Sickle Bar Mower - 53 Sickle Bar Mower Northland Feed Kansas City, MO (816) 452-8393. Lawnmowers, Lawn Tractors, Blowers, Mulchers, Rotovators, Trimmers by Snapper, Billy Goat, Hitachi, Honda, BCS, Seppi from Industrial Lawn Equipment.
For many years, folks asked me: “Don’t you have a company logo?” And we really didn’t, as I just never took the time to come up with onewe just had “Earth Tools” written out in a blocky font, and that passed for a logo. Finally, though, I decided to put some effort into it, and I hired my sister-in-law Trina Peiffer (my wife’s twin sister) to make a line drawing of the Earth Tools sign we have here at the shop. This sign is made out of a 4-foot length of Eastern Red Cedar log; the letters are carved with a chain saw. I made this sign about 15 years ago (below is a photo). I figured this was a logo with some “meaning”not just some arbitrary design. Hope you like it! -Joel, Earth Tools owner.
We are in our busiest time of year now. The combination of warm weather AND the tendency for folks to wait until the last minute to order usually means incredibly high order volumes ALL AT ONCE. And as a result, lead time on tractor shipments is currently in the two to three week range from order payment to ship date (parts/garden tool orders are still shipping out same or next day). We appreciate your business, and we’re working as hard as we can to get orders out as fast as possible, WITHOUT cutting corners on the proper equipment setup, prep & checkout that we are famous for. We are now offering a “regional” delivery service for tractor & implement orders within a 400-road-mile radius of our location in Owenton KY.
Earth Tools’ owner’s Father-in-law Charlie will be doing the deliveries. Charges for this service will be a bit more than for shipping by truck freight (call for a quote to your specific location), but delivery will be with a pickup truck (and trailer, if needed) that can get to most any location – unlike a semi-truck. Also, scheduling of the delivery will be more flexible, to better meet your needs. More “perks” of this service are that the equipment will be FULLY assembled, and Charlie will show you basic operation of the tractor. Minimum merchandise order for this service: $6000.
Call for a delivery quote! 59” double-action cutter bar These mowers have evolved considerably over the years. The single-action cutter bar mowers we offer are clog-proof due to a ‘guardless’ lower blade design - which we have demonstrated by cutting right through a hay-bale without clogging. The latest innovation in cutter bars was the advent of the “double-action” mowers a few years ago; these units have the upper and lower blade assemblies that both reciprocate opposite each other to cancel out at least 95% of the vibrations, which are the most objectionable part of using a walk-behind cutter bar mower. (the double-action units do have “guards” affixed to the lower teeth, like a conventional sickle bar, but since these reciprocate, they shake themselves through material and we have found them to be virtually clog-proof as well.).
Spring-loaded blade tensioners on double-action cutter bar The double-action bars also come with spring-loaded blade tensioners, which require no adjustments and are extremely easy to disengage when the blade needs to be removed for service. (single-action bars stocked by us all use the standard ‘adjustable’ tensioners, which require periodic adjustment and must all be loosened when removing the blade. The BCS brand single-action bars can be special-ordered with spring-loaded tensioners as well.). Cutter bar mowers cut down material at the base, kind of like a big scissors, and leave the cut material whole. Therefore they are great for forage (hay) harvesting, or for any mowing application where you don’t need the material “chopped up”.
These mowers will cut anything up to a 1” sapling, so they are pretty tough. Some folks use the cutter bars for mowing brush, but if used for this, they will probably require more maintenance compared to a brush or flail mower, due to all the individual blade sections that are riveted into the blade that you may damage on rocks, larger trees, etc. (These blade sections are sharpenable and replaceable, of course, but doing so is time-consuming); plus, as mentioned above, the cut material is left whole, so it takes a long time to decompose & looks ‘messier’. Cutter bars do have other advantages, however, due to: Low clearance; cutting blade “side projection” which is greater than the wheel width of the tractor for easily mowing under plank, barbed wire, electric or high tensile fence; mowing around pond edges (a reciprocating blade doesn’t care if you stick the end in the water unlike a rotary mower, which will nearly kill the engine) or mowing under Christmas trees. Also, cutter bar mowers are simply the most efficient mowers around in terms of time and fuel use.
