Sickle mowers

[Chuck one]

I was wondering how well sickle mowers work, I have about 50 full grown cedar trees that I try to cut the grass underneath. The branches reach down to the ground, the trees are 15 to 20 feet in diameter, I currently use a trail mower but it can"t get all the way under the branches, it takes a beating from the bigger branches that hang down and smash into the mower. Would a sickle mower cut the grass and maybe some small weeds etc. under the trees. Also are they hard to keep in adjustment..I have a 25 horse tractor with 3 point.

 

[ericlb]

those cut well, when adjusted properly and kept sharp, that being said they have some drawbacks for what you want to do, first they are designed to cut hay, so they cut everything once and let it drop, they dont chop it up in fine pieces, the biggest problem though if stones and hard things, they will break the teeth or bend them and its not going to fix with a filt like a rotary cutter, you have to take the damaged knife section off and fix, or replace it, if you can keep it clear of debris it will work for what you want though,keep it clean sharp and lubed

 

[Tom in TN]

Chuck,

One other problem is that you might not be able to see (or to gauge) the distance from the end of the sickle bar to the trunk of the tree. Sickle bar mowers have a "break-away" mechanism on them so that if you hit something with the end of the bar, it will rotate the bar to the back of the mower, thus protecting the bar.

And while this is usually sufficient to protect the bar, it is not foolproof.

Good luck with your decision.

Tom in TN

 

[Texasmark1]

Couple of problems covered. Other thing is they gum up with crawdad mounds, fire ant hills, are a pain to remove the cutter bar when necessary, when in the stow position stick up in the air vertically where you can unsuspectingly derive under a low handing limb and break the whole gearbox into several pieces.

On tough grasses they just chew on it especially if the blades aren't new and properly adjusted.

Then there is the pain in the .....in trying to mount one on the tractor since it is lopsided.

If you have any little saplings under those trees they will just put you in the kickback mode and you have to stop and reset the bar.

I just don't like them.

Mark

 

[JRSutton]

They're great for cutting grass/weeds under trees and brush. Even small woody growth - as long as you don't get carried away.

Of course, any tractor is a lot tougher to maneuver with big bar sticking out the side - so you'll have to go slow.

If you're trying to work in cramped space amongst a lot of obstacles, you'd probably want something relatively short. But then - obviously you wouldn't get as far in, but something to consider.

They're fairly easy to maintain as long as you have spare teeth and rock guards on hand.

I wouldn't say they're temperamental really - just that all the parts HAVE to be in place for them to work. Lose a rock guard and it's going to start clogging in that spot, no ifs ands or buts.

Teeth/blades (what ever you want to call them), are generally riveted in place but can be field repaired if you keep a hammer and rivets with you and know how to remove the old ones. Very easy to do once you've done a few.

Rock guards take most of the abuse and are the most common problem - but they usually swap right out in 5 minutes.

As long as everything is in reasonably good shape and you've got new blades - I think you'd enjoy it.

 

[Anonymous-0]

That is exactly what I do with my cub and a sickle bar mower. I only wish it had a 7 foot bar instead of a 5 footer. Only reason is I could reach farther under the trees. I have 18 Blue Spruce that are about 25 feet high and I can't get between them but it still does a good job. I also mow along the creek bank.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Get a mower that doesn't have a pitman like a NH 451 or JD 350 and you'll do fine,most problems with sickle mowers is the operators don't understand how to set them up and operate them.