lo boy sickle mower question

[rbicomp14]

ive found one of these for sale. i have a ditch that borders my property and the country road that i live on. does this sickle deploy below the 90 degree range to cut the slopes of the ditch?

[gitractorman]

It depends on the model of sickle mower you are talking about. A standard Cub 22 or Lo-boy L-22 sickle mower will NOT go below 90 degrees, or work at any other angle for that matter other than flat to the ground.



They did make a Model 105 Balanced Head Mower, which will work at 45 degrees up to 45 below grade.



I've never seen one in person, and have only heard of a few people with them, so I'm guessing that they are fairly rare.

[Rudi]

Rob:

Remember that you have a 154 and a Cub L-22 won't fit. You are going to have to find an IH-222 Mower. It has the same limitations as the Cub-22

[Bill Hudson]

Rob:

Remember that you have a 154 and a Cub L-22 won't fit. You are going to have to find an IH-222 Mower. It has the same limitations as the Cub-22

I've only seen one of these and it was mounted on a 184. The owner was not interested in selling.

Bill

[rbicomp14]

this is very likely the model 22 but i dont know this as yet. i also found a mott model lb flail mower for sale.

[b52c130]

rbi,
I went through this whole issue about a year ago. If you need a sickle bar mower that will go down into a ditch, there are really only two options; The IH105 balanced head mower, which is very rare and usually totally worn out (they were owned by state or county road maintenance departments - and if the 'crank' part of it is broken - it is over $900 for the part) - OR - the Haban sickle bar mower. The Haban mowers all had the same 'Head' with different parts to mount on many different large lawn & garden tractors. Since the 'head' of the mower contained the 'crank' it would operate in a range of +45 degrees to -45 degrees. While none of the mounting brackets were designed for a 154, you might be able to 'adapt' it to a 154 style tractor. If you are fortunate enough to have the 3 point hitch, Haban made a 3PTH model which easily interchanges belt speed between 540 RPM and 1,000 RPM PTO speed.

On Yahoo there is a Haban owners club forum that has a wealth of knowledge about the sickle mower. Check out ebay for Haban sickle bar mowers that are for sale. 'Regular' Habans seem to go for $300 to $500, but would requir 'fab' work to make them fit. 3 Point Haban Sickles seem to go for $800 to $1,000.

Hope that this helps you, NJDale

[b52c130]

Some pictures of the Haban Sickle Bar Mower;