Sickle Bar Questions

Also, some of these are pitman driven and others are belt driven. Some are 3 pt mounted, some are pull behind. I suppose that some sickle bar mowers are designed to mount on older tractors that did not have 3 point hitches.

I assume a 9' sickle mows faster than a 6', but is there an advantage to the shorter bar?

How difficult are some of things to mount to a 3 pt hitch? I read that, for example, that the NH 451 has it's own stand that eases mounting. Is a Ford any easier to mount than a JD, etc?

What is the deal with Massey Ferguson's "Dana Balance" sickle bar mowers? Are they different than Ford or New Holland? Are they reliable and are parts still available?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

As for the pittman vs belt drive, you are usually talking dollar differences. Biggest advantage of the belt drive is that it can mow with the cutterbar at much greater angles than a pittman. The pittman wants the bar fairly level or it will break the pittman. The pittman serves 2 purposes, it converts rotary to linear motion and acts as a "fuse" to prevent the damage that can happen if the bar gets bound up some way. The belt drive has various other ways of protecting the drive line. and the "wobble box" converts the rotary to linear motion. The NH is King of this market but have your pocketbook full when you go look at a belt drive NH. MF Dyna is, from many comments on this board, getting hard to get or afford parts for. The Ford 515 seems to be a less expensive but still well supported mower, possibly making it a good balance. The JD belt drives I am not familar with at all. As for pittman styles, you have many to chose from but my preference is the Ford 501 or a JD 9 (other JD 3 pt hitch are fine) as these are still very plentiful and mow great if set up properly.

You do not want an older machine that was made specifically for say a Farmall M and bolts to the frame, if you have an old Ford with 3pt hitch. The fabrication to rework the hitch will be tremendous. 3 pt Mowers are easier to get into tight places and mow with than say the trailer type machines

Start looking around and see what is available and what the prices look like. And determine what you want it to do.

I recommend that you get an operators manual and study it well. My plan is to have 6 sharp sickles for each mower. That gets me through one cutting with ease. Make sure your sickles are sharp and your guards (or ledger plates) are sharp.

I have a 5,6,7 and 9 foot mower. The 5 and 6 are old horse drawn machines that seldom get used. I have a seven foot Massey Harris No. 6 that will give an honest days service. It is a pitman type. It does not break pitman sticks if the machine is set up right, and I don't push it to hard. Not bad for a 50 year old machine.
I also have a balanced head belt driven 9 footer, it works great. When putting up hay, we use the 9 and the 7, glue our butts to the tractor seat and knock down alot of hay!

Pull behind work fine, easier to mount. 3-point are much more manuverable.

Belt & wobble are better than pitman. But pitman work fine too.

Any of the 3point mount about the same, you learn the tricks to make your model work out, & it'll be more or less like any other.

My crystal ball says you are lookiing for a sickle mower? : ) :) :) What tractor do you have?

--->Paul