Mini Sickle Bar Mower

[21incher]

Finally got my little sickle bar mower made to fit my little Kubota BX tractor. I have had a hard time keeping up with weed waking around the property edge and the pond. Reeds have taken over so I decided to try a little 5 ft sickle mower made for my tractor. Hopefully I can get everything cleaned up. Took 6 months to get from Italy and it's a nice little unit.
Will do updates once I get it on the tractor. Need a longer hose and different hydraulic coupling to set up the power tilt. Can't wait to be able to control the reeds around the pond and wild rose bushes around the edge. 


 

 

[sawguy21]

Let us know how it works out. I have had mixed results with that style.

[21incher]

Let us know how it works out. I have had mixed results with that style.

I will once I get it hooked  up. I watched many videos about  them before  ordering and the Enrossi seemed to be the best choice for low hp tractors.  At almost 5k it was the most expensive also. I hope it works  good for my needs. Really  well made.
 

[thecfarm]

Use to run a 6 foot cutter bar on my Father's 1954 NAA Ford, about 25 hp.
That worked good in 1st-2nd gear kinda high on the throttle.
Only cut the grass once, a rotary blade you cut the grass many times.

[Ljohnsaw]

I had a 7' pto unit on my 1966 Case 210b.  That was a challenge cutting one 50'x150' and two 50'x75' fields without hitting posts or sprinklers!  Had to replace the sprinkler risers (1¼" pvc) a few times.  But it did make short work of the task!

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I had an old ground driven pull behind for many years that was horrible to use and maintain. Ive sense upgraded.   But that little mower looks pretty sweet.   Curious how it works out.  

[hedgerow]

I have laid down a lot of grass hay in my time with a sickle bar mower. I never had much luck cutting road side, ditches, fence lines or around ponds with one. I like the way a bat wing mower grinds the grass up and does a nicer job that a sickle bar mower. I don't think the John Deere number five mower has been on the JD A in probably twenty years. 21 incher I hope the mower will do what you need it to do. 

[21incher]

The specs and videos I have seen look good so I think it will work.  The only mower that can cut 5 ft out from my little  tractors. I looked at offset flail mowers but would  need a heavier tractor with  more hp to get even 3 ft offset. Hopefully I will have it running next week. I have a 2 1/2 flat level lot that I now mow once or twice every week and may let it grow for hay to save some  money on diesel and try to find an old small bailer. 

[thecfarm]

Even just normal wear and tear parts will offset the price of diesel 
And I have not mentioned the price of baling twine. 

[Greenie]

I've used a 7' Ford 501 sickle bar, like previously said roadsides are a challenge dealing with the changing berm. It's tough to find a good height and angle that works well. Mowing in a field was much easier. It was a bother to have to manually raise and lower it around obstacles and you've got to watch your fingers as the teeth close when the bar is raised. It takes a lot of filing, tinkering, and patience if you want to get a good looking cut and avoid carving into the gravel berm.
Next I tried a disk mower - that also was a challenge mowing roadsides since it wasn't intended for brush of any size.
With either a hydro-static transmission works best because with a gear transmission the cutter speed is locked with the travel speed unless you have a PTO that is independent of the transmission. 

[Bruno of NH]

Will the sickle bars cut small brush ?

[moodnacreek]

Will the sickle bars cut small brush ?

Depending on hardness up to 1" max. Sickle bar mowers are a lot of work to keep in shape. I have used them since my teens and still do. Have among others an IH 110 balanced 7" that will mow straight up. Great for trimming trees. It is a side mount so no looking back.

[21incher]

Will the sickle bars cut small brush ?

They are not rated to cut brush but l have many of the black cap, wild Rose's, and wild raspberry plants around the edge of our property I plan on cutting back with  it that are soft. Supposed to have 1 1/2 inch max capacity for things like my pond reeds. With  the hydro drive on my BX I can crawl along. Rated to cut plain grass at 6 mph. I will see. Never used one before. After the first trimming it should be easy to maintain. 

[21incher]

Even just normal wear and tear parts will offset the price of diesel
And I have not mentioned the price of baling twine.  

At my age you can't put a price  on fun 😉. 

[barbender]

The Italians make a lot of nice small scale implements that just aren't available here.

[Wlmedley]

 

 Can't really justify price of sickle bar mower for my needs so I build this rig.Only cuts 30"and sounds like a thrashing machine but gets the job done.

[thecfarm]

Yes that sickle bar mower that I mentioned could mow in any position. Straight up was good for cutting back the limbs on the woods road.
This is a side mounted one, look to the right and it's there.
But what a bother to put on. Took every jack we had and all the tools we had and just about an all day job to put on.
That could cut bushes an inch through easy. I would not want a steady feed of that size. 

