Slope Mower

Jeez

what is it with you people, why can't you just buy stuff from the shop just like everyone else. There are dozens of companies out here making mowers, just turn your brain off, get a loan if you have to and buy a mower and get on with your life.

Mal

its called a passion for what you do. Keep on doing what you are doing with the loan mower thing! i think its great. All the best!!!

just out of curiosity where exac tly is out here? will you pass on the names of the companies that produce for regular sales networks the type of slope mower the poster is trying to build? having that data will be of use to us who grow concords for the kosher market.

thanks

'da ber

as to post #1......

if man were mean't to fly, they have wings.

I do not know who said that, but I think his name was ignoramus or something

Mud,

Look at the front end of the motor and see if you don't already have one or more pulleys on that end of the crankshaft. It may be easier to use those pulleys, or adapt a multi-sheave pulley to the shaft than to do the iron-mongery on the flywheel to put a pulley there.

LG_DAVE

Make sure to put really good tires on the thing. I've got a zero turn (sorry everyone I bought mine I didn't build it) that sucked on the least little incline until I put ATV tires on it.

Flywheel is a great idea to keep inerita.Incorporate a slip clutch in drive system to guard against sudden impact.Driving blades hydraulicaly is an option as well.

Do you have an input shaft for the transmission that coupled to the motor?If so, use it with a pillow block or flange bearing on the "free end" for support, and attach pulley there.Of course, it will be nescessary to cut off the main drive gears and turn down the shaft to a standard bearing size.I recommend a "Cam Lok" type bearing to prevent shifting of the shaft in the bearing.

The support for the bearing could be attached to the bell housing support holes of the motor.A minimum four point support is recommended.

If it was a manual transmission, you could also use the clutch and release bearing to disengage the mower drive from the output shaft.

Hope this is helpful.

HTRN

First off, let me welcome you to this forim. Just ignore posts like #1. They don't serve to further knowledge, but discourage it.

The amount of slope will determine the type of mower you use. If it was a very steep slope, I wouldn't try to use a riding type mower as traction and safety become serious issues. For me, I would use a tow-behind powered mower, the kind you can hook up to a garden tractor or ATV. But I wouldn't tow it. Instead, I would attach a winch and cable to the mower and working from the top of the slope, lower and retract it using the winch. a means of anchoring the winch at the top would be needed, such as a spike driven into the ground or the weight of a tractor/ATV.

reads like someone has worked the fields. the only comment i would add is in regard to anchoring the winch. i don't know if you have seen a device that is used to anchor guy wire lines to keep power line poles in soft earth or swampy areas that arn't too deep the look like a feed screw for grain augers with only one fin attached and have a 1"x about 5' length the top end has a eye swaged into it the auger type end has a fair sharp point to start it into the ground use a 24" stilson or a 3/4x 4' rebar to auger it down flush to the ground then use a legth of wire rope choker with good eyes in it to tie into the mower. to keep the unit from bouncing on the grass rows you might consider getting some cast iron weights set up in a stack and bolted through the mower deck. welding a 3/8 fine thread nut to bumper washer then staking the end of the eyebolt will keep it in place but a bead of weld would be better.

as for the first reply consider that the response posted would invite you to consider that he/she would easily be a candidate for the title c.p.a. and the a. does not mean accountant.

good luck with your venture.

'da ber

Mud,

A further thought - stimulated by Ronseto's comment about safety on a steep slope: Look at the hillside combine harvesters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lLMO2BPBF4&feature=related

Note how the machine levels side to side and front to back. All it takes is a couple of cylinders and a little parrallel linkage. A pendulum or mercury switch does the hydraulic control. The header is attached to the front axle, so stays level with the ground. These are very safe on steep slopes, and will tend to slide downhill rather than roll over. Note that they can roll, so judgement is still required.

LG_DAVE

Thanks for the feedback.

Re the front pulley on the engine - I plan to use it to drive the Hydrostatic drives which come with a belt drive.

I have access to the gearbox and bellhousing so it would make sense to use the clutch, for engaging and disengaging the cutter drive. Then modify the gearbox housing to accept a multi v pulley reduction drive.

I agree with the concerns re safety of a ride on - I was planning to make it remote control like this one http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=CpVkT2ZW708

First gear is usually pretty close to 4 or 5 to 1 ratio in most manual trannies.This would reduce the pulley size differentail required if you simply used the entire transmission, if room permits.

Or tell me why it won't work

I'm not telling you it won't work, but.........

There are issues with zero turn radius lawn mowers on side hills, they tend to drift/slide/crab, what every you might call it, on steep side hills, keep this in mind.

phoenix911

Phoenix 911

is the crabbing happen when going across the slope, or up and down hill or both?

Someone else mentioned this to me previously. Is there a better drive option that would make tracking better?

when you have a hydrostatic drive that also operates turning for zero turning radius, you basically habe the drive wheels driving and doing the turning (by going in the oposite directions, while the other (2) wheels which pivot freely are there for stability.

These pivot wheels going across the slope, will not track or have a hard time tracking in the drive wheels track (that is if the drive wheel is up front and the pivot wheels are in back) this is the best option that the other whay around.

Sooooo, in effect the front of your mower will not be pointed in the direction you are actually traveling, because the pivot wheels are being pulled to the side due to gravity on the slope.

A better option, $WD ...I mean 4WD.and make it (and since your dropping $$$ make it articulating ), but that may not be in your budget.

I do not know what the actual grade of slope your dealing with.