They require so little power to run, a very wide width can be powered by a relatively small engine. (Typically, you can figure a cutter bar requires half the horsepower of any rotary mower; therefore the same size motor can run a mower twice the width in a cutter bar than a rotary mower.) So if you need to rough-mow big areas, you don’t mind if the cut material is larger and will decompose slower, and you want to cut it in the least time with the minimum fuel use, the cutter bar is the tool of choice. NOTE REGARDING CUTTING HEIGHT: Cutter bars cut best when cutting close to the ground, as they rely on the cut material simply falling over backward to clear the material off the top of the blade. If the material is cut too high on the stem and/or the material being cut is too short, the cut material won’t “flow” off the top of the blade properly, and when material builds up on top of the blade, it will “push down” the incoming material you are trying to cut.
This is why the standard height-adjustment “skids” that come with cutter bars are not designed to adjust very high; about a 3.5” maximum cutting height is all you can get out of them. The skids are adjusted by means of loosening two bolts on each skid. Caster wheel option for cutter bars NOW, FOR FOLKS WHO NEED TO CUT HIGHER (for example: in pastures where you want to leave some material for livestock to eat, or for areas with lots of rocks you want to avoid), we now produce an option of “Caster Wheels” for the cutter bars to replace the skidsthese achieve a cutting height from 5” to 7”.
(NOTE: Even though they WILL adjust down to very low cutting heights, the caster wheels are NOT good for cutting lowthe cut material will tangle up around the wheels. ONLY use the casters when cutting above 5”!! Use the standard “skids” when cutting at low heights!!) (Further Note: depending on the particular cutter bar type and installed accessories, the caster-wheels may mount on the TOP OR the BOTTOM of the cutter bar frame. This picture shows them mounted on the top.) Price of Caster Wheel option: $115 $105 (currently back-ordered) All cutter bars feature a ‘swivel’ joint in the input shaft assembly which allows the bar to follow the contours of the ground independent of the tractor axle. We offer several options in cutter bar styles: the most economical are the single-action with grease-type drive units, suitable for occasional use but they must be kept greased every 4 to 6 hours of use. Next up are the single-action type with oil bath type drive units the oil bath drive units are virtually indestructible and require only once-a-year oil level checking (and a single grease fitting lubricating the “swivel” joint, grease twice a year). But for large acreages, a double-action cutter bar should be considered not only for operator comfort (virtually no vibration), but also for speed: since the blade reciprocation speed is effectively doubled by the opposite motion of the upper & lower blades, you can simply mow faster (in a higher gear).
The Double-action cutter bars all have oil-bath drive units. IMPORTANT NOTE regarding engine speed: NO cutter bar should be run at full engine throttle; Single-action bars should not be run over 1/3 throttle and Double-action not over ½ throttle, to keep machine & blade fatigue at a minimum and you certainly don’t need the power of full throttle with a cutter bar anyway! Save fuel, save maintenance cost, and keep the throttle LOW when running a cutter bar mower!! To see a short video of a cutter bar mower in action Notes:. Cutter bars with Grease-type drive units are manufactured by Grillo; units with oil bath drive units (single and double-action) are made by BCS.
We use a PTO adapter to adapt the Grillo bars with grease-type drive to BCS tractors, or a different PTO adapter to put the BCS oil bath units on the Grillo tractors. So, when figuring prices, make sure to add in the adapter price if you are fitting a BCS cutter bar to a Grillo tractor or vice versa (adapter price on Tractor Accessories page; typically $65 - $70). Cutter bars are relatively light-weight implements, and may require some additional PTO extensions or an implement weight to counterbalance heavier engine optionsask about this when ordering.
If you’d like to visit our shop, we have plenty of land to demonstrate our walk-behind tractors with any implement. But if you’re coming to visit, CALL AHEAD at least one day in advance! Retail business hours are by appointment (yes, weekends, too), so the more notice you give us the better we can set our schedule to fit your schedule.
We are occasionally out of the shop doing deliveries, demonstrations or displaying equipment at trade shows. © Copyright 2016 - Earth Tools, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited.
I recently bought a used sickle/cutter bar mower. I ran it for a while today on my BCS tractor. (I believe it is a 715). The results were only so-so, so I wanted some advice. What I saw was that not all grass was cut. Some was just pushed down.
Also, a lot of grass got trapped between the moving blades and the stationary blades. And kind of got pulverized there. In the densest tallest grass areas with the driest, stiffest grass it did pretty well. Anyway, here are the questions: First, the blades are serrated.
