Front reel?

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Running over the grass and matting it down before trying to cut it doesn't seem like the best lawn care approach and beating it off with a dulling blade may work though that's not the best either but this looks awkward.  Anyone have actual experience using something like this?  Too many trees and flowerbeds here but those open areas might look a lot better.  Or am i wrong?  Don't know...  You?

[WHX?? 48,798]

I have no clue but if you tell me where them horses  at I'll find out....

Rest assured I'll report back the results.

Edited February 26, 2021 by WHX24

[SylvanLakeWH 25,496]

Gotta work pretty well... that’s the concept for many golf course mowers...  

[squonk 41,039]

Don't know what's used nowadays, but golf courses used reel mowers when I worked summer jobs at the local links. PITA to keep sharp and adjusted.

[WHX?? 48,798]

Ok humor out the way Dennis reel mowers give an excellent cut provided they are sharp and properly setup. Golf courses use them to this day ... Sylvia & Skunk  knows ... only problem with them is they need to to be fairly narrow to work properly. The reason they are often ganged and really not practical for today's 60 inch + decks for the average homeowner.  Gang them up tho and you can cover alot of turf. 

[DennisThornton 4,769]

20 minutes ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

Gotta work pretty well... that’s the concept for many golf course mowers...  

I'm thinking the same but real life?  In a common yard with trees and...?

[DennisThornton 4,769]

13 minutes ago, WHX24 said:

Ok humor out the way Dennis reel mowers give an excellent cut provided they are sharp and properly setup. Golf courses use them to this day ... Sylvia & Skunk  knows ... only problem with them is they need to to be fairly narrow to work properly. The reason they are often ganged and really not practical for today's 60 inch + decks for the average homeowner.  Gang them up tho and you can cover alot of turf. 

I was wondering if the posted example was too wide.  I started grabbing push reel mowers a few years ago with the idea of building a gang. 

[pfrederi 17,676]

Spent  a lot of time mowing our yard with one of these 60 years ago...  Self propelled did an OK job but the stalks of narrow leaf plantain were usually left standing.  bought this one as a memory but don't use it...  Sharpening was easy you added a few links to the drive chain and put an idler sprocket in the top bracket.  Smeared some valve grinding compound on the blades and ran it. It spun the backward and sharpened them.   
 

 

[WHX?? 48,798]

10 minutes ago, DennisThornton said:

I was wondering if the posted example was too wide. 

The posted example is just the right width..... where's it at again?  

 

Almost thinkin dear old dad used to use a ice skate sharpener on them? 

 

[953 nut 55,108]

52 minutes ago, DennisThornton said:

this looks awkward.

Dennis, looks are not deceiving! The mower sticks out far enough that maneuverability suffers and you will have Popeye the sailor man arms from lifting it. However it is about the best attention getting attachment ever made for the RJ/Suburban. 

[pfrederi 17,676]

It was replaced by a King Rotary  self propelled mower. The Eclipse went a lot faster...

 

Got the Eclipse fixed up but have to find new pictures...

Edited February 27, 2021 by pfrederi

[WHX?? 48,798]

12 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

Dennis, looks are not deceiving! The mower sticks out far enough that maneuverability suffers and you will have Popeye the sailor man arms from lifting it. However it is about the best attention getting attachment ever made for the RJ/Suburban. 

One of the reasons I think they advented lift assist springs. Gotta keep in mind tho in the sixties yards were pretty square and flat and not the complicated affairs nowadays. 

[squonk 41,039]

Turing back the clock 63-64 Era. I'm 4 goin on 5 My dad is taking care of the yard with a walk Bee-hind of some sort. I'm thinkin Slimplicity but whatever. My Grandfather builds him a trailer /sulky for it. Pretty cool. Ride in the trailer a lot. We move to a big house with a big yard. My Dad trades the walker in for a  om some sort. I don't remember seeing it much. I do remember seeing a re. el mower on it. I also remember him loading it up and returning with a new 604 with the belly mower.

 

There was an old Horse corral out back and this red reel mower attachment sat out there. I never asked my Dad about it. After my parents divorced and I was taking care of the place being a teenager interested in mechanical things I dragged this reel mower out of the weeds. It was seized up but I was determined to at least try to figure out how this mower worked on the 604.

 

I finally figured there was no way it would fit. but I did manage to free up the boogie wheels and the cutting bar. Unit was heavy. I figured out that if the mower was dragged backwards, the cutter bar made a nice ground scraper. So for 3 years it was my ground leveler.

 

After joining RS 1 one the first things I did was search that reel mower and looked at the pictures. I determined that it fit a Suburban. So I'm thinking that my Dad must of brought home a Suburban prolly a used one with the reel, didn't like it and traded it back for the 604 and kept the reel attachment for who knows why.

[AMC RULES 37,130]

 

[AMC RULES 37,130]

 

[squonk 41,039]

18 minutes ago, AMC RULES said:

Nice shoes! 

 

[Zeek 2,286]

12 hours ago, pfrederi said:

Spent  a lot of time mowing our yard with one of these 60 years ago...  Self propelled did an OK job but the stalks of narrow leaf plantain were usually left standing.  bought this one as a memory but don't use it...  Sharpening was easy you added a few links to the drive chain and put an idler sprocket in the top bracket.  Smeared some valve grinding compound on the blades and ran it. It spun the backward and sharpened them.   
 

