Looking for ways to safely mow roadside slope

[AJMD429]

.
We have about a 500 yard stretch of roadside property we need to mow so we can see you when we pull out of the driveway and because it’s under a powerline right away so eat we either have to mow it or they’ll spray it which we don’t want them to do.

It only averages about 50 feet wide And that used to be an inter-urban roadbed, so it’s fairly flat, except for about 6 feet that is beside the county road we live on, and it slopes down towards the road fairly steeply. The county comes along with their bush-hog and keeps the lower half cut reasonably well, but it doesn’t reach the upper half of the slope where weeds are that make it dangerous for us to pull out of the driveway because of the way, the road curves and slopes.

It’s too steep to drive my tractor on safely.

I also have a two wheeled BCS implement that’s similar to the old Gravely combination units because you can configure it as a tiller, or put a rotary mower or sickle bar or chipper shredder or snowblower attachment on it. You can sort of fight it and use the sickle bar but you sort of have to stand in the road itself and angle up with a bunch of cuts. Plus, there are some areas where the gravel gutter beside the road is just too steep to keep traversing with each pass.

The tractor-mounted mower I have is an underbelly type that you drive over to attach, and it’s satisfactory for light brush like at the shooting range. We really don’t cut much other grass because we have goats, so we don’t own a push-mower or anything like that. That particular mower Has seen better days, and I really don’t think it’s a very good design. The deck of the mower is made in two layers that accumulate debris that holds water so the deck itself is rusted despite my attempts to thoroughly clean it every season. Of course it’s about 20 years old so maybe that’s all I should expect.

Anyway, with that mower close to needing replacement I was looking at rear mounted three point hitch PTO ‘brush mowers’, and my 25 hp tractor should be able to handle a 48 inch one which would be fine for the little bit of grass and weed cutting we do. I also thought about the possibility of a flail mower, but there doesn’t seem to be that much advantage, other than their being more compact, which would be much easier for the odds and ends of yard spaces, we do mow, plus they generally seem to cost more for the same cutting width. I even looked at sickle-bar cutters, which, of course, are typically employed off to the side, but they are super expensive, and although they would be great on the slope by the road, they would be pretty much awkward and almost useless for most of the other mowing we do.

The main issue is that I was hoping that if I’m going to have to spend the money to get a new mower, That I might be able to find one that would offset to the side enough to cut the slope by the road safely.

My tractor is only 25 hp and does not have auxiliary hydraulics, which rules out all of the offset-mowers that are hydraulically adjustable, which seems to be almost all of them. I wouldn’t mind one that was manually adjusted, because it would pretty much be at all or nothing matter because I only cut that part of the property about four times a year and I would just switch it then.

It looks like the flail mowers that my tractor could handle, which are 48 inches wide, seldom offset more than a couple feet, probably due to stability issues. Same for the rotary ones I think too. So far I only found one that was adjustable manually and it was $3800, and again it only offset by 30 inches from the center of the tractor, which really wouldn’t do me much good. As far as sickle-bars, they are so expensive and almost useless for regular cutting that I didn’t look very hard, but I couldn’t even find very many that were small enough for a 25 hp tractor.

So I find this PTO driven string trimmer (and I am pretty sure that I would be substituting the plastic string with a similar size length of braided steel cable).

IMG_9002.jpeg

https://www.drpower.com/Power-Equipmen ... TT130003PN

I’m not familiar with ‘Titan’, but it looks like they left a similar item for a similar price although it’s built slightly differently, and it seems like it would be better to have the wheel in front like this one…

IMG_9003.jpeg

https://palletforks.com/products/3-poin ... attachment

This seemed like an honest review of the concept, with a realistic approach (as in what if anything other than ‘an energetic young kid you’d pay to do the job’ realistically can do the particular task for less than $3,000 or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbY1rsz7Rrw

I guess if I found a manual-offset rotary or flail mower that could do steep angles and offset that far I’d consider the extra cost, but they all seem setup for auxiliary hydraulics and more horsepower so they can attain 6-7 ft width and more offset.

The string-trimmer versions appear to offset far enough for my needs, although I’d have to make a couple passes because it only cuts something like a 20” circle. Most of the negative reviews appear to be people who were expecting it to be easier to work around decorative fenceposts, or fragile fences, or using it in extremely rough terrain. None of those would apply to my use. The other negative reviews sounded like things that might require a modification, like repositioning the wheel, or other fairly basic mechanical stuff, which should be easy enough if necessary. It sounds like the overall construction isn’t terribly robust, but some of those sorts of things could be fixed with appropriate addition of structural beams, since it’s a pretty simple design.