Can I sharpen them with a file anyway? Do you take the blade assembly off to sharpen it? How often do you sharpen? Second, the guy I bought it from (seems quite knowledgeable) said that there are two adjustments, one to keep the moving blades pushed against the lower blades, and one to keep the bar (behind the moving blades) pushed forward. He said that the first adjustment (keeping cutting blades pushed against each other) is done by hitting the tension arms with a hammer at a particular angle (loosening is done by hitting them right in the middle). He suggested using a punch to avoid damage.
I did try this, and it didn't seem to increase the tension. The blades still seemed a bit loose. Maybe I didn't hit it hard enough?
Not the right angle? Maybe the procedure is wrong? How do you do the second adjustment? I think he told me, but I forgot. It may have been the same basic idea as the first one. Does anyone have a link to a user's manual for this thing? I think I found a service manual online, but it is almost entirely just diagrams.
Also, what do you use for lubrication? I think I saw somewhere online one guy used chainsaw bar lube. Seems like that would be OK. Note: it has two zerk fittings, but I am talking about lubing the sliding parts, not the oscillating mechanism. Lastly, I was running at pretty low throttle setting, afraid of wearing out the cutter needlessly.
What is the correct throttle setting for a cutter bar? I know it is a lot of questions. I will be grateful for any and all answers. Hey McKenzie, First - how old a mower? Does it have rock guards out past the sickle sections, or are they about the same as the sickle sections? The older ones with the longer rock guards aren't as user friendly and have been off the market for a couple decades.
Sickle mowers really like a taller, heavier material to do an effective job. Finer stuff gets missed. Shorter stuff builds up on the cutterbar. You can sharpen serrated blades. You only sharpen the smooth side while doing the sharpening. You can only add so much pressure to the sickle bar. Adding too much pressure will cause it to bind, add friction, and greatly shorten the life of the bar and guards.
Most I have seen have a bolt and jam nut assembly. You loosen the jam nut and turn the bolt to increase tension on the bar. Here's a manual - The material being cut releases liquids that help lubricate the cutterbar. If you feel you need more, just have some cheap veggie oil to dump on every now and again - but it really isn't necessary. If you're harvesting the hay, I'd hesitate to put anything on the cutterbar that I wouldn't be willing to eat. Grease zerks should be given a couple pumps daily or every 8 hours (seems there should be more than 2.).
If there isn't one there yet, you should install a zerk on the main gearbox, remove the second bolt, and pump into the gearbox until grease comes out the other bolt hole. Put the bolt back in and give it 5 more pumps.
You got it right about throttle setting - at and idle or JUST above an idle. Running them faster is stressful on both you and the machine. Sickle mowers really like a taller, heavier material to do an effective job. Finer stuff gets missed.
Shorter stuff builds up on the cutterbar. You can sharpen serrated blades.
You only sharpen the smooth side while doing the sharpening. You can only add so much pressure to the sickle bar.
Adding too much pressure will cause it to bind, add friction, and greatly shorten the life of the bar and guards. Most I have seen have a bolt and jam nut assembly. You loosen the jam nut and turn the bolt to increase tension on the bar.I could see the blades move up and down. Also, I could easily slide the blades back and forth by hand.
My initial thinking was I would tighten it up until it was binding, then loosen it a bit. But I was never able to get it the slightest bit tight. The material being cut releases liquids that help lubricate the cutterbar. If you feel you need more, just have some cheap veggie oil to dump on every now and again - but it really isn't necessary. If you're harvesting the hay, I'd hesitate to put anything on the cutterbar that I wouldn't be willing to eat.
Grease zerks should be given a couple pumps daily or every 8 hours (seems there should be more than 2.). If there isn't one there yet, you should install a zerk on the main gearbox, remove the second bolt, and pump into the gearbox until grease comes out the other bolt hole. Put the bolt back in and give it 5 more pumps.I will see if I can figure out what you are talking about with the zerks. I think the two zerks I have are just on the gear box and another on the u-joint (or yoke?). Point taken about lubes! I am worried vegetable oil might eventually get kind of gummy though.
I do usually feed the grass to my goats. I don't really make hay, I just cut a couple of days worth of grass and weeds at a time to avoid buying hay.
Maybe if I get the mower working better I'll try to do the hay. Pics of the unit would be helpful. So the manual I linked was the 1995 and newer mower manual. This is the 1994 and older manual - If you still don't see your mower, you'll need to go into the old shop manuals for the 715, 725, 735. Then, they're only instructions on how to break them down and rebuild them. As far as greasing, I assumed you have the grease type. Perhaps you have an oil bath mower.
