mowing ditches

Glenn D

Member
Heres a question. how far can I tilt this 2N. it' set at 60" c/c on the wheels.

I'm circling around an available sickle bar mower that I think I can use some down angle on to mow over the ditches out front of my place but if I have to do it with the 2n then how do I do it without cold sweats and nightmares? I have about 3000 feet of straight ditch to do and they are dry when it's not raining.
 
(quoted from post at 06:55:38 06/24/13) Heres a question. how far can I tilt this 2N. it' set at 60" c/c on the wheels.

I'm circling around an available sickle bar mower that I think I can use some down angle on to mow over the ditches out front of my place but if I have to do it with the 2n then how do I do it without cold sweats and nightmares? I have about 3000 feet of straight ditch to do and they are dry when it's not raining.

There are two schools of thought here. One. You're sitting on a stationary metal seat so when that tractor tilts, that seat tilts with it and you really feel it. So the thought is that it probably feels worse than it is.

Two. If it feels unsafe, then it probably is. I use a brush hog on my property with hills on it. I will go across the face of the hills only so far, then I give up and go straight up and down to get the top most parts of the hills.

I read somewhere once that an "N" could safely run across the face of a 45 degree hill. I certainly wouldn't want to bet my life on that one. Personally I think the line "If it feels unsafe, then it probably is" is the best rule to keep in mind when on a tractor.
 

45° would be a little too scary I won't even try out little ditches until i'm a bit more familiar with the machine. There not really made for rapid egress and I doubt I could bench press the thing

How does the mower act when going over the peak and valley cross ways on the ditch ? I think my drive line would hit the front of the mower. the sickle bar might be my only option for this
 
Mowed a ditch ONCE, scared the bajebers out of me! Don't
forget, sickle mower will make the front end light (unless
you get a mid-mount). As I started along the ditch, the
mower hit the weeds and wanted to pivot the 860 into the
ditch, hard left brake brought it back straight, but I needed
a pancake flipper to get my butt off the seat. Stay safe.....
 
(quoted from post at 09:55:38 06/24/13) Heres a question. how far can I tilt this 2N. it' set at 60" c/c on the wheels.

I'm circling around an available sickle bar mower that I think I can use some down angle on to mow over the ditches out front of my place but if I have to do it with the 2n then how do I do it without cold sweats and nightmares? I have about 3000 feet of straight ditch to do and they are dry when it's not raining.

When I built my house I used my 9N to grade and seed this bank and mowed it for the next 10+ years with a 5' 3pt finish mower. Normal wheel spacing and NEVER lifted the mower deck while I was on the bank. It's not quite 45* but pretty close to it at the steepest end and I still mow it with a Kubota and belly mower.

The thing to remember about rubber tired tractors is wet grass will get you in trouble in a heartbeat, They will slide sideways long before they roll over and when the downhill wheel finally catches traction again good ole momentum will try to tip the uphill wheel up and over. I put my first one (Ford 800) in the the bottom of a ditch line almost 50 years ago while mowing the top of the bank early one dewy morning . I'd mowed that bank without incident many times before [u:7937397d95]when the grass was dry[/u:7937397d95]. Had to get a wrecker to winch the old Ford out...

TOH

IMG_1901.jpg
 
That looks like a similar slope nut its hard to tell because ours is narrow. Maybe ill get the nerve to try it. do you think the sickle bar would be a better implement for this?
 

Wheel weights and/or loaded tires will make that uphill tire stick like glue to the ground. With good ballasting you can lower your center of gravity and thus your stability greatly.
 
45 degrees is a sure bet you will flip. I used my backhoe to make the grandkids a show hill. At the top it measures 45 degrees. I had to clear the top 20 ft by hand, take sand and gravel and dump it over the hill to level out by hand. It's hard to walk on a 45 degree angle. Try walking on a roof with 12-12 pitch, that's 45 degree.

The bottom of the hill I had to put the back bucket down and use it as a safety device to keep from flipping over. Only guessing, but the bottom of the hill is between 25 and 30 degree.

I wouldn't even want to attempt to mow a 25 degree hill safely.

People who mow ditches with a chopper will usually get the chopper wet, if not killed. Everytime I see one in the ditch, I want to take a pic and post it.

If I had to mow a ditch, I would rig up a pipe to extend over the ditch bank, use chains to drag a mower. Propably make the mower from an old 4-6 ft belly mower, put wheels on it and put a 20-25 hp vertical shaft motor on it.

If you don't want someone taking a pic of you, don't do what I saw someone do to mow a very steep hill.

This person used a push mower, attached it to a 20 ft ladder. The other end of the ladder was attached to the front of an ATV. He used the ATV to push the mower up the hill.
George
 
Maybe I shouldn't have even mentioned that 45 degree thing. I know that I read it on the net somewhere and I have never been able to find it again.

Let me say personally, please don't try it, I certainly would not.

Again, if it feels unsafe, it probably is. Trust your judgement.
 
Mowing across the slope is always dangerous if it's any
significant slope because there's a number of ways that the
moderate slope gets steeper in a hurry -a really soft spot
on the downhill side, uphill tire catches a tree if you get too
close, and tries to climb the tree, wet grass, etc.,etc. If any
of these happen if you don't stomp the downhill brake and
get it around in a hurry, it has a good change of flipping
which, in turn, has a good chance of killing you. I have a
few slopes on my property that I always have to mow going
straight down and it will many times slide down when it
loses traction. all you can do then is steer to keep it in a
straight line until you get to the bottom.
 

it's not very deep it's just steep enough where a riding lawnmower wont drive up it without slipping...it's way too much to do on a small rider like that. I don't think I would try to drive along the ditch that was a just a pipe dream i think, but I might go across it instead. I really don't want to blow a whole day mowing the ditch.

Sheep!! maybe i'll rent a few sheep to do it,
 
Goats will eat grass, but only after they've eaten the other stuff more palatable to them. They're in the deer family and browse the same kinds of stuff. Ours always made a beeline for our saplings and the garden whenever they got out.

I have mown our ditches (longitudinally) with the 8N and my 5' rotary mower. The pic below shows the ditch across the road from us - ours isn't that high, but is about the same angle. I can get the faces in one pass each way, then slightly straddle the top to finish it off on each side.

op8n_0703road1.jpg


I mowed them once with the wheels set wide for cultivating, and it felt a lot more "planted" than with the wheels in the normal position.

I've also tried using the sickle bar, but the angle is too steep to get down inside the ditch in my case.

When I discovered our 14 year-old commercial zero-turn mower could "hang" on the ditch face (dry grass, not wet!), I've been using that instead.

es
 

Mentioned the goats and sheep to my wife... I guess were getting some because I helped her put up a pen on the weekend. when I asked what the pen was for I was told it was because I wanted goats and sheep...
 

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