Mowing Sickle Bar Mower?

[arksdad]

I know I'm rushing the season, but does anyone have experience with any of the various brands of 3ph sickle bar mowers. The kind with the double action that powers both the knife and guard sections. Just a few of the brands out there are Tonutti, Enorossi, Befco, Gaspardo, Sitrex, etc.

 

[horsebroke]

I have the Maschio MABFR-175 Sickle-bar mower. Works fine - but it's SLOW - because I have to cut, wait a few days, then use the RAKE to roll it, then wait a few days more and roll it again into windrows - THEN I can bale it.

For raking/rolling, I bought a Tonutti 4-wheel rake. Again, it works OK - but sure takes a lot of time...

After using the Sickle-bar and rake for a couple seasons, I bought an old Hesston mower/conditioner- and it makes the job go a LOT faster.

 

[123rday]

I would recommend a mower/conditioner in one also unless your thinking of doing roadsides with the sickle bar.

 

[wrangler6831]

If you have perfect conditions and NO rocks or under brush they are fine and very quick to cut. But if you plan on using it to clear roadsides and under brush stay away from it. The replacement parts will break the bank. Just remember that if you hit a rock or sapling with a conventional sickle bar mower you generally only replace one/maybe two knives. With dual action you break both the knife and the guard which is a real pain.



Rich

 

[arksdad]

I should have been more specific in my question. I don't need a mower for hay making. I thought this type mower might be a good option for mowing around the pond, along road, around hedge rows, etc.

 

[123rday]

Reason what I stated before, my grandfather had a JD sickle bar mower that attached to his JD 60. It had a breakaway feature if you got into too heavy of grass or bumped up against a none movable object. But yes knives had to be replaced as well.

 

[123rday]

Maybe consider an offset flail mower.

 

[eepete]

I use a 6' Frontier (Deere) sickle bar. I'ts new, have used it twice. I use it on the dams, around the ponds edges and to beat back the encroaching hay fields after they have been mowed.

I backed off the 7' one to a 6' one for cost reasons. What I forgot to take into account was that on the dam I need to be 1-2 feet back from the edge. When mowing around the pond edge, I need to be 3' back so there is no chance of the bank collapsing . So in retrospect, the 7' unit would have been nicer. That said, it's very nice to rotary cut the dams, and then beat back the stuff that would otherwise grow over and lean into that cut path. For the hay fields, I keep the branches back so that cab tractors work. The sickle bar lets me cut under those branches without banging up the cab.

The one I have is maintenance intensive, it needs to be greased every 2 hours of use. But two hours is more than enough to do all the cutting around the ponds, and it takes about 2 hours to go around all the fields. I suspect this will be a 4 times a year on the ponds, and once a year going around the fields event, so that works out OK. It's odd to have an expensive implement that might only get 10-12 hours a year on it, but the work it does could be done no other way.

Last time I used a sickle bar was on an 8 HP Wheel Horse tractor when I was 12. It was a 3' bar and it jammed all the time. This new sickle cut through a stand of gum trees saplings 1 to 1.5" in diameter and didn't even flinch. Guess 40 some years of technology, 7 times the horse power, and the heavy duty bar teeth make the difference .

Hope this helps, sorry I don't have more than a few cuttings of experience with it to share with you.

Pete

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Help.... My dyna balance sickle bar mower is not mowing correctly. It seems the grass bunches up in front of the bar so the standing grass and bush gets pushed over instead of being cut. I have to go over it 2 or 3 times to get a decent cut. Does anybody have any suggestions.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Help.... My dyna balance sickle bar mower is not mowing correctly. It seems the grass bunches up in front of the bar so the standing grass and bush gets pushed over instead of being cut. I have to go over it 2 or 3 times to get a decent cut. Does anybody have any suggestions.

Took the deflector off and it seems to be working better. The bar doesn't hold the grass as much so the knifes are free to do their job.