Cub Cadet Belly-Mount Sicklebar Mower
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Tim DeLooza clips his roadsides with a hydraulic-controlled, sicklebar mower that’s belly-mounted to his 1450 Cub Cadet. Adding a needed hydraulic valve was a challenge. However, mounting the mower under the Cub with full hydraulic lift was an even bigger challenge, according to DeLooza.
“I didn’t want to modify or change the mower in case I wanted to convert it back to manual lift,” he says. “That meant I needed to use existing holes to mount the lift, and I had to work around parts of the mower itself.”
Before DeLooza went to work on mounting the Haban sicklebar mower, he had to install the plumbing for a second hydraulic valve. The 1450 is a 14 hp hydrostatic drive with hydraulic lift factory installed. The dual hydraulics he needed was a factory option and is available as an after market kit.
“The dual hydraulics kit with handles, lines and dual spool valve are hard to come by, often incomplete and often sell for $200 and up,” says DeLooza. “I used parts I had laying around, but they could probably be bought for around $50.”
DeLooza needed to add a second spool valve to the existing valve on the steering column. He pulled the engine for access and moved the valve to the right for clearance, installing the new valve on the side of the dash tower.
“I plumbed the valves in series so the fluid comes from the pump, through the first valve, through the second valve and then back to the reservoir in the rear end,” says DeLooza.
He fabricated a handle for the second valve out of thick-walled pipe. At the dash tower, it fit into a bushing, with a lever welded on, to connect to the valve. The handle for the original valve was then inserted through this pipe and reconnected to its valve. This gave him adjacent controls for both valves.
He used brake line tubing for the hydraulic lines, bending them to fit around the hydro pump in a tight radius to the valves. From the valves, he ran them along the sides of the frame to front ports before reinstalling the engine.
Though he had installed Haban mowers on other tractors, DeLooza wanted full range of motion from 90° vertical to 45° below grade. "I use the mower for ditches so I needed to keep the below grade range of motion," he explains.
He used a lift cylinder from a quiet line or wide frame Cub tractor and determined the length of travel the knife bar needed to go from below grade to fully raised. The lift cylinder gave him about half the range he needed, so he added a lever system to get more travel.
"I attached the knife bar to the lever with a piece of cable so the mower bar could float along the ground," says DeLooza. "The cylinder didn't have the lift capacity to bring the bar to full vertical, so I added a 'helper' spring, attaching it to the lever system."
DeLooza reports using the mower several times this past year with no problem. "What I ended up with is a pretty simple lever system, but the simplest way isn't always what you come up with first," he says.
DeLooza prefers to be contacted via email, and is a regular contributor to Cadet Connection (www.cadetconnection.com) recently gave an in-depth accounting of the entire process in the magazine Vol. 12, No. 2.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tim DeLooza, Pen Yan, N.Y. (delooza@gmail.com).
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Cub Cadet Belly-Mount Sicklebar Mower FARM HOME Lawn Mowers 31h 38 Tim DeLooza clips his roadsides with a hydraulic-controlled sicklebar mower that’s belly-mounted to his 1450 Cub Cadet Adding a needed hydraulic valve was a challenge However mounting the mower under the Cub with full hydraulic lift was an even bigger challenge according to DeLooza “I didn’t want to modify or change the mower in case I wanted to convert it back to manual lift ” he says “That meant I needed to use existing holes to mount the lift and I had to work around parts of the mower itself ” Before DeLooza went to work on mounting the Haban sicklebar mower he had to install the plumbing for a second hydraulic valve The 1450 is a 14 hp hydrostatic drive with hydraulic lift factory installed The dual hydraulics he needed was a factory option and is available as an after market kit “The dual hydraulics kit with handles lines and dual spool valve are hard to come by often incomplete and often sell for $200 and up ” says DeLooza “I used parts I had laying around but they could probably be bought for around $50 ” DeLooza needed to add a second spool valve to the existing valve on the steering column He pulled the engine for access and moved the valve to the right for clearance installing the new valve on the side of the dash tower “I plumbed the valves in series so the fluid comes from the pump through the first valve through the second valve and then back to the reservoir in the rear end ” says DeLooza He fabricated a handle for the second valve out of thick-walled pipe At the dash tower it fit into a bushing with a lever welded on to connect to the valve The handle for the original valve was then inserted through this pipe and reconnected to its valve This gave him adjacent controls for both valves He used brake line tubing for the hydraulic lines bending them to fit around the hydro pump in a tight radius to the valves From the valves he ran them along the sides of the frame to front ports before reinstalling the engine Though he had installed Haban mowers on other tractors DeLooza wanted full range of motion from 90° vertical to 45° below grade I use the mower for ditches so I needed to keep the below grade range of motion he explains He used a lift cylinder from a quiet line or wide frame Cub tractor and determined the length of travel the knife bar needed to go from below grade to fully raised The lift cylinder gave him about half the range he needed so he added a lever system to get more travel I attached the knife bar to the lever with a piece of cable so the mower bar could float along the ground says DeLooza The cylinder didn t have the lift capacity to bring the bar to full vertical so I added a helper spring attaching it to the lever system DeLooza reports using the mower several times this past year with no problem What I ended up with is a pretty simple lever system but the simplest way isn t always what you come up with first he says DeLooza prefers to be contacted via email and is a regular contributor to Cadet Connection www cadetconnection com recently gave an in-depth accounting of the entire process in the magazine Vol 12 No 2 Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Tim DeLooza Pen Yan N Y delooza@gmail com
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