Farmall C mowing

So I"ve had my old C for quite a while... But I have never needed it for mowing.

I now have about 7 acres I need to start mowing, old bahia pasture that has grown up for the last 6 years I need to start getting back into shape.

My tractor had a long sickle bar mower when I got it, the kind that bolts to the axles and the drawbar. It"s in reasonable shape and worked when I took it off over a decade ago.

Here"s my dilemma. I put on a 3 point conversion and have been using the tractor for a little grading and such. I believe I would have to remove that 3 pt conversion to put the sickle bar mower back on. Swapping that out to mow isn"t something I really want to have to do.

There"s a used 6ft King kutter shredder I could buy for a good deal, dunno if my C would take well to that on high overgrown pasture, even though I recently rebuilt the engine and it"s likely stronger than it was new.

Or maybe I could weld up a frame and built a 3pt setup to attach the old sickle mower to the three point I have on it now..

What would you guys do?

are you referring to using it with a fail type mower ? if you are a 6 footer is a bit to much for a C. Even a 6foot brush hog is to much really in heavy conditions. If you end up with the 6 youll just have to take half bites with it. I would look for a 5 or even a 4 footer if you have time to look.

Andrew

6 foot brush hog type mower was what I have available to buy.

Just becaurse it is a six foot you dont have to take a full cut if the tractor cant handle it. After he gets it mowed once he can mow before it gets too tall the next time.

"Just becaurse it is a six foot you dont have to take a full cut if the tractor cant handle it. After he gets it mowed once he can mow before it gets too tall the next time."

This is my plan, to keep it mowed for a few years to get rid of some weeds. I won't be living there for a few years yet I don't think and not using the pasture for anything until then either other than trying to improve it a bit. Maybe get someone to hay it if I get the weeds down.

It'd been fallow for 6 years as the old guy who owned the place died back in '04 and I just bought it from an out of state inheritor a month ago..

I think I'll go for the 3pt brush hog and see how it goes.

It will be fine with the bush hog style mower. Make sure the front edge of the blade/s are lower than the rear by about 1/2" when the blades are turned so that they/it is front to rear. This reduces re-cutting and lowers required power by 30% or so.
Use a overrunning clutch on the mower drive shaft for safety and convenience in operation.
Start in an area of the field with less growth, and work out from there at 50% cutting width. Don't expect miracles and it will make one for you. Jim

Well the deed is done...

I went down and the 6ft brush hog was sold.. but they had an old beat up junky looking 5ft one so I bought it for $300, too much but I needed it.

Ground the blades as sharp as I could, for terribly beat up blades, couldn't do all that much to sharpen them.

But the old C did it's thing, mowed the 7 acres in 1st gear, grass and weeds from 3ft tall to 6ft tall in places.. I can imagine sharp blades would have made it easier but she only really struggle 2-3 times.

Couldn't find an overrun clutch, but honestly it wasn't bad at all without it, I do have good brakes and I'm a pretty big guy.



First time out and I didn't hit much I hadn't managed to see or pick up walking the place first.. Besides the septic tank... Couldn't find it (just bought the place)but found it when I ran over it.. glad it didn't cave in..


I am having a problem going into 3rd and 4th gear now days though. Seems to be getting worse. It's fine when I can shift it into gear, when in 3rd or 4th it works great... It's just that I can;t get it into the gears, I suppose something going on with the shifting mechanism.

Ahh well, they way the rebuilt engine runs so sweet I suppose I'm due to rebuild the back half at some point. I had a lot of fun hand cranking the old gal most of the time... First hard crank and off she goes..