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Sorry to be a party poop. I have purchased 3 sickle mowers in the past 25 years and have disliked all 3. Main problems: 1. Gauging where the tip is. Like going around fence posts especially, the end doesn't swing like you would want it to. It takes longer to get over to clear the post and subsequently a lot of crashing into the posts, and backing up and trying to manuever the tip as now you have lost your spacing from the fence..... ... On ponds, there is always something in the way you have to cut around or the bank is too low for the position of the tractor and you can't cut low enough. 2. On cutting grass (especially fine stemmed, long grasses used for hay) fields, the grass clogs the mower and it gets in the way of the wobble box on the next round in spite of the doo dads that the mfgrs have improvised to prevent it. Leaves big blobs of cut grass that don't cure (need a tedder to scatter it out; extra expense and extra time in the field) and makes for skipped over uncut grass. 3. If you don't see something in tall grass and hit it, it's curtains; breakaway or not. 4. Going down a fence row with trees and the sickle in the stowed upright position can also be curtains. On the newer Fords (of which I am aware) the sickle stow position is at a 45 degree angle and the bar is right behind your back..... helps the tree limb problem as long as you don't get stabbed..... in the back. Ha. 5. Only operates 90 degrees out to answer your question, unless the trip mechanism got broken on the last stump you didn't see and whacked. Then it's 120 degrees. 6. To prevent the zippered look, and to prevent skipping over tender grass, speed has to be horribly slow and the cutter bar must be sharp. Seldom lasts more than a couple of years.
----- ----- ----- -- Ok critic what do you use? I have found that the best all around, dependable, cutter for me is the mower conditioner, commonly called a swather. It solves all the problems the sickle has for haying and field cutting (unless I am bush hogging; not hayin; then I use the bush hog type mower and prefer the 3 pt). To cut around fences and ponds, I use an ordinary lawnmower (lawntractor). The 48" deck or larger is best as the blade sticks out beyond the tires and you can get right on the fence and right around the posts; total control, nice cutting, if you have to stop and back up no realignment necessary with the fence. On the pond, what you can't get with it you can come back with a weed eater and get. Additionally. After spending thousands of dollars (which I recovered somewhat by selling the implements) on trying to mow the dam on my pond, I found that the same riding lawnmower works best for that too. No scalping where the dam is domed on the top and no roll over on the slope as you can sit on the side of the seat on the high side (if you're worried) and have a go at it. I can't mow vertically as there are trees and brush at the base of the dam and vertical just doesn't look as nice as horizontal.....kinda blends in with the length of the dam. Your center of gravity is very low and the mower makes a really nice "lawn looking" cut. Lastly in going around the edges of things, where trees like to grow, there is no problem with the canopy or exhaust pipe contacting tree limbs. Very big deal for me, and one guy on here had a serious accident by a loader on his tractor catching a vine and pulling a dead tree over on top of him.....Be tough to do that with a lawnmower. Good luck. Mark
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