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sickle mower question

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Topic: sickle mower question

Posted By: Gregor
Subject: sickle mower question
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2011 at 8:39pm

mounting a #8 john deere mower on my D 17 (wish I had an orange one) and got a couple questions. First, is is critical that the mower bar is 90 degrees or should it be leaning forward or back a little. 2nd I see there is adjustments on the bar on the skid plate on height that it runs on the ground. I'm thinking best to run it off the ground some maybe 1-2 inches. 3rd I replaced the teeth on the sickle and went under-serrated style. I replaced the guards also. The ledger plates on them have jagged sharp edges instead of a smooth like a combine header guard. I also have another sickle with smooth teeth on it. Which should I use. 4th I see I can adust the tilt of the bar. Should it be level, tilted down,or up? I'll be cutting mostly brome grass and a few spots has some clover in it. My brother-in-law has a belly mount sickle mower on his C and he usually makes circles around me when we are out mowing. So I'm trying to get mine set up right so I have a chance to keep up with him. It sure is alot of fun to go out with the tractors and mow the waterways and driveways and bale it up. I'll try to get the wife out and take some pictures of us cutting. Any advice is surely appreciated as I was plugging up real bad last year and he had very little problems, but my sickle and guards were shot. Thanks Greg

Replies:

Posted By: Gerald J.
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2011 at 8:57pm

Good sections and guards will keep it from plugging. Make sure the guards are tilted so the sickle sections ride tight on the guards. They cut like scissors and if there's a gap they plug.Some times individual guards need shimming. I had one that wasn't tight on my mower conditioner and it plugged for years until I figured that out and fixed it.

Usually the bar ought to be at right angles to the motion or a hair ahead. And usually works good with the bar tipped a hair nose down, not much but a slight nose down.

For height off the ground it depends on what you are mowing. Some you want short, some you want taller, like switchgrass needs to be but at 6" to not damage it. Won't be much difference cutting alfalfa, its mostly stem for the bottom several inches. Too low and you mow too many gopher mounds and level off humps and the sickle more isn't good at that, mud makes a lousy lubricant and makes it wear rapidly.

Gerald J.

Posted By: Gregor
Date Posted: 30 Jun 2011 at 10:25pm

thanks for the info. My bar is trailing instead of leading and going to try to adjust that. Carl, if you read this, your inbox is full.

Posted By: Bill Long
Date Posted: 01 Jul 2011 at 7:39am

We were told that the smooth sections were better cutters than the serrated sections. The tip of the blade should advance the inside front of the blade by several inches. There should be a set of adjustments on the front of the frame.

Never used a JD mower so I can't help too much. Just be certain you have the right size pitman rod and that the blade is timed to go center to center on the guards.

Good Luck!

Bill Long

Posted By: Teddy (punchie)
Date Posted: 01 Jul 2011 at 8:43am

Use haybine now.. But a few things I think you should look at are the timing or movement of the sickle to the guards, and the angle pitch of the cutting arm; point of the guards should be angled up just a little. Yes setting it to run around 2" - 4" will help keep you out of the trash. Most of the rest was talked about.

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Ac D-19, a Number of WD's, One WD45, Two 444 balers, Ac plows and etc.

Posted By: skipwelte
Date Posted: 01 Jul 2011 at 9:48am

Yeah, angle the guard tips up slightly, the end of the sickle bar shoud be leading by a couple of inchs too. Cutting height should be 2 to 4. Good ledger plates and sickel sections will help a lot in cutting grass as its tougher to cut than course stemed plants. Dad used to take a hammer and tap the hold downs to tighen up the sickle to ledger plate clearance-cuts grass better- now I do the same thing!!!!!!

Posted By: Gregor
Date Posted: 10 Jul 2011 at 8:32am

thanks for the good tips. One other thing I did was to put a guard on the outside and got rid of the rooster tail. After getting rid of that my brother-in-law did the same and we cut the rest of the day without plugging. Maybe if I had a new one, maybe it'd work better, but for our purposes, much better without it. thanks Greg

Posted By: ky wonder
Date Posted: 10 Jul 2011 at 11:45am

the blade should have a small amount of lead (forward), and be set about 1-2 inches foward of square at the grass board end,

this will alow it to off set the strain and run square while in operation, thus resulting in a straight line for the blade and pitman during operation, most of the jd mowers of the past had a eccentric adjustment at the rear of the enter shoe assembly to set the lead properly removing the lag (rearward) that develops over extended use.

if your blade is setting with lag you can turn the eccentric bushing left as far as nessacary to properly set the lead of the blade.

the mower need also to be in registar to cut properly, at both ends of pitman stoke, the knive needs to be centered with the guards, point of knive should be in center of the knive guards, if not the mower will not cut properly.

if the registar is not right and the blades are not center of the guards at the end of the strokes it will not cut all the grass causing choking and uneven cutting,

these issues are corrected transferring washers on the yoke of the drag bar as nessacary, and pull bar adjustment

the knives need to run in the guards so that the knive is aetting flat and the point is setting on the guard plate, with the knive holders fitting snug, this needs to be checked at each guard, moving them up or down along the bar, these guards are malleable and can be bent without breaking, by stiking them on the thick part just ahead of the plate when the guard is bolted up tight

i hope this might help

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i like old tractors of all colors

Posted By: Gregor
Date Posted: 10 Jul 2011 at 9:24pm

Thanks, got the mowing done and raked. Most of it is baled with just a little left that was mowed today. Timing was perfect and it cut great. take care Greg