sickle bar mowers....pain in the *** to hook up and take off

[Little General]

Is it just me ? Hooking up my sickle mower was a pain but taking it off was worse. The dang thing is just cumbersome and needs a cradle to sit in. Maybe I was just having one of those days or am I ?

 

[leonz]

Is your sickle bar integral on the right side or is it a three point hitch model?

You need level ground and wooden blocks to help in mounting it.

 

[Wagtail]

So build a cradle for it to rest on.

All of my implements have wheeled cradles/pallets for ease of mounting/dismounting for both the FEL and 3PH. Some are custom built, by me, to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of the individual implement to have it in the correct orientation (height & angle) to accomplish this.

 

[countrybumpkin]

My case IH 1300 is pretty simple, I do use a quick hitch.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Once when investigating what sickle mower mower to buy, a dealer said to avoid such and such a make. It was nicknamed the "family" mower as it took the whole family to attach it. I don't remember the brand.

 

[52wej]

As others have said, build a stand or get a couple of large pallets for the mower to rest on. The pallets need to be sufficiently long to support the entire length of the mower. But if it is several inches off the ground then it is easier to connect. Without knowing the type of mower you have, some are definitely harder to connect than others. I have a 60 year old IH 100 similar to the 1300 mentioned above. W. Jones

 

[Ghost River Retrievers]

Is it just me ? Hooking up my sickle mower was a pain but taking it off was worse. The dang thing is just cumbersome and needs a cradle to sit in. Maybe I was just having one of those days or am I ?

I recently bought a 9’ NH 451. I got it hitched up and tried it out ... it’s great for mowing around our lake. I haven’t attempted to remove it yet, so I appreciate the warning! The skids which should hold it up when dismounted are too beat up to work, so I’ll try to figure out what sort of cradle I need to build for it.