 

 

 

 

I remember those beasts! I used to have to use one to cut a ladies lawn when I was a kid. Hated it! Super heavy, hard to maneuver around and rope starter. However, if I saw one today I'd love to have it!

[racerjohnbf 130]

20 hours ago, DennisThornton said:

Running over the grass and matting it down before trying to cut it doesn't seem like the best lawn care approach and beating it off with a dulling blade may work though that's not the best either but this looks awkward.  Anyone have actual experience using something like this?  Too many trees and flowerbeds here but those open areas might look a lot better.  Or am i wrong?  Don't know...  You?

 

Reel mowers provide an excellent quality of cut at very low mowing heights when properly sharpened and setup. I set the mowers for the greens as a low as .110" and know of other courses that go as low as .090".  However the the mowers we use have multiple 20" wide cutting units. For the rough we mow between 1.5" and 2" we use rotary mowers with multiple 27" wide cutting units.

 

The biggest issue I see with a cutting unit that wide is finding someone to sharpen a reel and bedknife that is that wide. And reels mowers require frequent adjustment of the reel to bedknife contact to cut properly.

 

In my opinion not worth the trouble at normal lawn mowing heights. A well setup and sharp rotary deck should give just as good a cut with a lot less maintenance. Just my 2 cents.... not that it's worth much lol.

 

 

[DennisThornton 4,769]

2 minutes ago, racerjohnbf said:

Reel mowers provide an excellent quality of cut at very low mowing heights when properly sharpened and setup. I set the mowers for the greens as a low as .110" and know of other courses that go as low as .090".  However the the mowers we use have multiple 20" wide cutting units. For the rough we mow between 1.5" and 2" we use rotary mowers with multiple 27" wide cutting units.

 

The biggest issue I see with a cutting unit that wide is finding someone to sharpen a reel and bedknife that is that wide. And reels mowers require frequent adjustment of the reel to bedknife contact to cut properly.

 

In my opinion not worth the trouble at normal lawn mowing heights. A well setup and sharp rotary deck should give just as good a cut with a lot less maintenance. Just my 2 cents.... not that it's worth much lol.

 

 

I'm not a lawn fanatic but I do enjoy a better cut.  Problem up here is sand along the edges and a gravel driveway.  I suppose if I sprinkled those to keep the sand and dust down it would help, but, I don't.  And after a rotary blade dulls it just beats off the grass so I've got enough to build a gang mower but honestly, it's so far down the list...

 

And then this front mount reel caught my eye again and I was curious how well it would handle more than how well it would cut.  

 

Pretty crazy to be able to cut down to a 1/10th of an inch!

 

Thanks for the rather valuable 2 cents!

[racerjohnbf 130]

10 minutes ago, DennisThornton said:

I'm not a lawn fanatic but I do enjoy a better cut.  Problem up here is sand along the edges and a gravel driveway.  I suppose if I sprinkled those to keep the sand and dust down it would help, but, I don't.  And after a rotary blade dulls it just beats off the grass so I've got enough to build a gang mower but honestly, it's so far down the list...

 

And then this front mount reel caught my eye again and I was curious how well it would handle more than how well it would cut.  

 

Pretty crazy to be able to cut down to a 1/10th of an inch!

 

Thanks for the rather valuable 2 cents!

Sand is my worst enemy at work. We top dress the greens lightly with sand every few weeks and after a couple mowings  that pick up the excess sand, the reels are dull enough to have to be pulled down and sharpened again.

 

After 23yrs of golf course work I appreciate a nice looking lawn as well! 

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Moving from southern Ohio to upstate NY in 1986 I was driving around a lot looking for a place to live and I noticed that all the berms were sand.  Well or course they sand the roads up here, explains all the sand!  Well, later I learned that a lot of the berms were sand to start with!  And sand dunes were everywhere thanks to the Ice Ages and glaciers!  Rocks, boulders and sand!  Sometimes with a thin layer of topsoil.  Others, not so much!  No wonder so many of the homesteaders gave up!  But grass will still grow if watered from time to time!

[Handy Don 12,163]

On 2/26/2021 at 7:27 PM, pfrederi said:

Spent  a lot of time mowing our yard with one of these 60 years ago...  Self propelled did an OK job but the stalks of narrow leaf plantain were usually left standing.  bought this one as a memory but don't use it... 

    

When I was a pre-teen, my grandfather got a new fangled "rotary" mower gave me his Reo reel mower like this one. I cut off the blades and with my dad we built on a frame with front steerable wheels and an old car seat. A simple go-kart. Ran it until the poor mower chassis simply wore out and fell apart but it was fun while it lasted!

[Jhook 849]

I have the front mount carrier attachment that allows you to mount up to a 48 inch deck in front of the front axle. Same concept just with a different type of mower. I too am curious how itll handle when i finally try it out. 

[bc.gold 3,403]

With the bade spacing you have on this reel your good for reasonably long grass. As others have mentioned the key to success is sharp blades with proper spacing blade edge to the cutter bar.

 

I have a commercial Jacobson gang reel mower, powered by Kohler

 

Reels used on the Greens have twice as many blades and will not handle the taller grass.

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by bcgold