sickle sections and guards for my ih-100 mower?

carvel minne farmer

Well-known Member
good evening all, question for the members, I have picked up 2 ih-100 sickle mowers. and going to be going through them for the upcoming hay season, my questions are talking to Herschel/ctfarms they recommend a section called tiger sharks, over serrated. can be run with either single guards with ledger plates or double narrower guards without the ledger plate, I have heard the new holland double guards cut better with less plugging. the mower currently has blue new holland single guards with ledger plates that need replacing, worn and dull. have any of the members here ran the tiger shark sections and if so how did they perform? and has anyone switched to the narrower double guard and how did they perform compared to a single guard? thanks again guys for your help. john
 
You might contact Rouse Rakes in Burwell for your parts and recommendations. They make all the heads for this type of mower. I have bought adjustable hold downs from them for my 100 and they work great! I bought a complete knife from them cheaper than I could buy the sections and replace all of them. I have been running their knife and it works great! They have just about all the bar parts you should ever need.
 
thank you 300 guy, will call rouse and get price comparisons, I got 2 spare knives complete with the good 100 but both well used and one bent, will price out complete knife assembly that would definatly be a big time saver as well.
 
Webbs Sickle Service should have any cutting parts you need for that mower.Nothing like a new sickle assembly to make a mower cut and operate good.I have the narrow double guards on one of my NH 451 mowers they're great as long as there is very few rock.
 
I second Rowse rakes, but will also say that I will never replace the sections. Most of the time the bar has enough wear on it that it allows the sickle to not stay
adjusted up where it cuts good.
Another person to talk to is Dan Clapper, out of Johnstown NE. He sells German manufactured mower parts cheaper then anywhere I have found, and can tell you what works
best for your conditions.
I am a sickle mower lover, and have spent many many years trying to make sickle mowers compete with all the other types of mowing operations. I still contend that I can
mow as many acres on less fuel with a pair of double bar sickle mowers then the big disc mowers.
 
I have three of these mowers. I think you are going to find it cuts like a SOB just by adding a new knife from CIH. Adjust as required, replace worn parts but do as little as necessary. There is a balancing act between the value of an old sickle mower and cost efficiency in farming. It is going to get the job done and you don't have to get real fancy with sections, etc as long as you adjust it properly. The goal, unless you are a pure hobbyist collector wanting a restoration for show, is to make money. Get it operational. Make it so it won't break again soon. Take it out on the field and figure out what else it needs. Keep in mind, if you cut much hay you will probably buy a mower/conditioner soon.
 
thank you T.F. will give webb a call and price out complete sickle assembly. do you order a complete cutter bar with the sections ready to go or do you order the parts and reuse your old bar to put the sections on? one of the bars I got is bent quite a bit so will be ordering new assembly as 300guy found it was cheaper to buy the whole assembly than pieces and buid it himself.
 
good morning dave, my experience with moco's here has not been to good, the 4 years that my neighbor andy came over with his nh haybine and cut and conditioned the hay we lost it! it turned black and stunk to high heaven! it never dried out or cured, the 2 years I cut with the sickle mower and just dropped it flat instead of a windrow it dried and cured great. I've just got small fields to cut here dave 2 and 3 acres some a bit bigger and they are not flat and square, they are hilly with lots of corners. I'm going by my experiance dave, with the heavy alfalfa content the sickle mower just dropped it flat with minimum leaf loss, I then raked in the morning and baled in the afternoon and it turned out great. my thinking is to keep the number of trips over the hay to a minimum. one thing I noticed on andys haybine when he finished cutting it was covered in alfalfa leafs, I want to preserve as much of the plant as I can and not be baling stems.
 
question 300guy, do you use single guards with ledger plates and over serrated sections or have you tried the double nh style guard with under serrated sections, I talked to eric and ryan at rowse this afternoon and explained to them the conditions and the hay I'm cutting and ryan figured the narrower double guard with under serrated sections would do better.
 
I have been using the single guards with the serrated sections on the knife I bought from Rouse. They know what they are talking about, so I would go with their recommendations. They recommended a grass guard for the outer shoe so it doesn't plug up and boy does it work!! They recommended it, which I had never heard of. They suggested the adjustable hold downs and they are great. Only problem was Ryan didn't get me the correct shims for them at first, so when I first put them on, the knife was stuck tight no matter how loose they were. He sent me the right ones right away. Great people and great help!!!
 
thank you 300guy, I will ask ryan about the outer shoe guard, that was one issue I had with the t-10 hay plugging up in the knife hole in the outer shoe and pretty soon your dragging a pile of hay along and fowling up the grass board. another issue I had that ryan recommended was the double knife section at the end of the bar which eliminates that. thanks again
 
I buy the whole sickle assemblies new and put a new one in every year might be over kill but a very sharp good condition sickle is the heart of a sickle mower and I have yet to
ever look at or buy a sickle bar mower that didn't need a new sickle.As far as the keeping the end of the blade from clogging up you need to have a double tooth section as the end section
the Webb sickles I get has the section on it.
 