[samandothers]

@Wlmedley that looks like an old rotary mower for the front of a older Gravely L walk behind.  Ingenious contraption.

21incher you had a chance to use the new mower?  

I can remember running an old 6' Ferguson sickle mower off the 3 point hitch and PTO on an 8N.  Neighboring farmer had an older model Ferguson tractor with a side mounted sickle, sure looked easier to run with less neck strain.  I remember thinking you needed 3 feet to drive his tractor.  It had the brakes on each side of the transmission with the clutch on the right side with the right brake, if I remember correctly on the sides. 

[21incher]

21incher you had a chance to use the new mower?  

I can remember running an old 6' Ferguson sickle mower off the 3 point hitch and PTO on an 8N.  Neighboring farmer had an older model Ferguson tractor with a side mounted sickle, sure looked easier to run with less neck strain.  I remember thinking you needed 3 feet to drive his tractor.  It had the brakes on each side of the transmission with the clutch on the right side with the right brake, if I remember correctly on the sides.

Haven't gotten it hooked up yet. To extend the hydraulic line and switch to Kubota disconnects I needed a BSS adapter fitting that is on order plus when I started looking at it to shorten the pto and adjusting items I found there were shields, brackets and hardware missing. Turns out they left out one box of parts and documents when it shipped from Italy. Waiting to hear what Enrossi is going to do about supplying them. Hopefully they will replace them quickly and I won't have to return it and order another. Pandemic quality that seems to happen to everything I buy lately. I am hoping to know more next week.

[beenthere]

samandothers

It had the brakes on each side of the transmission with the clutch on the right side with the right brake, if I remember correctly on the sides.

Close, but the clutch and left brake were on the left side. My Fergi TO-30 was like that, and was tricky in the woods to hold the left wheel while letting the clutch out at the same time. Good tractor for snarfing logs out of the woods tho.

[thecfarm]

samandothers, yes easier to run, those side mounts ones, but as I said took just about a day to get it on. 
There was more than 3 points that side mounted connected onto the tractor.
Every time we put it on, I was amazed by the engineering to get that to work.
Lots of joints and connect points.
Then once on, it was not something that you took off to do another job either.
But it did make it easier to run the rake or baler. We did have the rear of the tractor to hook up too.

[samandothers]

samandothers

It had the brakes on each side of the transmission with the clutch on the right side with the right brake, if I remember correctly on the sides.

Close, but the clutch and left brake were on the left side. My Fergi TO-30 was like that, and was tricky in the woods to hold the left wheel while letting the clutch out at the same time. Good tractor for snarfing logs out of the woods tho.

Thank you, been too long.  I did not drive it often, only from field to field or pulling wagon while dad and neighbor picked up hay.   I must admit I liked the 8N as the brakes were used to steer quite often!

[samandothers]

samandothers, yes easier to run, those side mounts ones, but as I said took just about a day to get it on.
There was more than 3 points that side mounted connected onto the tractor.
Every time we put it on, I was amazed by the engineering to get that to work.
Lots of joints and connect points.
Then once on, it was not something that you took off to do another job either.
But it did make it easier to run the rake or baler. We did have the rear of the tractor to hook up too.

I can understand the attachment issues with feeding power from the pto etc, and it being able to 'float, on the ground with land contour.

[21incher]

Finally got all the parts and had a chance to try it out. It takes about 20 minutes to hook up and adjust and 10 minutes to remove. Simple standard 3 point hookup. Had to shorten the pto shaft 2inches and use the loader valve to raise and lower. It;s perfect for my little BX and handles materials up to approx. 1 1/4 inches diameter saplings. The biggest problem is I left the deck on and that rides low with piles of cuttings. Had to use lighter chains for the stop chain to limit down travel. When properly adjusted it floats on the skids. I abused it pretty good for a couple hours and it's awesome.


 

 

Here is a video for anyone interested
Enorossi BFT 150H Sickle Bar Mower Perfect Match For A Kubota BX - YouTube
Have a pine straw rake on order to modify for cleanup using my John Deere loader that will speed up the final cleanup because 10 ft tall pond reeds need to be removed. Should be a easy job after this first catch up mowing. 

[YellowHammer]

That's pretty cool! It does take those reeds out.  

Good job in the video, also.

[thecfarm]

How right you on you don't need much hp when you are cutting it only once.
That will be a nice tool to keep up on that.
We used to cut about 10 acres with a BX 1800 many years ago, with a mid-mount mower.
That sickle bar will keep you on firm and lever ground for around the pond.
I sharpened a knife on a sickle bar many times.
Seem like the old one we had had to be greased often.
Once it's all cleaned up. it will work so much better and easier.
Quicker too.
May have to mow it once every 2 weeks?

