Old Haybine Powers Big Zero-Turn Mower

Old Haybine Powers Big Zero-Turn Mower SWATHERS Swathers 26-6-10 When he spotted an old Renn haybine for sale a while back, Arvin DeCook, Sully, Iowa, knew exactly what he could do with it. "I'd been thinking about making a big zero-turn mower by mounting a pto-powered Woods mower on an old self-propelled combine," he says. "I decided the haybine would work even better than a combine since it had individual hydrostatic drive and steering on the front wheels and the rear wheel was just a dolly wheel," he says. "It had a slant-six Chrysler engine that was in good condition." His first step was to narrow the haybine power unit, so the wheels would track behind the 90-in. mower. "I had to cut 14 in. out of the middle of the machine. At the same time, I simplified the drive belt system that had powered the individual hydraulic motors on the drive wheels," he says. "Threre were two belts from the engine to the hydrostat drive shaft, and the belts ran through right angle pulleys to pulleys on the shaft. It was a real menagerie of belts and pulleys. After I'd narrowed the power unit, the shafts from the hydrostats were too long, so I had to shorten them. While I was at it, I mounted a gearbox under it that lined up with the drive pulley from the engine. It's a right angle gearbox, but with shafts out both sides. I connected these to the hydrostat drive shafts with Lovejoy connections. So now there's just one short straight belt from the engine." DeCook says mounting the mower on the rebuilt haybine was simple. He built a bracket on back of the mower, so he could mount it where the header had fit on the machine. He lengthened the upper header mount arms on the haybine by 14 in. to get more lift and let it hang further forward so he could see it from the operator's seat a little better. "The header lift cylinders allow me to raise and lower it and also tilt it if I want to," he says. "I can raise it up all the way and then tilt the front edge up about 60 degrees, so I can service the underside of the deck or sharpen the blades without crawling under it or taking it off and turning it over." The final step was getting power to the mower. A shaft at the center of the haybine powered the header, so DeCook had only to run a pto shaft from that to the mower. He had to turn the gearbox on the mower 180 degrees to face the rear. DeCook left the 3-point hitch in place so he can still use the mower behind a tractor. DeCook says the conversion took him a couple of weeks or so working on it off and on, with most of the time spent on narrowing the haybine and rebuilding the drive system. "This was a lot easier than mounting the mower on an old combine. It's easier to operate and more maneuverable, too," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Arvin DeCook, 9658 Hwy F 62E, Sully, Iowa 50251 (ph 641 594-3438; E-mail: aldcook@netins.net).

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