Never tried a mower without that grass board, one of the first things to do when I got a mower. Bought my first mower in 59 so have been around them for a while.
 
Had that double section since the 60's and sure makes a difference but you need both the double section and the grass board. The value of that grass board was learned over 130 years ago my the makers of the mowers. That is why they are made for it.
 
good morning Leroy both ih-100 mowers have the grass board and so do's the case t-10 but you can buy a piece that fits into the grass board where the blade sickles back and forth to block off the hole so hay can't get in there and build up. but I do think my main problem with the case t-10 was that I put single sections all the way including the end of the bar where I needed that double section.
 
good morning T.F. I'm going to be doing the same thing, that is calling rowse and ordering a complete cutter bar assembly, that includes the knife bar, sections, knife head for $83.00. If i order the parts here and build it I will be at more than double that price even with exchange and shipping. rowse also has dealers here in Canada which is a big bonus. I will order extra sections and guards to have for any breakage in the field. at those prices you can't afford to fool around changing out sickles on a knife bar that is probably worn as much as your sections.
 
I have heard of those things but never saw any. I would question if they would actually work. It just would take one stalk of grass to get in the wrong place and plug every thing up. And would not take much to get that stalk wedged in there. I myself would not mess with something like that.
 
(quoted from post at 16:52:41 11/17/17) good morning dave, my experience with moco's here has not been to good, the 4 years that my neighbor andy came over with his nh haybine and cut and conditioned the hay we lost it! it turned black and stunk to high heaven! it never dried out or cured, the 2 years I cut with the sickle mower and just dropped it flat instead of a windrow.....

Well sorry to hear your success rate with your neighbor cutting was not good. That said, one idiot cutting wrongly for the climate type and crop type he operates in should not condemn all sickle based moco's or haybines.

Newflash: When cutting with a haybine or sickle based moco it is easily possible to not windrow the hay and alternatively lay out the cut swath just as wide as if it was cut with a plain ole sickle mower. This way you still get some benefit of the conditioning yet all the drying benefits of a wide swath exposed to the sun. In this way a plain ole sickle can never compete with a haybine or sickle based moco. Even if the drying benefit from the conditioner is small it is still more drying benefit than a stand alone sickle can do and if you beat the rain by only 4 hours even that piddly amount can be huge.

I lay my swaths wide from my Hesston sickle based moco as windrowing simply will not work in humid climate.
 
If you have a machine with full width conditioning rolls what you say is good but if you do not have the full width conditioning rolls you cannot lay things out in a full width swath and I am talking about something like the hydro-swing models as I think that is probably what he had used.
 
I have used the triple end section on the knife and it helps a LOT with the plate that plugs the hole in the end shoe.
 
good morning Leroy, I'm going to be ordering one of those plates this spring along with a new sickle bar with the sections and knife head installed and i'll let you know how that grass board plate works.
 
T.F. for $83.00 you can't afford not to put a new knife assembly in every year, I learned that the first time I used my t-10, after 2 rounds of going 10 feet and plugging up and backing up I shut down went to town picked up new sections,guards hold downs, and spent the rest of that day getting the cutter bar rebuilt, the next day was a whole different show, it cut like a totally different mower. ordering a complete knife assembly with sections and bar and knife head, every thing will be tight, sharp and running a lot smoother with way less stress and load on the mower.
 
I have never seen a triple section but used a lot of double sections. And rebuilt dozens of knives by rarly bought a whole new assembly. And knives assembled were not readiavaible avaible at that time,
 
The replacement for IH guards that I buy are painted green and have the number "700" cast on the top. You have to match the guard with your cutter bar thickness. I also buy ledger plates and install new ones when the guards are worth re-using.
 
good evening c. amick, in talking to ryan at rowse rakes he recommended a nh style double guard that does'nt have a ledger plate and using an under serrated section with it on the ih-100 bar. his recommendation was based on the heavy alfalfa content with timothy. I was told it was seeded with 60% alfalfa and 40% timothy, but there are areas that are 80% alfalfa or more, which makes for tough slow cutting with my case t-10 pitman type sickle mower, that is one of the reasons for buying the balance head belt drive ih-100's, with a much higher sickle speed.
 
Under serrated is the only type of section to use in any hay crop. Smooth sections are fore a lawn type and groth of grass. Over serrated are only for cutting ripe crops like wheat or soybeans. Never used a guard like that. But you want a guard with the serrations for hay. Smooth guards were first made because they did not have the knowlage or the ability to make a serrated guard and just stubberness has kept a smooth guard around. They work OK with the top serrated section on a bean stalk. But wear out very fast to a round cutting edge and have to be replaced way more often than the serrated type.
 
good morning Leroy, my understanding of the nh. style double guard vs the single guard with ledger plate is that the double guard is narrower giving you more blade area exposure to the hay, the narrow guard moves through the crop easier, giving you less chance of plugging the bar, less load on the mower and balance head, it's my understanding most nh. haybines run the double guard system for that reason and a lot of sickle mowers have been changed out to this system with good results. members here like yourself, traditional farmer, and the good folks at rowse rakes have a LOT more experience on hay cutting than I do Leroy, so i'll be going with rowses recommendations, and I will keep you all updated on how it works.
 
good morning T.F., and I will be listening to and taking that advice, in march i'll be ordering the guards, complete bar assembly, extra sections and guards and going through the mower front to back. needs u-joints, belt, pull the wheels and clean and repack the wheel bearings, looking forward to seeing how it cuts hay compared to the pitman mower.
 
