Add On Mower Deck

Add on mower deck FARM HOME Lawn Mowers (31h,38) 10-3-8 "It's great for mowing banks and ditches but it works great on level ground, too," says Harold Lynch, Grundy Center, Iowa, who mounted a used mower deck on the end of a hydraulic boom attached to his IH 982 Cub Cadet. The combination of the 51-in. deck on the Cub Cadet and the 31-in. add-on Ariens deck gives a total mowing width of 81 in. On level ground, Lynch "scissors" the boom in tight to the tractor's side to take a single wide swath. On banks and ditches, the arm extends out as far as 6 ft. (to the center of the mower deck). It'll go below the horizontal to reach down into ditches and above the horizontal to reach up onto steep banks. Lynch built the mower from scratch, buying only the hydraulic motor ($200) that powers the add-on deck. The pto-powered hydraulic pump on the back of the tractor came off an old New Idea Uni-Harvestor and the boom was built from scrap metal. The boom has a scissoring action much like a backhoe and is equipped with two cylinders, one at its center and one at its base. Because it's mounted on the 3-pt., which also raises the tractor mower deck, the add-on mower and boom conveniently raise and lower with the tractor mower deck. "You can remove the boom with just two pins when necessary," says Lynch, who just built the mower last year. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Harold Lynch, Stormy's Acres, Rt. 1, Grundy Center, Iowa 50638 (ph 312 825-3689).

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