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Donn, if red locktite isn’t holding them in I would guess they are stripped. I would tack weld them. Shouldn’t take much, just a dot on one side of the bolt. You could easily grind off with a dremel and a cut-off wheel if need be. Or you could re-tap the holes and size up the bolts.

George

PS I have never had this problem on my 372 or my other Husky saws.

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Hi Donn:

I have only rebuilt 3 mowers and I installed new inner and outer ledgers on all three. They were pretty inexpensive, but critical. I generally do not have many problems on the outer shoe, but not this time. I tried tipping the knife every which way and settled with it level with cutter bar on the ground. I did not try raising the level of the bar. Perhaps that would have helped. I have also had a hard time (mostly during first cut) with the grass board holding grass and clogging things up. Several years ago I attempted to fabricate a rolling grass stick based on what was pictured in L Miller’s book. It didn’t work more due to my execution of the job as opposed to the concept itself. If I were to attempt it again I would use lighter materials (aluminum maybe) and a bearing to facilitate better spinning.

Back to my original queries: Is there a reason why the guard on the outer shoe is proud (in front of) all of the other guards? If not, do you seen any reason not to grind this back? Have you heard of anyone using a few stub guards toward the outer shoe (I had virtually no problems on the inner shoe where I have 3 set up)?

It may seem presumptuous to assume that I/we could tweak these mowers that have been working so well for so long, but that is how progress happens – a conversation or idea talked about and tried. This particular mower has worked like a champ in nearly all conditions, but this wet, heavy, green second cut challenged it (and me).

We baled the last of our second cut yesterday and hope to start on 3rd if the weather cooperates. I have a few extra stub guards that I might try toward the outside shoe. Making hay in September has always been a challenge.

George

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Mitch, I run 3 stub guards (same as pea guards I assume?) as well and had virtually no clogging at the inner-shoe. I have heard some Amish guys who run stub guards along the whole cutter bar. While I have much less clogging with the stub guards, they tend not to cut as well occasionally leaving thin wisps of grass behind when the mower never clogged. However, this seems like a good trade-off in these conditions.

I run serrated knives which have worked well for me. There were thick sections of this hay field where I would be plugging every 20′. I ended up asking the horses to trot through these sections and this helped a lot. When I was mowing I also started hitting the foot lever to preemptively eject the grass that was bunching on the cutter bar. As soon as it dried a bit (still damp – but not wet – at 3 pm!), things started to go better. I don’t think the “rotten grass” – least on my hay fields – is a different species. Just stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day for a long while.

Jay, I agree that you can’t start talking mower refinements without having a well tuned mower (lead, timing, knives, ledgers, etc.). I used this same mower to mow a huge first crop on this same field in July and it only plugged a handful of times on the entire 8 acres. I like your idea of sharpening that outer shoe. I also plan on polishing it up a bit as the pitting in it might add some resistance therefore increasing tearing/bunching. Any reason why this outer shoe is ahead of the rest of the guards? Thoughts about grinding it back so it is even with the others?

George

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Hi Mitch:

I already have that section on my mower. Do you know what that double knife section does to increase performance?

George

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“How many of you ride your draft? Is it a poor practice?”

On the contrary, I think it is good practice and increases the versatility of our horses. I don’t know how to ride a horse properly. I am told (by my daughter who is an avid rider) that my position is poor and I don’t know how to post correctly.

That doesn’t stop me from riding my horses almost daily. If I have to lead them more than 500′, I will ride one and “pony” the other three. With just a halter and lead rope, I have very little physical control over the horses. It is a very different dynamic than leading them “on the ground” where my physical proximity is more apparent to them. I rely purely on my “presence” as a leader when ponying with very limited aids to correct bad behavior. Sometimes they will challenge and test me by pulling hard on their halters or surging ahead. If this persists (rare now a days) , I will have to hop of and “correct” them (#@$% with a yank or two on the halters), remount, and continue. In the early days, I went as far as tying up three horses and bringing a particularly bad culprit (my dominant gelding) through a series of lunging exercises before remounting.

I enjoy riding/ponying them a lot. It is fun and much faster than leading as I can trot. It also in a new challenge for all as I ride a different horses each day and we go over varied terrain. It is like driving 4 abreast on horseback with no bridles or bits. I have had one close call when they almost got away from me. This spring we walked over a piece of submerged sheet metal. Clang, clang, clang – all 4 horses and they bolted. By some miracle, I stayed on and stopped them within 50′ or so.