I bought one of the complete knives for my 100 at the same price you listed. It comes with the new sections, new bar and the new head to attach the knife to the mower. Sure does not make any sense to put new sections on a knife when all the other parts can be worn and then count in the time to install all the sections. Their prices are really good and the quality of their parts are way better than the stuff at Tractor Supply or related places. I only wish I had found them before when I was using my CP27 mower. By the way both my mowers are fully mounted with two point attachment. I really like them to get into corners and they take up less space to turn.
 
good evening 300guy, I did try a 3pt. hitch ford 501 mower back when I first got my case 310b with the 3pt. but I just made a mess!! with the hilly fields I have and in the corners I couldn't keep it at a consistent height adjustment, field looked like it got a really bad haircut, the stubble was anywhere from 8" high to almost the dirt! and with the 3pt. in the corners swinging out wide behind me it was frustrating to say the least! sold that and got the case t-10 trailer and after getting it tuned up and cutting nice, it done a decent job of cutting. the other issue with the 310b is it doesn't have a live pto and with only 25 or so hp. in the real heavy alfalfa areas going up hill it's struggling so I'm down to first gear direct to keep cutting. with the mm m5 i've got a live pto, more than enough hp and torgue and with the ih-100 tuned up and the faster sickle speed of the balance head drive my only adjustments should be dialing in my travel speed. with the pto set on 540 (which i'll check with my tack) I'm thinking 2nd. high or 3rd low, listening to and watching the mower that it's running smooth not struggling and trying to jam too much hay at it, I should be able to set the cruise on the m5, sit back relax and let the mower do it's job.
 
Like I said never used a double guard, were not avaible last I used a mower. I just know the ones that made mowers with the 2" sections were out of bussiness shortly. IH did have some on some of the mowers but as a special cutter bar, most were the 3" section, only way I know about them id parts books. Oliver had 2" for several years on Horse mower and you just did not see them around. When the tractor mowers came around they went to the 3" sections and very few tractor mowers sold. We did have a 3 point hitch and was a good mower just very hard to put on and lift the cutter bar, for a 7' bar you needed an 11-12' high door to get into. Was not a pitmanless mower, had a 2' pitman but would cut vertical. They did not get an actuall good and halfway popular mower untill the 315 that was exact same as the MM or Cockshut. And it was just a short time till no new mowers sold. I have never seen a balanced head as they were just not sold anymore. The mower-conditioners took over and a 7' unit had 6' wide conditioning rolls, same width as all pull type conditioners and the would put the hay in the same 6' swath that a bar mower or a bar mower&conditioner would put it.When the windrower was brought out it would only lay in a bout 3' swath, Then somebody got the idea of putting a 3' conditioner on them and those were only good for chopping silage. The ones around that had those only used them for silage and had a full width roll unit for dry hay. It sounds like the one that did your hay that ruined it used a silage only machine and not a hay machine. Garden tractor mowers had a 1.5" blade and that would plug because it did not have enough opening for things to go thru.
 
My 100 has a stop chain on it. So when I push the lever for down, the chain will stop the 2 point cylinder so the shoes are down on the ground and stay there until I raise it up. The CP27 was the same way. I mow in fourth gear and when my Dad mowed many years ago with an H and a Kosch belly mounted mower, we mowed again in fourth gear. I don't know what speed the H actually ran, but my guess is it was in the 5 mph range. That's about where I mow now and I have no problem with power or cutting. I am using the single guards with serrated edges and the same for the knife. Unless something gets on the guards, like dead hay, dirt from a badger hole, etc., I never have a problem with plugging up at that speed. It will take some trial and error to see what works best for you. By the way, the H did not have live PTO so it took a lot of practice to turn and etc so it did not plug up. Plus the fact for a lot of years, the bar was raised using a lever on the right side of the mower just in front of the rear axle. Finally Dad decided to put a lift cylinder in place of the lever. Boy was that like falling into a pot of gold!
 
Mowing 101. Serrated sections to be used with smooth guards. Smooth section on serrated ledger plates Nevet use both serrated guards and sections. You will be "tearing" the grass instead oof slicing.
 
thank you gordo, that was rowses recommendation as well, to run the nh style double guard with no ledger plates and under serrated sections. now I'm thinking that me putting on single serrated guards and over serrated sections was part of the reason my case t-10 was struggling in the heavy areas of alfalfa in my field?
 

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