Equipment Sought

Hi david, Some of the equipment you want is hard to find, or not really developed yet. I & J Machine in Lancaster, Pa. has done alot of work with Hydraulic acumulators. These carts develope/store Hyd. pressure while they move and then can use it to raise a plow or what ever. There are also carts with electric/hyd. lifting capability. I am not sure a four foot bar will give you an eight foot implement. If it does then it is not that hard to make a regular mower into a one horse mower. They are also starting to make a mower for orchards and vineyards that has a sickle bar right infront of the teamster. I think I saw this in an SFJ last year about a demo out in California. Don’t know if that helps at all.

Yard Hitch developed an electric hydraulic 3 pth cart, using deep cell battery like golf carts and an electric motor as on snowplows to run the hydraulics. It works great, and can lift anytime you want as long as battery capacity. Beside forks, it will also take any category one 3pth implement. See pix in gallery under Events (NEAPFD). This is pretty expensive, but the concept could be modified by a handy innovator. Carl

Hi David,

I was discussing your quest for a smaller binder with your neighbor Tevis as he stopped through on the way back from Beiler’s sale. From his description of your operation, it seemed like maybe you could make use of a system that I have used for harvesting small grains with a sickle-bar mower. My McCormick #6 has provision for attachments to the 5′ bar. I took a piece of 1/4″ plywood as wide as the bar and about 3 feet deep and bolted a piece of 1″ by 1/8″ steel to the leading edge, with eye bolts to allow pins to attach the plywood behind the cutter bar.

This acted as a simulation of the original reapers that had a person raking the grain off the table. As my oxen pulled the mower, someone walked behind, alternately raking one half of the width of the table and then the other. The wheat fell nicely onto the table and raked off well-aligned for bundling and tying. A wooden-toothed hay rake is recommended as it is light, pulls the wheat off nicely, and if you get a tooth into the cutter, the tooth cuts off and you have not jammed the machine. Guess how I know that….

Normally we use a reaper-binder or a combine as our fields are three acres, but we did this adaptation back in the days when management was afraid to let interns play with the binder. I’ll check, but I think our binder is about 8 feet.

If you don’t hear from Tevis soon, give him a ring. He said he thinks he knows where there is a one-horse sickle bar mower in your neighborhood.

Good luck,

Questions and comments welcome.

Rob Flory
Howell Living History Farm