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trail type sickle mower

F

Fudpucker

Member
I am thinking of getting a trail type sickle mower for use with my dad's H Farmal. He doesn't have much ground and we only have about 8 acres that is in hay and the rest is in corn. He still likes to get out there and play and he will never wait a day so I can come hook up the model 31 mower for him. We have other equipment but he likes the old stuff as do I. I am looking at a New Holland (455 I think) I have never used a trail type sickle mower and was wondering about the pros and cons. I know hook up would be a heck of alot easier!
 
If you have relative flat/open ground they are ok. You need more room on the ends to turn around on. They are easier to install. They just aren"t as easy to use. Also how are they hydraulics on your "H". You will need a cylinder to operate the lift.
 
We had a 7-foot sickle bar on an H when I was a teen. I was glad to see that H and mower for mowing as we were phasing out the horses and mules. Hal
 
Best sickle bar mowers going for hayfield work are the trailer types, the NH 455 is a good one no pitman stick.Stay away from any pitman stick mower if you really want to cut hay not just trim pastures.JD 450 is another good one but an AC twin wheel drive 82T will outcut them all.And yes I've used all 3.
 
(quoted from post at 17:13:57 01/02/11) ... Also how are they hydraulics on your "H". You will need a cylinder to operate the lift.
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To avoid the need for hydraulics then you could opt to go with one of the old New Idea trailer mowers. Most will be pitman drive so you will be limited to mowing near the horizontal positions , but that is all you need for a hay field anyway. (If you need to mow in vertical positions or below horizontal like on ditch/pond banks then you would defintely want a belt drive mower instead of a pitman drive, and a mounted type mower over a trail mower anyway).

This old New idea mower (model 30A) utilizes a mechanical lift system (gets power from PTO shaft) that operates via a trip rope so no hydraulics are needed. Unfortunately, I have not personally used it yet to let you know how well it works. That said it was my Father-in-laws and it is what he used for many years behind several different old tractors.

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Whoa!You're getting the cart before the horse!(LOL)Ihave a "better"idea.Go buy another H(or C or M or something),put the mower on one of them and leave it at that!How about a 300 so Dad can have live pto for his baler?Remember you can never have too many tractors (or too much fun)!Have a Happy and prosperous new year!Steve
 
I've used a NI trailer mower and they are better than cutting by hand with a sickle but not much better.They don't even come close to the NH mower he's looking at
 
I think we had a old International with a pitman stick, Im sure the stick was broke. When they sold it.
 
New Holland made fine trailer type mowers. We had a #55, Or #56 trailer type when I grew up. New holland still makes the same basic design today; although a bit more expensive. Like about $6000+.

Scotty
 
Granddad used a New Idea mower for years with his M. Worked pretty good for years till the gear box locked up the summer he got sick.

If you can't find a NH and end up with a NI, there are a few good parts on one a county and a half up the road if you need them.

Take care.

Dave
 
JD 450 probably the best. Good parts availability. Same unit as the 350 aside from chassis system and 350's were widely sold.
Somebody said something about a side or mid-mount. Not a bad idea but they seem to bring a premium anymore with collectors wanting to dress a tractor out anymore.
 
We had a very similar or perhaps idential mower, but the frame was NI green rather than the bittersweet orange. The over-spray indicates at least some of it was repainted, so it also could have been green. Ours was bought in '56. A big issue was that the mechanical lift wouldn't lift the far end of the cutter bar enough when traveling over cut hay, so it would frequently plug when this was done.
 
We had a New Idea like that for over a decade- certainly nothing wrong with it. One year we had 140 acres of hay. Usually used behind a WC, so the trip lift was fine, with no tractor hydraulics. Had the swing-away fixture in case of hitting a rock. Worst thing in my early years was hooking it up- I didn"t weigh enough to push the hitch down for hook-up. Only mickey mouse thing on it was the pto coupler- not a spring-loaded yoke. Had to insert a separate pin into the pto shaft. Back then the tractor shafts were drilled for that...now you could just put a modern yoke on the mower.
 
(quoted from post at 19:57:05 01/02/11) We had a very similar or perhaps idential mower, but the frame was NI green rather than the bittersweet orange. The over-spray indicates at least some of it was repainted, so it also could have been green...
Click to expand...

There is no overspray on this one- only birdpoop and barn dust where it sat in a shed unused for the last 25 years. Best I can tell, the paint is original or at least so darned old that it appears original and asolutely no other colors bleed through anywhere (except rust of course).

That said, You are correct that New Idea used green colors on their frames too. Most of the the model 30B, 25X which was the successor to the 30 series were green and also newer than the 30A.
 
I used a trail type IH mower in the late 60s to mow a lot of soil bank, a set aside program. It did not have a pitman stick and worked very well. I pulled it with an IH M with one way hydraulics, worked well, just put a vent in the other port of the cylinder.
 
If your ground is steep, forget a trailer mower. They slide off the hill. You can't add enough wheel weights to the wheels to get them to stick against a hill. Level ground, ok.
 
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