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Deeredriver2520

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Last November I was voted in as Township Supervisor. The township has a John Deere 6430. What we or I need is to match the tractor up with a mower that I can use to mow along the dirt roads here in the Township. We rent every year for two weeks a big tractor with a boom mower that cuts brush and small trees. We are not interest in purchasing a boom mower. Cost and maintenance is not worth it. I have my own JD 350 sickle bar mower. Not sure if a sickle bar mower is the right equipment to do the job. What are some of the other types of mower that would do the job for our Township? What would be heavy enough to fit the JD 6430? Your ideas would be greatly appreciated!!! Al
 
I'm afraid I can't help you.

I've been a County Commissioner, but our county requires farmers and property owners to keep the roads mowed.
 
My county uses a bush hog on a boom arm. That way the tractor can stay on the road and if need be turn the bush hog vertical and cut back overgrowing bushes.
 
In my area township and county roads are easements, the property owner owns the land the road is on. They can strongly suggest the property owner maintains the ditches here. Typically the coubty maintains weeds and mows the top 8 feet of county roads, but the townships can operate on low budgets and move off to the land owners.

The state outright buys the road ways the state highways are on, so they have different rules for that.

Honestly, most folk fight and feud over cutting the road ditches for hay here, it’s hard to find a road ditch that isn’t mowed by the owners or friends of the owners.

Paul
 
Ours same as Pete. Disc mower. Take one swipe off the top. Hold the mower up as much as possible so rarely get in the gravel. If he comes across thistles he will get down in the ditch to mow them off. Everybody seems satisfied with the way they do it, well except for them two residents who complain about everything.
 
yea so they say locally a lawyer took his ticket to court about not removing the snow judge threw it out.If the landowner can be required to shovel the snow they should be able to set up a tool booth.
 
I used to mow our township road banks with a 45 HP tractor and 7 foot disk mower. Worked very well for me but some others cautioned me that cutterbar lubrication might be a problem with the bar at steep angles like are required for road banks. I did not experience that issue in 4 years of mowing.
 
We just had a non-USA poster complain (a regular occurrence) about grass clippings on the road. How do you handle a complaint like that?
 
(quoted from post at 19:22:46 07/06/20) Most cities require residents to keep sidewalks shoveled in the winter, despite it being public property.
Click to expand...

And in my city the homeowner is responsible for replacing sidewalks that crack and become uneven. And the city specifies the contractor you have to use.
 
The state mows all the state highways.
They have several different tractors with mowers.

The parish (county) mows the back roads.
With their lower budget they use a setup like this.




cvphoto49687.jpg
 
Tell them you will just close the road for 24 hours when you mow,and be sure that everyone who lives on the road knows why it is closed.
 
Same over here in ND. Landowner or tenant are required to mow all county and township roadsides. If not done the county hires it out and adds the bill to the yearly taxes. Most of the county and state roads get cut for hay.
 
I would think that the oil in a disc mower cutterbar basically turns into a mist from one end to the other regardless of the angle. In my opinion the theory that the oil just pools up on the downhill side and the uphill gears run dry just doesn't add up and it sounds like your experience would support this thinking.
 
Big question: Do you, as a property owner, want to take a little incentive & some expense on your part to keep Public Property adjacent to your private property in the same condition as you keep your property or do you want to pay more taxes so some public employee who may not have any pride in how the work is done do it to his satisfaction and not yours?
 
That isn't the issue, the issue is the gov't FORCING a private citizen to do work on gov't property not hard to see how that sort of power could lead to some very bad things.Having multiple
layers of gov't maintaining multiple layers of roads seems like a big mess to me.
 
In the Midwest, rural property owners often still own the right of way on county roads to the middle of the road, or however the land was platted before the road was built.
 
The guy that mows road sides here uses a disc mower with little problems it appears. He also has a brushhog type of deal on an arm to cut back limbs and brush . He does have a problem with the fence every now and again if the brush is thick.
 
50 years ago in the township were I grew up the roads got mowed 3 times a year with a sickle bar mower mounted on a Silver king tractor. Same tractor pulled a Galion grader and all the roads got hit at least twice. The road crew consisted of one part time man and his wife who did all the mowing. The only other equipment the twp owned was a 2 ton truck with a plow.

Today that same twp has three dump trucks, a boom mower and tractor, a huge Massey tractor with a loader and a Deere grader so big you can't pass it on the road and TWO full time roadmen who "don't have time" to mow the ditches,,
 

Deerdriver, you have a very broad spectrum of suggestions simply because no one here knows what your roadsides are like. If I were contracting for roadside mowing in my town I would use one like the Rhino which has been already suggested. A mile in an hour would be a very fast rate here due to the need to work around trees, boulders, stumps ledge outcroppings delineator posts street number posts, and mailboxes. I wouldn't consider a side-mount because I would want to be getting a close look at the ground before my mower deck got to it. If you have wide open broad ditches go with a three point batwing. It all depends on what you are going to do with it.
 
I own the road by my house,state has a 35 ft right of way,they may as well own it,they maintain it and I really have no more rights to it than anyone else that goes up and down the road. If I can start collecting tolls I'll mow it and repave it when its needs it.
 
Butch(OH),,That sounds just like my township...enough equipment for 3 or 4 times the area that they deal with,,and no one knows how to run it...
 
Check out this setup from Alamo (nee Mott). It seems to me that a side-mount flail mower possibly augmented by a three-point hitch-mounted flail would satisfy your needs. Also check out the other flail products from Alamo. Flail mowers don't throw debris on the road and are pretty tolerant of rocks and other objects that might trash a sickle mower.
Alamo Interstater
 
Things are just done differently in different places. The state would need to own a whole lot more equipment and more employees to maintain the roadsides. The farmers get it done when they can, already have a tractor. Much of the hay in this area comes off roadsides, might as well make use of the grass.

Also, if you live out in the country here, you best better have a way to move snow. It may be a week or two before the highway contractor comes by. But we have low taxes.
 
I live in Lake County, Indiana and all roads in unincorporated areas are maintained by the county including road side mowing. They use something similar to the mower picture above. Some farmers have taken it upon themselves to mow the roadsides bordering their land. Of course the county doesn’t mind. Less work for them.
 
IMHO a sickle is a bad idea. So is a disc mower.

Hit a hidden rock or obstruction with a sickle mower, you end up with a broken sickle mower. Maybe just a guard, maybe just a knife, but it is still downtime.

Same goes for a disc mower. Hit a hidden rock or obstruction with a disc mower, you end up with a broken disc mower. Now it can start getting expensive.

Only two types of mowers I'd consider: Rotary, or hammerknife. Hit a rock or other obstruction with a good heavy rotary mower or hammerknife, you end up with a broken rock or an obliterated obstruction.

If you don't want one of those ditch mowers, consider an offset rotary mower. Woods has a series of two-spindle rotary mowers where the second spindle hangs off the right side of the tractor.
 
Did not know bush hog made such a mower. Sure you are not thinking of a rotary mower made by another manufacturer?
 
The state years ago had Farmall Super A tractors with side mounted sickles to mow the side ditches,driver carried his own tools and sections.Now they have two 4WD 100HP cab tractors with side mounted brush hogs and they hardly cut as much as the Farmalls cut.Of course farming has gone the same route.
 
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