[TrinitySmallFarm]

I purchased a Frontier LP 3106 sickle bar for my JD 1025r. It’s sitting here wanting to be used. I have an embankment that I need to cut. I will cut the embankment from below, needing about a 45-degree positive lift on the bar. I will use an SCV from the bucket for hydraulic lift of the sickle bar.

I am a noob with sickle bars. I read through the owners manual, but I am still not clear on all the adjustments/positions for the various parts on the bar. The bar was assembled by my dealer and delivered on the tractor. Unfortunately I either cannot find my photos of the attachment before removal or I didn’t take any (which is not like me).

Does anyone have experience they can share, or a video showing attaching this sickle bar, preparing it, and using it on an embankment?

If not, I will ask my salesman to make a trip and go over it with me.

Thanks,
Stebe

 

[Tractor Tim]

I purchased a Frontier LP 3106 sickle bar for my JD 1025r. It’s sitting here wanting to be used. I have an embankment that I need to cut. I will cut the embankment from below, needing about a 45-degree positive lift on the bar. I will use an SCV from the bucket for hydraulic lift of the sickle bar.

I am a noob with sickle bars. I read through the owners manual, but I am still not clear on all the adjustments/positions for the various parts on the bar. The bar was assembled by my dealer and delivered on the tractor. Unfortunately I either cannot find my photos of the attachment before removal or I didn’t take any (which is not like me).

Does anyone have experience they can share, or a video showing attaching this sickle bar, preparing it, and using it on an embankment?

If not, I will ask my salesman to make a trip and go over it with me.

Thanks,
Stebe

I have some videos with it. …although mine is orange, it is the same exact mower.

Sickle Bar Mower for Subcompact Tractor!

Making Hay! Part 1 Sickle Mower Subcompact Tractor

Tim

 

[JDJake]

I have some videos with it. …although mine is orange, it is the same exact mower.

Sickle Bar Mower for Subcompact Tractor!

Making Hay! Part 1 Sickle Mower Subcompact Tractor

Tim

The piece on the end of the bar is called a grass board. On the older sickle bars you could adjust the bar to ride with the guards nose down, level, or nose up. Nose up was used in rough or rocky areas. Also, the bar should be no more than 90 degree's from your tractor. Some farmers even run with the outside tip of the bar running slightly ahead.

 

[TrinitySmallFarm]

Thanks Tim! The videos are great, especially the first one. I think it answered all my questions, so I might just try cutting my embankment today! I'll let you know how it goes.

Steve

 

[TrinitySmallFarm]

Today was Sickle-Bar day. It went well, though it took some time to complete the attachment to the tractor as I carefully read through the user-manual (again) to ensure I made the correct connections, safety steps, and adjustments. I was able to mow my embankment (a great victory, in my opinion) then, filled with confidence, I mowed down a section of our pasture which had not been mowed yet this summer. Thankfully we have a neighbor who will come and bale it for use. I learned a few lessons about the use of the sickle-bar, and my fear is (mostly) subsided. Other than my imagination, there was no indication that the tractor might roll as I mowed the embankment (which features a ditch I've mowed with no issues in the past) but I did keep my seatbelt on tight and my hand on the sickle-bar control so I could press it to the embankment if I felt any shifting. Regardless, I'm going to read up on ballast once more (I did have the FEL installed) to double check ballast requirements just to be sure. I may be in the market for wheel weights and front ballast. I don't have the video gear some have (that's something I'm saving up for) but I did snap a few photos of the finished work.

In the first photo (the field with the picnic tables on the far left) you can see in the distance a portion of our field that had already been mowed a few days earlier. You can probably make out the darker portions, from the foreground to just beyond the picnic tables, which I cut today.

The sickle-bar did a great job of cutting and following the contour of the ground. There were a few narrow patches of standing grass from mowing too close to the previous strip. Simple user

error.



The embankment (below): the primary reason for the sickle-bar purchase... I had weed whacking. The sickle-bar length was perfect for reaching all but about one section two feet in length and a couple inches wide. I can't get to that from above due to some tree stumps I need to get rid of.

Thanks for the help!

Steve