golfgar, From the review the guy sounds really happy with the Sicklebar. He mentions the uses, that I would be interested in./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I guess I'll start getting serious about looking. Thanks again. Kent

 

[Mosey]

You might be disappointed with the way a pull behind sickle bar mower would handle. A sickle bar mower handles hard enough with it attached to the 3pt, since it extends so far out. A pull behind would be even worse.

 

[Steelfan]

Hi Mosey,

When you say "handle" do you mean as far the job it will do, or do you mean in tight spots. I've got about 150 yards or more of creek bank to mow. Most all of it is fairly open. Thanks for the reply. I'm still learning. Kent

 

[DUMBDOG]

I purchased a used pull behind sickle mower for my NH1630 this spring to mow a couple of hundred yards of driveway. Once you get the hang of it, it really does a nice job, not as good as the rotary, but the slope is to much to for the rotary behing the tractor. All it takes is patience to learn how to do it correctly and a little slower speed than the rotary. The JD11 I purchased has a 9ft sickle on it. I would prefer a 5 or 7 ft as the are is heavily wooded, but it does get the job done.