Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations To close to the edge

I got a little to close today while mowing today i had to get my wife to pull me out with the golf cart.

First, wicked, glad you're OK. Second, sad we don't have a funny story out of this. And third, that must be some golf cart to pull you out.

Yeah the cart has a few upgrades i put a 8 horse torque motor in it when i bought it and a 450 amp controller. Its got a 5 inch lift with 22 inch atv tires its not fast but it will pull just about anything. I always tell my wife i dont know what we would do without the golfcart.LOL

wicked, I've done that so many times on my big tractor I've lost count over the years. Your zero turn mower looks pretty low to the ground and likely wouldn't tip over like the tractor has come close to doing.

However, I solved the problem this year by taking a old 3 blade 46" riding mower deck and mounting a 8 HP single cylinder electric start B&S motor on the deck with a small motorcycle battery and a 1 gallon gastank. The deck and motor hang off the rear of the tractor and is set 6" outside the rear tire so I can stay a foot or two away from the waters edge and the soft ground.
Using the 3 pt. hitch I can raise or lower the mower to the level I need and I use a hydraulic cylinder for a top link so I can also tilt the front of the mower deck up or down as needed as the edge of my pond sure isn't as flat and neat as yours.

If you're handy with a welder and have a scrap (junk) pile of old equipment it only took about 6-7 hours and a pound of rod.

The only expense was 2 new v-belts and a bearing for one of the blade spindles.

Dan

Dan:

Got any pitchers?

I normally use the Swisher trail mower around the pond, however, I believe it went "blooey" yesterday.

Gotta come up with something...new motor's ~$500...and wife really likes the pond banks mowed. Really sucks, as I loved this thing. Deciding whether to invest the cash to re-engine. Haven't torn her apart yet, but the piston only moves about 1/4", and ZERO compression.

Hoping that I broke the key on the flywheel (mowing LARGE button weeds and such) and the crank isn't really turning...that's hoping for a bit much, I'm afraid.

Matt,

As a matter of fact, I do... but I don't. I took a few and they are still in the camera and it's out on loan right now. It should be back mid-week and I'll try to get them posted. Haven't had any luck posting pic's in the past so if they don't make it I'll be glad to e-mail them to you.

Dan

My wife got a chuckle out of that. looks just like something I would do!

wicked,

Camera is back and the pictures are in Photobucket. Message next to the reply box here says HTML is disabled UBB code is enabled. No clue what UBB is or how to move pictures over to this thread.

Dan

Dan:

Every time I've noticed, my html is disabled and my UBB is enabled. I don't know much about what it means either, except we're making ultimate bulletin board entries, not webpages.

If you've never posted photos before, try the archive thread on that here. Holler if you need help.

wicked,

Mower deck..."Rough Draft"



Mounting bracket to attach mower to tractor.



Underside of mower deck getting paint.



Topside getting paint.



Mower mounted to tractor front view.



Mower deck rear view.



I would have prefered to have the mower off the right side of the tractor but didn't want the discharge to go in the pond so it ended up on the left. The pipe welded on the mounting bracket slips over the longer pipe welded on the mower. A 1/2" pin thru the longer pipe above the shorter one keeps it from slipping off and allows the mower to swing behind the tractor for travel thru the woods back to the pond. The silver pipe and chain to the mounting bracket were required due to the weight.

The gas tank had to be mounted higher than the carb as that motor was waaaaay before fuel pumps on small motors. (gravity still works). Hope the pictures and brief explaination were clear enough.

Theo: Thanks for the offer. I already had the linked posts printed out for a long time but just couldn't make the connection work. This may have created a monster...........

Dan

Dan: Unbelieveable! Wish I had one!

That's genius!

I sit hunched over my compute in absolute awe. Wow!!!

Thanks Guys,

If you have a good parts/scrap pile (the one my bride calls junk)
and a little time you can come up with a ton of stuff. Most of our projects are planned as you go while building. I know they make a lot of the stuff we build from scratch but we tend to overbuild most stuff so it will last as long as I need it to

I'll get some pictures of the heavy duty sycle bar cutter I use on the cattails and really thick stuff. Made from a old tow behind cutter and changed to a 3 point unit. It was impossible to back up the tow behind with all the trees and obsticals around the pond and you couldn"t raise the cutter bar without going into the water and lifting it by hand. Only did that once!

It reaches out 7 feet and the cutter bar raises and lowers from the tractor seat via electric winch off one of the ATV's. The cutter bar will drop a little bit below horizontal so I can cut the cattails off several inches below the water line.

I hope it gave some of you ideas to use as pond maintance shouldn't be a major chore. Takes too much time away from fishing.

Dan

Yep...count me in the Wow! way cool category. This is how Eli Whitney started.

A fine example of "Hill-Billy" engineering, whether you are a Hill-Billy or not, no offense intended, mind you.

None taken, Not bad for a 50 year city boy only been in the "country" for 13 years. Besides, necessity is the mother of invention I've heard.

It all started with mounting a 5 foot lanscape rake on the end of a 20 foot bar to really reach out into the pond and pull cattails and weeds. Running out of room to park this stuff where it's out of the way and the wifes eyes.

Dan

Dan, I've not been able to convince my wife that I have no junk. I call it surplus building material.

Dave,

I've not had much luck in that regard either. I think I'll try the surplus building material angle, see if that will fly. So far just keeping most of it out of sight works pretty well.

Dan