I also ride my horse to and from the woods while logging single. This time of year, I will hop on a horse and ride out to the woods to mark trees for fall and winter logging. Although I usually ride a bike, I will sometimes ride out to pasture with a horse to collect my goats with the help of my herding dogs (goatboy?).

Happy riding.

George

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Thanks for the responses. I always thought ash was used because of its dimensional stability, but the flex makes a lot of sense (especially since I tend to brake my fare share of poles). Carl, I like your approach of sawing out cants and cutting them down later (ideally after a year or two of being stickered up). I use saplings where appropriate but with some of my equipment, a squared-up pole works best.

George

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Wow Donn, what a reasonable price to charge for a mower! If I didn’t already have 2 good mowers I would purchase one from you. I bet I have upwards of $1000 in each of my mowers not counting my labor.

Cheers.

George

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It is possible that the cross-checks on your lines are set too far back bringing the horses, especially their heads, together. If this is the case, you can correct this lateral misalignment by setting the cross-checks further up on your main lines. If you bring them too far forward, their heads will be carried toward the outside. Try the change incrementally to see how they do.

Another possible cause is that the centers on your neck yoke and evener are not the same. For example, if the center on your neck yoke and evener are 36″ and 40″ respectively, this would cause the horses to lean into each other.

George

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From Carl…..“When in the field, or turning under way, I expect the inside horse to step ahead slightly to lead around, getting the straight forward muscle action.”

Having the inside horse step ahead some also gets both horses evenly on the bit. I have been raking hay with one of my less polished horses turning haw and the end of each windrow to double them up. She (the near horse in this case) has a tendency to back off the bit some and then meet it when I ask her to step forward. My challenge has been to provide enough pressure to turn her while keeping her slightly forward and on the bit while she is on the inside. She has been making steady progress.

I find learning opportunities such as this – and countless others – make working horses so challenging, enjoyable and rewarding.

George

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“hey George, did you do any damage when you hit the stump? ”

Hi Donn:

I think I knocked my lead back some. I started with a lead somewhere between 1 5/8 and 1 3/4″ per LRM’s recommendation for a 6′ bar. I am now down to a 3/4″ lead. I cut 4 acres with it last Friday and it performed admirably on some second cut. However, there was an odd sound and feel about the mower.

I know you are not a big fan of LRM’s method of adjusting the lead and timing. Can you remind me of why not and what, if anything, you would do in this case?

Thanks.

George

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Donn:

I am glad you and your horses are OK and thank you for sharing. I have found run-aways to be simultaneously terrifying, educational, and extremely humbling. I set up safety measures for the check rings on my new horse that I am training and the horse I drive him with, but not for my main team for the reasons you mentioned. I will now put that on my list for all horses. Thanks for the reminder.

George

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Billy, on my mowers (MD #9), there are adjustments on the inner and outer shoes for setting the cutterbar height. I am cutting some gnarly pasture, and the highest setting seems to be fine as long as your stumps are cut low (I hit one the other day). Otherwise, I haven’t found a wheel to be necessary.

George

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I’m not sure about your area, but around here (Vermont), there are some veneer markets for poplar / cottonwood (i.e. genus: populus), but much of it gets shipped for pulp. There is also a local market for wood shavings that pays well, but I have never shipped a load. I have cut a 1000 feet for my own lumber, but I found it to be very dimensionally unstable. I mostly burn it. A lot of folks like to burn it for sugar wood as it burns hot and fast (limited BTUs though).

George

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One other key aspect to mower performance is knife sharpness. I recently purchased a variable speed dremel and have been sharpening my knife sections with it. The dremel with a metal cut-off blade is more precise and easier to use compared with a grinder and you can easily get to the base of the knife without having to take the knives off the back.

Billy, another strategy if you have a lot of hay to mow is to swap out one of your horses for a fresh one instead of putting 3 together. I only have 3 broke horses right now and if I have a lot of grass to mow, ted, rake, etc., I will swap out a horse at lunch and then the next morning, and so on. I hope to have 4 going next year, but in the meantime this has been working well.

George

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Hi Billy:

I would think that with an adequately tuned mower, a team of halflingers should be able to put down an acre or more without too much trouble. I mowed hay with a halflinger who was teamed with either a full sized draft (1700-1800 lbs) or a draft cross (1200 lbs) for several years. She was able to mow up to 3 sometimes 4 acres at a stretch.

I am a big fan of the dolly and have them on both my mowers. I clip some rugged pasture (i.e. really bumpy) and it does fine.

George

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