[AT] On Topic: Reintroduction letter

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Dad mowed a little over 4 acres of hay with his 100 mower just before 
Memorial day. By far one of the finest sickle mower ever made. We used to 
rent a lot of land when we farmed full-time. We would install an old blade 
and secure the cutter bar at 90 deg. Then we could ride around the edges of 
the fields and keep the tree branches cut. Also had a couple farms with 
roads through the woods to get to the fields. As the equipment got bigger, 
keeping the tree limbs cleared was a priority.

We did have a John Deere mower that may have cut heavy grass better, but for 
mowing ditches and pond banks you had to be careful or else break a pitman.

John

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 6:21 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] On Topic: Reintroduction letter

One of the reasons that I have half a dozen Cubs is that changing
implements on the Cub is not something you want to do often. The sickle
bar mower takes me a good couple of hours to mount (others who are more
skilled than I am probably do it in less). And it takes almost as long
to remove it. And while it is mounted, the tractor can't be used for
anything else except pulling a wagon. Also, you are pretty much limited
to about a 20° range of up and down cutting angle. That's fine for
cutting grass/weeds in a field or alongside the road, but you can't do
steep ditch banks or brush on the side. For those applications, I use an
IH 100 "balanced head" mower with a hydraulic lift for the bar. I can
cut from true vertical to about -30°, using my Farmall 340.

<http://public.fotki.com/mikesloane/farmall_340/farmall-340-with-ih.html>

Note that the sickle bar mower is probably one of the most dangerous
tractor implements there is. If I need to clear the knives, I shut down
the engine and drop the bar on to blocks. And even then, I keep my
fingers away from the sections (knives) and guards. It will chop a
finger off without even missing a beat. That is why most road
departments got rid of their sickle bar mowers a long time ago.

Mike

On 6/7/2013 5:43 PM, Joe Hazewinkel wrote:
> I have a NOS sickle bar mower for my 48 cub, it came with almost
> every attachment and the only thing that has ever been used is the
> grader blade, and underbelly blade.  Everything else sits in the
> barn.  I'd like to try it out someday so I could compare notes, but
> for now it looks like it will be awhile.
>
> I hear they are handy little tractors, at this rate I'll never
> know...
>
> Enjoy, Joe
>
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