[SwampDonkey]

Makes life a little easier dealing with overgrowth for sure. Nice little sickle.

I remember mom's uncle out on the back of his field with the old hand scythe, cutting off hawthorns and aspen suckers. He was an old man when I knew him. Old school penny pincher. ;D

[21incher]

That's pretty cool! It does take those reeds out.  

Good job in the video, also.

Thanks.  It does better then I expected with all the saplings mixed in. It does a really  good job used vertical around the edges.  Hopefully once I get it cleaned back up this will make maintenance easy

How right you on you don't need much hp when you are cutting it only once.
That will be a nice tool to keep up on that.
We used to cut about 10 acres with a BX 1800 many years ago, with a mid-mount mower.
That sickle bar will keep you on firm and lever ground for around the pond.
I sharpened a knife on a sickle bar many times.
Seem like the old one we had had to be greased often.
Once it's all cleaned up. it will work so much better and easier.
Quicker too.
May have to mow it once every 2 weeks?

Luckily they supply an extra cutter bar so it can be quickly swapped out when dull. This uses riveted teeth that won't  be fun to replace if I should  break one. They really didn't say much about  how often to grease it so that will be a learning  experiment for me. That little  BX has been a real work horse and can mow at almost 9 mph in the wide open areas. I am hoping  to have it all cleaned up by next spri g and shou6 probably  only need it once a month after that. It's  unbelievable how fast those reeds spread if you let them go for 2 years.

Makes life a little easier dealing with overgrowth for sure. Nice little sickle.

I remember mom's uncle out on the back of his field with the old hand scythe, cutting off hawthorns and aspen suckers. He was an old man when I knew him. Old school penny pincher. ;D

It's  a sweet little  machine that's 50 times as fast as a weed whacker.  Made for haying but saplings don't  seem to bother it. Nature is sure fast at reclaiming vacant land. 

[sawguy21]

Good that you are happy with it. I have tried sickle mowers, an old 3 pt that was past it's best before date and a walk behind Jari but wasn't satisfied with them. A lot of maintenance and they kept clogging in our fine orchard grass.

[reride82]

Changing sickle knives with rivets isn't too bad. A good metal chisel and a hammer removes the rivet and get yourself a sickle rivet press to replace. You can convert to bolts, but you'll need a new sickle bar and possibly guards as well to allow room for the bolts/nuts. Looks like a handy tool!

Levi

[thecfarm]

Very simple to replace teeth, quick too.
I would put the rivet over the hole in the anvil and take a punch and pound them out.
This was when a tooth was not on the bar. Meaning the tooth hit something and broke off and the rivets was still in place.
To remove a tooth, as mentioned, a sharp cold chisel will do wonders.
My Father never owned a hand held grinder, so this is how he did it.
Then he would use a ball peen hammer to peen the rivets over.
I use to do it too.
Never knew there was a press for that.
We use to put grease where the bar goes.
But his mower was more than 40 years old too.
That thing would mow good.
The only time we had trouble with it was when the grass was lodged, as he called it.
Grass would fall over and not stand back up and be wet under the grass. He would try to mow before this happened.
My Father kept that knife sharp too!!!
I can still him say how some are pulling the grass not cutting it, when we would drive by a field that have just been cut.

[moodnacreek]

I own and operate 4 sickle bar mowers; no. 5 JD, 2  cub 22's and a IH balanced 110.  Would like to offer advise but have no idea how an Enrossi works. Do they have 2 sets of knifes? Do the gards move?

[21incher]

I own and operate 4 sickle bar mowers; no. 5 JD, 2  cub 22's and a IH balanced 110.  Would like to offer advise but have no idea how an Enrossi works. Do they have 2 sets of knifes? Do the gards move?

1 set of knives that have a serrated cutting edge and the guards move opposite the  blades so the stroke is shorter and faster.  The blade section has guards top and bottom that wrap around and create a nice shearing edge with a fixed clearance.  The blade assembly is easy to just slide out of the guides to remove for sharpening but from the looks of it they must be hand filed to retain the serrated cutting edge.  

[Ljohnsaw]

they must be hand filed to retain the serrated cutting edge.

Just get one of those bumpy stones to grind the teeth ;)

What if you use a super thin cutting blade on a 4.5" grinder and drag it across the serrations?  Are they serrated on both sides?  If not, wouldn't/couldn't you just grind/stone the flat side?  How many sharpening do you think you would get on the blades?