Then you'd have a pivot zerk that only needs to be greased every couple days and a pitman zerk that should be greased every 8 hours or daily. Once again, pics would help. I know of sickle mowers that are tensioned with a hammer, but they're not BCS. Not sure if this will clarify anything any more than Farmerboybill.
Bcs Sickle Bar Mower Transmission Oil Plug
The previous owner may have been referring to tensioning the the mower blades with a ball peen hammer. For years I used sickle bar mowers in an orchard and sometimes the teeth would vibrate loose (over time). The teeth were held to the blade with metal rivets (pin) and the head of the rivets was hit to reshape the head of the metal rivet into a dome shape using a 3/16-inch punch and a ball-peen hammer. The peened metal rivets held the blades securely.
Sometimes these would rattle loose on me, especially if I was trying to re-use an old pin. Finding the correct size pin was not always an easy task depending on the sickle bar I was working on. I don't know how bcs blades are attached or if they use a standard rivet size. Some older blades used odd metric sizes and that was a problem because 'close enough' was never really good enough to keep things in place. The new 'double action' BCS sickle bars have spring tensioner. BCS single-action bars can be special-ordered with spring-loaded tensioners as well.
I hear your frustration regarding cutting grass. Using a sickle bar in tall straw-like grass was never a problem but softer lower (6-8') would clog up the blade or get pushed along into big clumps and prevent the blades from cutting anything.
I would try to avoid using the sickebar mower until the grass was taller (with straws) but grass rarely grows evenly on any one block of trees in an orchard, so it was not unusual for me to stop and unclog things. Sometimes going in reverse for a few feet would do this. For some reason the sickle bar was always my favorite mower on the farm.
It was very quite and peaceful to use; was not taxing on the tractor (unlike the larger hydraulic rotary mower); would move at fast pace when conditions were right; I never had to worry about the grass getting ahead of me when I was busy with other tasks (unlike a flail); the sickle bar reached far under the branches of the apple trees, and best of all I could always count on the sickle bar being in working order when many of the other mowers needed parts or repair. It was very dependable. How tall was the grass that you were trying to mow?
Are you looking to maintain a finished lawn or a secondary height? What gear did you end up cutting in (five forward speeds from the spec below). I am curios to know how hard the sickle bar is to turn around when you need to go in the opposite direction? Without the differential is the BCS hard to turn with the sickle bar attached? How wide is the your cutter bar?
I found that it is easier to always cut in the same direction with the sickle bar mower. The grass flops over in one direction and going back on that freshly cut grass in the opposite direction encourages clogging. I called Joel at Earth Tools in Owenton, KY once and asked him about the sickle bar.
The guys there are very helpful. Depending on your goals, the 20' BCS Brushcutter mower or Palidino flail mower might be the ticket. I have heard that some of the BCS rotary mowers have issues (not the Brushcutter or Palidino). The really small one-wheel rotary version might have has some sort of gearing issue but not really sure exactly what). I have not heard of issues with the larger rotary finish mowers. Let us know how things work out and post photo or video link.
This is worth watching: These are slow and you need mower hp than the 725: This flail is moving at a good pace but not as wide as a sickle bar: SPECIFICATIONS -BCS model 725 tractor, 2-wheel -Year 1995 - Kohler Magnum 8 gas engine -Speeds: 5 forward, 2 reverse (Hi/Low range) -Approximate speeds: Forward MPH:.6 1.24 1.5 3.0 7.4 Reverse MPH:.77 1.85. Sorry for the long absence. I was on vacation and then when I came back I was dealing with other stuff.
I did finally take some pictures. It is a 715 tractor (originally acme but re-powered with the Kohler command pro from Joel at earth works - thanks to this forum for turning me on to that!), not a 725. I only have one mowing speed (slow). I also have a 20' brush mower. It is good, but with bumpy uneven ground (most of my property) and small wheels, it tends to get hung up (tractor supported by engine guard and mower with wheels in the air). The sickle bar much less so.
Some areas I would like to keep reasonably presentable (not like a lawn, but at least like a field you would walk through with normal shoes). Also I want to reduce tick habitat. But I would also like to try to cut grass and weeds to fee to my goats (so I don't have to buy them so much hay). So I think I will need to have both kinds of mower. The dealer who sold me the mower was not talking about the rivets that hold in the teeth. He was definitely talking about adjusting the force with which the sliding teeth are pushed against the stationary teeth.
