Sickle Bar Sickle mowers

[patrickg]

Danny and Greg, Thanks for the response guys. Danny, I understand your position regarding buying from pictures (not exactly SIGHT UNSEEN) BUT this seller is quite active on eBay and I read his buyer's ratings/reports on him. No bad ones. All rated him well. Some were most lauditory. This gave me the boost in confidence to take a chance. Besides, if it is a conspiracy and all his eBay sales and buyer's reports were faked by him and or his relatives to give him a good reputation so he could make sleazy deals on the side (not over eBay) then he is smart enough to refund my money for the product and shipping if he has materially misrepresented the goods in a flagrant manner or he will have to deal with me in person. I'm that kind of guy. I can drive to Kentucky to confront a bold and sleazy operator if that were the case. I really don't think I'll have a big problem and don't think the rave reviews were faked in an elaborate plan to gain a good reputation to sell via other means than eBay.

He claimed that he hooked it up and tried it and that it works OK but needs sharpening so he sharpened it.

I'll give you the Paul Harvey (rest of the story), later.

Patrick

 

[Mosey]

My guess is that Sweet Tractors is reputable, but I don't have personal experience with them. Speaking of Sweet Tractors, did you look into this? I don't know how Ebay works, so I have no idea what the selling price of this would be.

http://www.ytmag.com//implment/messages/25870.html


Good luck, let us know how it turns out!

 

[patrickg]

Darren, Slowly it is starting to sink into my thick skull, sort of... The operator doesn't actually adjust the sicklebar so much as it has a "wear pad thingy" and it follows the contour of the ground unless there is something in the way or the ground jumps up too abrubtly. Still I can see the advantage of hydraulic raise and lower. I would like to be able to mow, say, a foot or two above the ground to take down weeds along side the road and not worry about rocks and debris being a hazzard that I might hit. I also need to mow with the end of the sicklebar out over a pond. I assume there will be a way to do that provided by the design or some way to apply a little yankee ingenuity to accomplish it. I have remote hydraulics to the rear of my tractor with a convenient control lever at my finger tips as well as hydraulic TnT and could probably add a cylinder to raise and lower the sicklebar. If the bar can be suspended in the air while mowing, the hydraulic tilt would get it up and over a lot of obstacles. I have the manual tilt turnbuckle on the left and the hydraulic cylinder on the right. With "bias" on the manual tilt, the hydraulic tilt is way lopsided and tilts an implement WAY up on the one side. This action can be reversed by cranking the manual tilt to the other stop and get a HIGH lift on the other side. Works well to cut a ditch beside a road/drive when using the box blade.

I guess you pays your money and takes your chance. I don't expect perfection at a fraction of new cost. Some folks keep recommending disk mowers but those are even more expensive and one in my price range would probably be really thrashed/trashed.

I'll report back with smiles or frowns as appropriate after I get it and have a chance to use it.

Thanks to all who commented.

Patrick

 

[Mosey]

patrickg - I found out from David (cedarranch) that he got the brochures that he has on his web site from EBay. He paid 3.82 for one and 5.24 for the other. Prices included shipping. It might be worth checking them to see if you can get a manual on the Ford 505 in order to find out more about the 505 before you buy one.

 

[patrickg]

Danny, Thanks for the sage suggestion, sharing your wisdom and knowledge of the beneficial actions of others. Unfortunately due to approaching senility, short attention span, temporary availability of funds, frustration with job going undone and on and on and on.... the mower should be delivered today.

Nothing ventured nothing (lost/gained).

Thanks for manual idea. I'll share my luck, good or bad.