You can compensate the crabbing to a certian extent.

phoenix911

I believe this gentleman has it figured out. Although it appears it is not self propelled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlKGpzZzArY

now thats a lotta lawnmower!!! even self mulches sears aint got nuthin like that in the catalogue.

'da ber

Hi mudguard!

I don't like the idea of a flywheel added to the system when the mower is intended to negotiate up/down/sideways on steep slopes. Precession, balancing, safety, engine wear, belt wear, etc. You get the idea.

Why must your reduction system be married to a flywheel? If you're concerned about heavy torquing, can't you gear it down or use a simple transmission to engage it?

Mark

G'day Mark,

I may not have made myself clear on this point. My intention is not to add a flywheel to the engine or mower. I intend to use the existing flywheel / clutch end of the motor to drive the cutters. I plan to attach the reduction pulley set up to this end of the motor.
I'm currently thinking of keeping the bell housing and clutch and using the shaft from the gearbox inards to drive the small pulley.

I liked the idea of pulleys as if I have to tweek the rations, altering pulley sizes should be simpler than other methods.

Cheers

Steve

One operating caution. A maintenance engineer I once knew had a demo of a slope mower. It went so well, he scheduled a follow-up demo and told everyone that the mower was "the best thing I've seen since my wedding night".

Unfortunately, it rained the day before the second demo and the mower couldn't slid down the hill repeatedly. The engineer got a lot of teasing about his wedding night.

Moral: don't mow wet slopes, and be careful what you brag about.

Can you give a better description? The olive grove is all on a slope? The rows between bushes runs up and down or on the contour? You will mow up under each trunk or only around the drip zone? (What will be the reach, if any, required for the mower itself--as opposed to the chassis? The mower deck (or whatever) will be pushed, suspended, towed, other? This unit is rider or walk-behind? What is acreage/hectarage?

If by PTO you mean rear rotor shaft connection, have you checked the way its done (how pto is linked to flywheel) in farm tractors?

Can you provide photos or conceptual sketches of what you envision?

Have you considered hydraulic as opposed to pully and belt to spin the blade(s)?

The olive grove has advanced trees, so there are solid trucks with lowest branches 3 - 4 feet off ground. They are NOT planted in rows, so there are no windrows in between. The tress vary in spacing but the smallest distance between trees would be 12-15 feet.

The slope varies from nearly level up to a 5 in 1 slope. There is no irrigation lines or other obstructions typically.

The olive tree canapy would make it difficult to drive a ride on type mower close enough to the tree to let the blades go far enough under the tree, you would spend you whole time leaning away from the tree and get wacked in the head all the time.

This is why Iam proposing a remote control type 1) for safety, 2) to get under the canopy 3) remove my 110kgs of mass from the machine and lower the centre of gravity.

Area? About 2-3 acres with olives, but there are other slopes on the property I would mow if I had the right machine, say another 2 acres (total property size is 100 acres)

Here is a picture of the engine flywheel end of motor
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc111/garlogarlo/sub_fly.jpg

Here is a pic of a mower deck I may use this would go out in front of the mower. It is designed to be used with a tractor so it has a spline on the shaft.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc111/garlogarlo/finish.jpg

And this is a belt drive made for the subaru motor for use in light aircraft (no clutch)

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc111/garlogarlo/reductiondrive.jpg

RE the idea of powering the blades with a hydraulic drive, that could work fine. I don't know a great deal about sizing and sourcing those types of parts.

And this is a photo of how i problem solve
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc111/garlogarlo/squDrink.gif

Steve

cool, add a GPS to it, to keep it contained in the grove, some sensors, control programs........sorry, possiblities get me going.

this post gives some more info about the conditions you are encountering and what the rest of the story is so much so that for me it changes the whole picture that you originally gave in your post.. it appears you are reinventing the wheel. a mower built for the u.s.forestry service is made somewhere in vernomt or connecticuit under the t name dr. fields mowere or something along that line, it looks like a oversized bush hog and is alot easier to handle in tight quarters.given tha angle of the slope you are on and th span between trucks vs branch width this may be the only answer you might seriously consider making use of. as for the work you have to do on the near levelled area of the site it might be better to sell the subaru engine and put the money into a m.f. with a pto drive flail mower. the dr.fields or whatever is the right name for that equipment company also make a buggy for carrying logs out of the bush or pulaskis and water to a spot fire site.. i am sorry but it looks like a bit of crow is on the plate here, the guy who made the first post apparently had a fair bit of background about the layout of olive groves, i only had the opportunity to set up mountside or hillsided vineyards and some apple orchards, so i thought it would be the same type of layout, the suggestion i made did work for more than a few times in maine.

This project is not for a commercial orchard, it is for an olive grove around my home. If I had a truck load of spare cash I would go out and buy some compromise off the shelf. Thats not the case. So as for re-inventing the wheel, thats fine, because I can't afford "the wheels" for sale commercially, I'm more than happy to mimic some existing solution.

Mudguard

One more question...

Looking at that very nice three-point mounted mower deck, would it be correct to assume you have a farm tractor you use to mow with it presently?

Reason for asking? I'm of a preliminary opinion that your design (modifications) for an orchard mower system should start at the mower deck and work back to the ground-propulsion component. Whether or not to modify/retrofit the mower deck will depend on its current uses, if any.

Thanks...and thanks for the response and pictures.

No I don't currently have a cutting deck.
Have a look here http://www.daken.com.au/finishing_mowers.htm

for a typical range of decks. I would tend toward the 1800mm cut with side discharge. There are other makes and models but these are pretty typical of those on offer.

Mudguard