I never sharpened mine (the short time I had it) but I did have to buy a few blades and rivet them on as mine came with a few missing teeth.

[moodnacreek]

That's really different, I wondered why the gards where so far apart. On a traditional mower underserrated knifes do not need to be sharpened . I used to grind them out of habit but not anymore. Apparently there is no one way to design a sickle bar. The old mowers had the knifes going center of the gards to center of the gards. My IH balanced short strokes this old rule and the last New Holand style goes beyond gard centers that being a long stroke. Both these styles are still made by Rowse Rake Co.    Being able to mow down grass is the test for a sickle bar. On the old mowers this takes carful maintenance.

[Greenie]

Great video! So good my cup of coffee got cold as I forgot about it as I watched the video (my first cup of the day too!) A couple of points...
*The hydraulic lift makes all the difference - the 501 Ford I used for years required dismounting the tractor and lifting it - and to keep it raised there was a prop rod with two easy to lose clips.
*The time you claim it takes to install/remove is very encouraging. The 501 Ford sickle bar took a long time - so long in fact that the mower remained on the tractor year round.
*A hydrostatic transmission would be preferable to a gear transmission since it will give infinitive drive choice. It would also shine when you hit a hornet nest and have to beat feet.
*A 4WD tractor would be best  - a sickle bar used on a slope like a roadside can pull the tractor into trouble.
*Italian manufacturing - whether on cars (Fix It Again Tony), motorcycles, or practically anything will probably keep your mechanical skills well-honed as the equipment ages.
*The Ford 501 had a hardwood pitman arm that made the cutter reciprocate was a constant source of grief. I couldn't see the arrangement on this mower but assume it's greatly improved.
*I had miles of roadsides to maintain and found that due to time limitations a once per year mow would keep the brush diameter manageable.
*There's a lot of force in that chain that keeps the bar suspended while mowing. In time the chain on my 501 stretched. Once a bolt that secured one end of the chain broke, flew what must have been 50 feet in the air and landed in the FEL bucket.
*I'm going to consider buying one of these after seeing it in action and hearing your experience. Many thanks!

[21incher]

This is a perfect match for my little bx and seems to be fairly simple to maintain. To unhook just raise the 3 point, flip the foot, and unhook the chains. It sits up by itself on the floor and remove the pins. I have to loosen the turnbuckles on the arms so they swing clear. I slide it back a little to be able to disconnect the pto and hang it on the unit with a rubber strap. The hydraulic disconnect is the only thing left. The price has increased lately with much of that from the price to ship a container but it is pretty much the only option for me because I just don't have the energy to weed whack it all anymore. 4 wheel drive helps keep it moving and gets the machine get unstuck when it sinks in a muskrat tunnel.

[21incher]

Took a good look at the blades today and the serrations are machined into the backside. They are long enough to be able to grind the front a couple times. That will make sharpening easy. 

[gspren]

I wish I would of had that when I still had the farm with a pond and ditch banks but I no longer have the farm. I do however still have a BX Kubota with a few 3 point things and since I now have a concrete floor I found some time savers for switching stuff. I made low skids on swivel casters for each implement, all 4 swivel, makes lining up the pins gravy, on the turnbuckles that limit the lower link movement I got rid of the cotter keys and replaced with the hairpin style so it's quick and easy to unhook the turnbuckle while changing and re-hook when done.

[maple flats]

I have an old IH 7' sickle mower that is from the 40's (or 50's) I believe. I paid $50 for it about 20 yrs ago. I works very well, but for one issue. It was made for tractors of that era, that had long 3 point hitch arms with much less offset on the lift arms. When I lift my 3 point, the lever that catches on the lift arm to raise the bar for an upward tilt sometimes slides off the arm. I eventually bent the welded on 3 point lift pin on the left side. I need to reshape it, plus add an extra brace by welding on a lower attaching pin and an offset bar to help support that lift pin. I will also likely weld on an extension to the lift lever and make it offset more to match my 2012 Mahindra better. The existing set up has a 2" wide roller with about 1/4" high sides to help hold the alignment, but that doesn't seem to hold it for me. I'll have my brother make a new one (machine shop) with higher sides so it stays on the lift arm. Maybe he'll just add weld to build up what's there then turn it on the lathe to make it good. He has the equipment to do either and has a chunk of high grade 3" steel he could make one from.
That has been my only issue with it.  21 incher, don't worry about changing riveted on teeth, to change, just grind the old rivet to drive it thru the bar, then add the new tooth, 2 rivets, set it on an anvil (or heavy steel something) and hammer the rivet using a ball peen hammer, I've changed many over the years. Rivets are the way to go for sickle teeth, if hammered properly they won't loosen up.
Dave