Also there is a bar that pushes the sliding teeth forward which adjusts much the same way. It definitely SEEMS to be a BCS mower. Many of the parts say BCS right on them (cast parts with BCS cast into the part). Since my first post, the grass grew quite a bit, and I found that it is much easier to cut when it is tall. It is junky weedy grass all gone to seed.
I raked it into a big pile anyway and plan to feed it to the goats. I still have acres to mow.
It is a slow process and I don't have enough time in any one day to do it all. I may invest in a more serious tractor (853) and a wider brush mower of some sort. I got this tractor 'for free' when I bought a chipper. The Acme motor had thrown a rod through the engine case so he said 'if you want it take it. If not, leave it. Same price for the chipper either way.'
Sickle Bar Mower
There is also an old mainline tiller 'for free.' Pretty good deal. Anyway, I went back to the guy who sold me the mower to buy a throttle cable (he is actually an experienced BCS dealer) and told him about my uncertainty. He found another old mower in his bone pile that had similar adjustment scheme and explained it in more detail.
I will try the revised procedure, and if it works (and if I remember) I will let you know. I am much more confident now that his instructions are correct. I was striking at around a 45 degree angle. But apparently you really need to strike the holders so that the hammer is moving parallel to the teeth. A 'head on collision' if you will. Thanks to pookins for the video links and sharing experiences remembrances with the sickle bar!
When the grass got taller, it was somewhat peaceful (with ear protection) watching the taller drier grass fall away in waves. And thanks for catching the picture of the hammer! That does look more like my unit. Somehow I missed it on the first pass. I think my mower is 40 inches wide.
The ground is loose, so turning the mower is not too bad. It is helpful to have an already mowed area at each end of the run where you can make your U-turn. I was alternating directions. For me it would be hard to mow the same direction, as I am mowing in a side-hill orientation, and it is much easier to always turn down hill.
See pictures of mower. Hey Keith, I too went and looked at a mower I have from 1982 and you are right about the 'hammer' method of tensioning. Yours surely is a BCS mower.
The one in my boneyard has long rockguards that stick out twice as far as the sickle sections. I've been told it was not a very fun mower to use. Looks like you have a mulching or combination mower. A slightly cheaper way to get slightly more ground speed is to buy some taller tires. The stock tire on a 715 is 16 inches tall.
You can go to a 5-12 tire that is 22 inches tall. It should increase your ground speed from achingly slow to moderate. Another option is a Grillo.
Sickle Mower For Sale
The Grillo 107d has a higher 3rd gear (3.3 mph at full throttle) than a BCS 853 (2.6 mph at full throttle). It's also $1000 cheaper. Your sickle mower, tiller, and chipper will bolt directly onto the 107d with no adapter. The rough-cut mower will bolt up, but it'll be running backward. Hey Keith, I too went and looked at a mower I have from 1982 and you are right about the 'hammer' method of tensioning. Yours surely is a BCS mower. The one in my boneyard has long rockguards that stick out twice as far as the sickle sections.
I've been told it was not a very fun mower to use. Looks like you have a mulching or combination mower. A slightly cheaper way to get slightly more ground speed is to buy some taller tires. The stock tire on a 715 is 16 inches tall. You can go to a 5-12 tire that is 22 inches tall. It should increase your ground speed from achingly slow to moderate. Another option is a Grillo.
The Grillo 107d has a higher 3rd gear (3.3 mph at full throttle) than a BCS 853 (2.6 mph at full throttle). It's also $1000 cheaper. Your sickle mower, tiller, and chipper will bolt directly onto the 107d with no adapter. The rough-cut mower will bolt up, but it'll be running backward.Thanks! Maybe the tires are worth investigating. Should also help with the hanging up problem. Mine are old and cracked from exposure even though there is plenty of tread on them.
I suspect the unit sat for a long time after the original motor quit. Will the 5-12 tires fit on the stock wheels, or am I looking for a wheel/tire package? Oh, and if the rough-cut mower is running backward, won't the chipper and tiller also be running backward? I can understand why the cutter bar will work either way, but I think the wood chipper will only cut if the flywheel is spinning the right way. And with the tiller, I guess it could work either way if you turn the tines around, but I wouldn't want it to jump up and run backwards and till me into the topsoil while I am operating it.