Powered mowers 2

[Anonymous]

I am thinking about building a powered mower this winter because my ponies aren’t strong enough to pull the #9 McD that I restored for more than about an hour.
I was only able to find these pics online of a mower that was built by a UK group and tried out in Romania.
Does anybody have any pics to share of their attempts at powering a mower?

[Does’ Leap]

Daniel,

Just curious, how big are your ponies and how long a bar are you running on your #9?

George

[Rod]

I found the article, it’s in Vol 28 no.1 of Rural Heritage. If you send me your address I can send a photo copy of the article to you.

[Rod]

OPPs I guess I would have to get permission from Rural Heritage to do that. But if you cannot get it from them you probably could get the permission for me to copy it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys for the help. I am in contact with Joe Mischka already, but it sure helps to know which issue it was in. Just curious, was it a case of putting a gas engine on an existing horsedrawn mower frame, or a total rebuild using the bar and lead attachment? Anyway, I shall soon see when I get the article, I guess.

The ponies are thickset Welsh/mini cross, about 44 inches at withers. The mower was a #9 on rubber with a bar that I cut down to 4 feet. I rebuilt everything using Lynn Miller’s book and spent four hours making shimming all the guards perfectly, and put a single wheel tongue truck on. It was incredibly easy to pull after the fix up, and still cut good even at very low speeds, so long as the knife was sharp.

The ponies could pull it quite well even in thick native hay, mostly brome, if rested lots. But this summer was hot, hot, and they got pooped pretty quick, so I thought that they might be able to put up a reasonable amount of hay if they had a lighter pulling rig with a little gas motor on it.

I thought about getting a third pony, but couldn’t find a good match cheap here in Manitoba. I think three abreast would work with the ground drive, even with their small size.

I have an old New 4 that I am thinking about using for the powered mower idea. I may just take the cutter bar, yoke and the arm that attaches to the frame, then put that on a new lightweight frame made from square tubing. The lift mechanism and tilt lever could be easily attached, I think. I was just looking at options before I get started building it.

[Rod]

It’s a real easy conversion putting a 5hp motor on an existing mower. The belt from the motor goes around the pitman shaft pulley which was turned down to accept it. The photos in the article are easy to follow.

[Anonymous]

I was thinking the same thing. But it would still have a lot of weight from the cast frame. That’s why I thought a complete rebuild with smaller rubber tires and a square tubing frame might be a lot lighter.

I was thinking about putting a tractor mower, like an old JD #8 onto a power forecart, but then I don’t have any other implements that would use the power cart. Also, it would still be heavy and cumbersome.

For my ponies, it would be nice to have a complete, lightweight, one-piece mower unit with a two-wheel auto steer tongue truck on front to make turning corners in the field easier.

Here in Manitoba, winters are loooong, so I will have lots of time to design it. Any idea how big of a pulley I’d need to get the speed down from 3500 rpms on the gas engine to a reasonable cutter bar speed?

[Anonymous]

Joe Mischka of Rural Heritage magazine sent me this article from a back issue that shows a very simple way to put a motor on a horse mower. Thanks Joe.

In the latest issue he has a similar article about putting a motor on a square baler that is also very simple.

[Rod]

That is the article I was referring to.

[Author]

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