Mowing Side Mower

Sedgewood · Sep 9, 2005

<font color="red">It would seem like a boom pulling one of those tow behind mowers, like Swisher with the engine mounted on the mower would be the better way to go. </font>

Ha! I had the same thought this morning when posting above. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Sedgewood

LBrown59 · Sep 9, 2005

Why not just add an extension mower to the left or right end / side of a MMM.

MossRoad · Sep 9, 2005

I thought you wanted a boom mower. For side extensions, we that frequent the Power Trac forum would consider the tow behind units from Acreaze(sp?) or Swisher and offset them to the side.

Charlie_Iliff · Sep 9, 2005

Hans has a couple of Acrease tow-behind mowers, and I have one. It works fine to widen the cut, but in sidehill slope mowing, it doesn't track exactly, so may leave a stripe. I can hang it down a bank into a ditch, but can't control how far down it goes. A mower on a boom will give much better control, but, as noted, will be anything but automatic. I got 2/3 of the way through making a boom mounted string trimmer, with wheels to position it off the ground, when I realized that I wouldn't be able to control it properly without several additional hydraulic cylinders. (It was hot that day, so giving up was an easy decision -- maybe someday the project will revive.)
I'm looking forward to hearing how the side mower project turns out.

LBrown59 · Sep 9, 2005

<font color="blue"> I can hang it down a bank into a ditch, but can't control how far down it goes. </font>

That's the trouble with tow behinds, the wheel is on the outside of the mower.
The mower needs to hang out side of the wheel instead.

MossRoad · Sep 9, 2005

I think the closer you put the wheels in from the edges the more likely it is to eat a lot of dirt on dips and ridges. That, or it will just skid along and tear up the grass.

J_J · Sep 9, 2005

Do you have pictures of your tow behind mowers? Does it have 2 wheels, or 4 wheels like the Swisher has?

J_J · Sep 9, 2005

I don't understand what you are trying to say. A tow behind mower can be set from center to extreme right or left. It is usually set to overlap the front mower. If the tow behind mower is the only mower, it can be set to any position.

Charlie_Iliff · Sep 9, 2005

Sorry, I don't have pictures. I keep meaning to take some, but haven't yet.
The machine has 4 wheels in a parallelogram. The fronts are full swivel, the rears are fixed. The tow bar is L shaped so the mower sits to left or right of the tractor. The tow bar can be turned over so it is roughly in the center of the machine, so it trails straight behind to go through narrower gates than 10'.
Since it has a single pin hitch to the tractor, on steep hills it can and does slide sideways either increasing or reducing the cut overlap. Sometimes it goes far enough to leave a stripe. I don't think the deck relationship to the wheels is a problem. It's just that like any two wheeled trailer on steep side slopes, it can slip downhill. The front casters don't do anything but control the mowing height. I could probably improve the slope capability by putting dual wheels in back, which has done for soft ground applications.