Limiter Chains on the Finishing Mower

The mower has limiter chains, but also has front wheels/rollers to keep the height constant. My question is - Why even use the chains? Wouldn't I want the mower to be able to move up and down freely over the hills?

Thanks,

Ken Cullinan
'54 NAA
'64 Dodge W200
'71 Dodge Demon

Limiter chains are used to limit the side to side movement of an implement. As George said, without them the mower will not track predictably. With a finish mower I would use a stabilizer kit rather than chains. With the mower free to move sideways it is difficult to maneuver around trees, buildings, fences, etc. You are correct about vertical motion. The mower should be free to follow the terrain independent of the tractor. With some mower configurations there is little or no provision for that movement. On those mowers, replacing the top link with a piece of chain will usually remedy the problem. Check out your mower's design to see if a chain top link is needed, and will work with your mower. Good luck...Al English

Ken indicated that his mower was one that has front wheels. That being the case, there is no need to support the front of his mower to control its height. My original post addressed both the stabilizer chains that attach to the lower links to limit lateral movement, and the advantages associated with using a chain top link. The mower pictured in your post is one that does need to be supported at the front, which is another subject entirely. However, if I failed to make myself clear I apologize...Al English

Last I knew Limiter chains are used for "Height", not side to side. I would hate to see a fella go to his local Ag store and buy a set of "Limiter chains" then go home and pull his hair out cause he's trying to use them for sway bars !

later,dave

I can see the argument for the vertical limiters if you aren't running a Zane Thang on an earlier tractor and want to maintain a certain height, but I've got position control and front wheels on the mower.

Unless anyone can think of any other safety-related reason why not, I'm going to just take them off.

Ken Cullinan
'54 NAA
'64 Dodge W200
'71 Dodge Demon

It is in a primitive state at this point, waiting for its turn to come up on my ever rotating list of projects, but I'm looking forward to spending some elbow grease on getting it running and nicer looking.

Ken Cullinan
'54 NAA
'64 Dodge W200 Power Wagon
'71 Dodge Demon

I just had this visual picture of an accident waiting to happen, you know the "Murphy thing". Jim

Anyway, yes, I am talking about replacing the upper link with chain. I didn't originate this idea, but have seen it done many times. Using a tractor with a brush mower, and a front blade to bend them over, I have cleared some pretty decent sized trees. Doing this throws around plenty of baseball bat hunks of wood, it makes a lot of noise, you can't go too fast, and it's rough on the tractor, but there seems to be no safety problems relating to the chain top link. I have also hit large stumps and rocks with no problems. Apparently the blades don't exert much upward force on the mower unit. If the mower deck did try to fly up, interference with the driveshaft would take place long before things got ugly...Al English

You should use either limiter chains or a sway bar to assure that the mower tracks predictably. You choose.

George Willer

George Willer