Ganged Mowers Clean Pond Banks

Ganged Mowers Clean Pond Banks Logan Hurst can get close to his pond’s edge without fear of sliding in with his offset ganged mowers. Initially, he ganged three Troy-Bilt 21-in. push mowers for his dad to use behind an old Cub Cadet. “I built a frame out of steel tubing and angle iron to hold them in position and mounted four caster wheels to it,” says Hurst. “One problem I ran into when trying the gang out was that if in a row, the discharge from the first went into the second and then both of them went into the third. This overloaded it.” Hurst slightly offset the three to stagger the discharge and also closed the mulching flaps. “My grandfather was still living at the time, and he added a piece of wood to the plastic housing at the rear of the mowers to deflect the clippings down,” says Hurst. “My dad mowed with it a few times, but a bad hip ended that.” The mower gang sat unused for a few years until Hurst had the idea to use it on the sides of his pond. He’d been using a string trimmer, but that was time-consuming. He first pulled the mowers with an ATV before deciding to adapt them for his tractor. “I’d seen versions online that used hydraulics and figured I could use an arm on the back of the tractor to raise and lower them,” says Hurst. “I took a look at what spare steel I had lying around. I had some 2 by 4-in. rectangular steel that I could use for the arm.” He fabricated a heavy-duty frame for his 3-pt. hitch, with a pivot point at one end. A 2 by 2-in. rectangular steel arm extends from the pivot point to the mower gang frame. A vertical arm on the mower arm at the pivot point served as a lift lever. Originally, Hurst planned to use a cable on a hand crank on the frame end opposite the gang to raise and lower the mowers. He quickly discovered the gang was too heavy as he stripped the winch. The solution was to position a hydraulic cylinder opposite the mower gang. It activates a vertical arm that pivots on the 3-pt. frame. A chain running from it to the vertical on the mower arm lifts and lowers the mowers. He made one test run, and after some minor adjustments, it worked. He replaced the original low-cost caster wheels with heavy-duty wheels to handle bouncing around. He also discovered that even on his 75-hp tractor, the weight of the mowers and frame was too much. Hanging rectangular weights from a home gym as counterweights at the cylinder end of the frame was enough. “It’s not a Bush Hog, but it functions for regular maintenance,” says Hurst. “The chain and the 3-pt. arms let me float the mower gang at the right height for clipping the grass and weeds. If they’ve gotten too high, I can make a pass, back up and make another pass.” For Hurst, fabricating the pond bank mower is about more than simple maintenance. His dad paid around $150 for the push mowers and also bought the first set of wheels. Hurst estimates that he spent about $200 on the hydraulic cylinder and welding rod. The rest was scrap. “Throwing together things that are just sitting around and making something that works is really nice,” says Hurst. Hurst shares his passion for making things that work on his YouTube channel. Visit it for detailed videos on ganging the mowers and adapting them to use on his tractor. Join his 2,000 subscribers and watch over 300 videos. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Logan Hurst, Borden, Ind. (fabbedfun@gmail.com; YouTube: @FabbedFun).

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