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rankrank1 11-09-2012 04:40:40 198.228.228.163 Report to Moderator

I am about as small potatoes as it gets. I now mow with a side pull 9' moco ( aka haybine). However I tractor with antiques and do not use hydraulics and instead use a manual ratchet crank to raise and lower moco. Since I have no easey way to raise and lower moco then only mowing pattern I can use is round and round the field towards center just as outlined in any old sickle mower operators manual. Antique tractors typically have few gear choices, not live PTO, and marginal hp in my case. Simply pick gear that works for both going straight and turning as no powershift tranny either and clutching is not an option. Even handicapped with less than optimum equipment choices I can cut blazing fast compared to how I used to cut and typically mow 4 to 4.5 mph. My limited hp is the only thing that prevents me from mowing any faster. I do not worry about banannaing the corners a bit or in other words I cut all the hay but do not go for that perfect 90 turn as l never use turning brakes although NF turns sharper than WF so maybe my trike tractor helps here. I never plug sickle with already been cut hay doing it my way on my machine so it works for me. I will organize the field how I want to bale it via the rake or in other words I may rake it into lands even though I went roundy round to cut. I always wide swath from moco for faster drying and never windrow from moco so I will rake it however best fits field shape. This post was edited by rankrank1 at 05:00:43 11/09/12 4 times. [Reply]   [No Email]