Patrick

 

[keith l]

I have a 505 sickle mower its the best Ive used around the farm,its great for cutting along the roads,and fields,you dont have a pittman arm so it cuts standing straight up,but dont let it stand straight up it could fall back on the mower to hard,safe 80 degrees is ok,I was looking at the picture of the 505 you are looking at,there is a piece missing,its the spring that keeps the tension on the mower,when you left it up,it will stay level,if its missing it will fall down on the blade side,but thats still a good deal for the mower

 

[KennyV]

I wanted a sickle mower that would cut steep ditches and side trim hedge trees... Looked at a lot of them over the years and was not satisfied with the construction of a lot of them. Also wanted a simple way to hydraulic control the bar.
I came across an Allis-Chalmers #80 with a 7 foot bar ... What a 3pt machine. Very heavy cast frame. And the 'Twin Wheel' drive is the most indestructible smooth counter balanced twin flywheel system quiet and vibration free.
This mower will cut at any angle. It will side trim hedge (osage orange) branches anything that fits between the rock guards. It will not however cut a t-post cleanly off, instead it will shear the rivets off the knife that tries...
I modified the lift to allow a hydraulic cylinder that I added to let me cover 140 degrees. 90 up and 50 down... It will operate beyond these angles but I didn't have a need so I left my cylinder hook up at the point that gave me 140 degrees.
You can modify almost any but if you are moving a heavy bar you want a heavy frame. You are going to have to spend some time making your lift system work and you don't want to have to reinforce the frame...
The biggest draw back is a heavy 3pt mower can be a real challenge to mount. I dread it... but I am use to the A/C in the cab... once it is mounted it is fun to operate... KennyV

 

[ampsucker]

around here, the county used to use a lot of sickles to mow the right of way along secondary roads. they appeared to run from the mid pto and had a counter weight on the opposite side of the tractor to aid in balancing the machine.

i think the mid mount option would be better in most cases for center of gravity and for getting a better view of what is going on with the bar while operating. i also think you would have a better chance of having the type of hydraulics and operation you are looking for as opposed to the 3pt model which seems limited in operation angle and which only go up and down with the 3pt arms as opposed to actually swinging the bar up and down in an arc.

i can see lots of advantages to a sickle type mower. i will tell you that they can be dangerous. my dad almost lost a finger to one back in the sixties. i think it was a "tow behind" and the bar movement was driven by the wheels turning. he was trying to clear a jam or something and the wheels rolled and the bar "sickled" and ouch...

amp

 

[Builder]

Look at this unit. I want to buy it, but I need to find out if it'll operate in the 90 deg position and below horizontal. It appears that it will, but in another thread, some owners said it won't.

Picture of a New Holland 7' pull sickle 455 at Wenger's of Myerstown

 

[flusher]

I wanted a sickle mower that would cut steep ditches and side trim hedge trees... Looked at a lot of them over the years and was not satisfied with the construction of a lot of them. Also wanted a simple way to hydraulic control the bar.
I came across an Allis-Chalmers #80 with a 7 foot bar ... What a 3pt machine. Very heavy cast frame. And the 'Twin Wheel' drive is the most indestructible smooth counter balanced twin flywheel system quiet and vibration free.
This mower will cut at any angle. It will side trim hedge (osage orange) branches anything that fits between the rock guards. It will not however cut a t-post cleanly off, instead it will shear the rivets off the knife that tries...
I modified the lift to allow a hydraulic cylinder that I added to let me cover 140 degrees. 90 up and 50 down... It will operate beyond these angles but I didn't have a need so I left my cylinder hook up at the point that gave me 140 degrees.
You can modify almost any but if you are moving a heavy bar you want a heavy frame. You are going to have to spend some time making your lift system work and you don't want to have to reinforce the frame...
The biggest draw back is a heavy 3pt mower can be a real challenge to mount. I dread it... but I am use to the A/C in the cab... once it is mounted it is fun to operate... KennyV

I have an AC 80T sicklebar--the trailer version of your 3pt 80. Bought it from a neighbor for $150. Cuts OK, but I plan replace the sickle sections and guard ledger plates to get it in tip-top shape.

I have it hooked to the 2008 Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto) in the photo which is overkill. I'm sure I could handle it with my 1951 Minneapolis Moline BF (23 hp pto) or even with my 1951 Farmall Super A (16 hp pto).