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I was over at a friends house the other day and spotted his lifted lawnmower. Bill Alexander was tired of hitting rocks when cutting grass around his trees with a normal push mower. Even when most of the rocks were picked up new ones arrived and damaged the blade often enough that a mower deck lift was called for. A trip to the hardware store and an evening of work resulted in what you see. It has never hit a rock since the mod.
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July 14th, 2006
looooool…
July 14th, 2006
thats meaty!
July 14th, 2006
As a Saftey ‘go-to’ guy, I’d like to see a hinged metal panel welded to (at LEAST) the back of the mower deck. Currently it looks WAY too easy to get a foot caught under the back of that. A standard mower deck has those panels down over the sides and the back for a reason, regardless of blade height.
July 14th, 2006
How do you adjust the height? Who wants their grass so tall that it doesn’t look neat?
July 14th, 2006
Looks cool– very robust, but yeah, the point of moving grass is so that it looks tidy. This might clear the rocks, but it’s clearing too much grass as well. As for the safety guy’s issue, you don’t need to weld anything, simply drilling two holes and bolting on a piece of plywood, aluminum or steel would work, but I think the best thing would be to sacrifice a rake, cut it off near the handle, then trim the tines, and you get something that will stop a foot (and rocks coming at you) but which will let at least some grass and air pass. Given that people are usually a couple of feet back from the platform, I think the foot from the back is a minor issue. But doing something on the sides and back is probably prudent.
However, that misses the salient point– this is simply too tall to do a good job. what you want is actually something that either stops the mower from hitting rocks, or something that moves rocks out of the way. A cowcatcher downsized to lawn mower level. This would actually be a very useful thing– If the rock could be moved, the mover would move it, and if it were at interferance level, it would stop the mower prior to the blade getting whacked and dulled.
July 15th, 2006
Thanks for all your comments. Just to be clear - I have 3 acres which I mow with a riding tractor. I only use this crazy thing to keep the weeds under control around the trees that I planted at the edge of the property; which is full of rocks. Keep the suggestions coming in for the safety flap because I would like to put one on but I need something that will work going in a forward or backward direction in rough terrain.
July 15th, 2006
I’d suggest wearing steel toed boots and pants.
As for a flap maybe one that hangs straight down and hinges back to clear rocks. Put some sort of stop in place so it can’t reach the blade when it swings forward.
Good boots and jeans would go a long way toward making it safer though.
July 16th, 2006
What are the specs on those tires? I’ve got a project I’ve been working on and those tires look like the perfect size!
July 18th, 2006
Tire size is 4.10/3.50
September 22nd, 2006
You can try a mud gaurd, from a semi truck, as a safety flap. It would be flexible so it
should work in both forward and reverse. Take one and cut it to the length and width you need.