20hp sickle bar hedge clipper

[Wardner]

I've been responsible for clipping this hedge for half my life. I prevailed upon my brother to take over. After five years of him doing nothing, I had to take charge. The hedge plants are Common Buckthorn. Yes, there are plenty of thorns. Based on old photos, we think the hedge is 125-150 years old.

It's a big job. It is 200 ft long with a finish height of 10ft and width of 8ft. A one day job now takes about thirty minutes.

The cutter is a IH 130 balanced head mower. It will cut at any angle. It has no problem with 1" branches. The come-a-long keeps the bar flat while horizontal.

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[Greg_Ky]

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[Anonymous-0]

Okay, how do you convert from PTO to hydraulic? This looks like just what I need for my front end loader for topping sorghum. Thanks in advance, Stephen

 

[Wardner]

The final evolution of the IH sickle bar mower was pitmanless. The balanced head or wobble box mowers replaced the pitman with the belt you see in the pictures. Both pulleys come from the 130 mower. I think IH may have had at least a dozen different models similar to the 130.

My small forklift has limited hydraulic power. Fortunately, I had the smallest displacement Char-lynn gearroter sitting on my shelf. I think it has 60 foot pounds of torque. I only stalled it twice. Strokes per minute on the knife are around 180 with the forklift motor near idle.

I have a Bridgeport so I was able to center the bores of the motor's SAE #2 flange and the bearing cage of the larger pulley on the small section of I-beam. The 3.5" x 8" ag cylinder has plenty of power to lift the bar. If it was any smaller, it would be way too fast.

If you want more pictures, let me know.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Pictures would be VERY helpful. Thank you very much, Stephen

 

[Eric SEI]

Just remember that if you don't prune by hand occaisonally machine pruning can kill the hedge because you just keep removing the green part.

Where do you get rocks like those? My mom would love them.

 

[Wardner]

Here ya go.

If you have your own personal junkyard, you may want to change things to reduce costs. I only had to buy six hydraulic fittings, a new v-belt, half a Lovejoy coupling, and some grade 8 bolts. If I had to buy everything for the hedge clipper, I wouldn't be surprised if the total cost approached $2000. For that price, I could stand a few more thorn stabs.

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[Wardner]

I cut six inches inside the finish dimension. Next year I will cut three inches inside. After that I will cut to the face of the granite.

My sister-in-law is BS. She thinks the hedge is dead. She wasn't there when I was ten years old and we cut the entire hedge down to four feet. Just stumps really.

Those blocks came from a railroad bridge abutment near Boston. The courses were laid in parallel rows 18 inches high. I turned the blocks 90 degrees and have a finisned wall on both sides. The original face is now the top or bottom. As I recall, it took fifteen 10-wheel dump truck loads. I have a few more walls I have put up.

I have been collecting granite since I got my first truck at sixteen. I have thousands of tons from hundreds of sites.

 

[Spook]

I have the same valve body on my loader. It came off a Clark forklift.

 

[Wardner]

It's a Vickers valve and it did come off a forklift.

Supposed to have four levers but I only have three. There is a local hydraulic shop that has a used lever in stock. He wants $50. He can keep it for that price. I offered $10.

I want to use one position to run a hydraulic powered 110v generator (visible in photos) and the opposite direction to run an airbrake air compressor. The return flows for both will go directly to the reservoir and not pass through the valve.

 

[Eric SEI]

Sounds like you have all your bases covered. Your hedge should look good.