If I had the time and inclination, I suppose I could just build such a thing myself. It’s really just a frame set up to mount on a three point hitch and float over the ground by riding on an adjustable height wheel, with the PTO energy routed to a shaft with a string trimmer head. But by the time I scavenged the materials and welded and cut and painted and redid things that I screwed up, the time and the materials would cost me way more than I would’ve spent purchasing this one, even if I had to spend a fair amount of time reinforcing things on it, or modifying it.

I guess my question is, if any of you guys have seen any similar equipment that might be more robust, but affordable, or if there our other options you can think of. I came close to flipping the tractor not too long ago getting too close to that slope…

[JimT]

Burn it.

[jeepnik]

I'm with Jim, burn it. By the way, what is your objection to spraying?

[GunnyMack]

Stake out the area, tie a couple goats out there and let them eat.

[RIHMFIRE]

I used a self-propelled mower and soccer cleats with long spikes!

[4t5]

^^^ me too .

[rock-steady]

Never seen one in person, and if price is not a factor, take a look at the Ventrac 4500

Mowing Thick Brush on a Steep Slope with a Ventrac

https://youtu.be/nvc8aJ-QdQY

[AJMD429]

.
Often one of the 3-4 times per year that I cut it, I can do it when the road is closed due to flooding, and since we're the last house before the river, I can just get out in the road and drive 'up' the incline, back down, and repeat the process over and over and over, and most of it is cuttable that way (some places the roadside ditch dips way too much). But it takes a very LONG time to mow - probably well over a hundred up-and-down passes of 15 feet or so. Plus it bottoms-out the deck mower on the top of the incline and the blades dull fast because they 'cut' so much dirt that way. I've nearly gotten hit a few times though, because nutcases think that since the road is closed it is a good reason to come flying around the curve we live on doing 70 mph.

The Ventrack would work if I did the 'back and forth/up and down' method, but would be a huge cost and other than the problems mentioined above, I can already do that method. I need to go across the slope rather than up and down, and it is so steep that tractors either tip or slide, and my two-wheel equipment even tends to tip and definitely slides. You can sort of angle it 'uphill' and it will go straight by balancing the slippage against the traction, and I've done it a few times using the sickle bar on the BCS that way, but it is a struggle worthy of a quarterback or wrestler, which I am definitely not.

I did see a walk-behind unit on treads rather than wheels, although the cost was pretty up-there. It was a small flail-mower I believe.

I've definitely thought of all sorts of 'non-equipment' options, as I'd just as soon not spend money on any mowing/trimming device (I could get a great 1895 Winchester for that kind of money...)

We do have goats, but even the electric portable fence we have isn't potent enough to contain them, plus this is literally a few feet from the road and when we did have an area set up with good (permanent) fence that close to the road, people would constantly stop and 'feed the goats' sometimes not things goats should be fed. The power lines, gas pipeline, and fiberoptic lines there all have easements that prohibit us from putting up any permanent fence now, althougn none of them are required to do any cutting in terms of visibility for us - they just state they will remove any plants or structures (fences) that impede maintenance of their utilities. We are free to 'use' the area as long as we don't interfere however they choose to define it. The area isn't visible from the house so it would be a bit risky to the goats even if we had a better temporary fence. Also, they couldn't just be pastured there a couple days a month - they are browsers not grazers, so they would have to be near-starving to clip grass down consistently.

Spraying is out, as our well is only 20 feet deep and the aquifer is right under most of the area. I've yet to find ANY commercial herbicide that's studied well enough I'd trust it not to be an endocrine disrupter and carcinogen the way glyphosate is. (A fair amount of my medical practice is dealing with men who have estrogen elevation and resultant prostate issues or bedroom issues or even lymphomas from that stuff, and now we're seeing that it is probably contributory to many of women's hormonal problems as well.)

As to burning, that's a possibility, but when I was a kid and the guy who farmed the tillable part of the property for us did just that, he got fined by the county for 'creating a dangerous situation by burning too close to a roadway'. Not sure if they still would do that, but I wouldn't be surprised. Plus I'd have to do it when the weather was just right, as just downwind of the flat strip is a hillside sloping up that is full of a combination of pines and oaks, so weather would have to be not too dry, yet dry enough to burn (or at least sear) the roadside vegetation. Also doing 500 yards or so would take a fairly longtime versus a couple passes with some sort of cutter or mower.

Not trying to be negative, but just realistic.

Of course the other option would be finding someone nearby with a six foot or so sickle-bar on their tractor, and just paying them 3-4 times a year to do it. It wouldn't take them much time, but from what folks around here have to pay to have mowing or snow-removal done, I'm guessing in about 3-4 years I'd have paid more than for this glorified string-trimmer.

If I had a bigger tractor (almost got the 3000-series) with auxillary hydraulics it would open up more options, but that large a tractor wouldn't maneuver in our small gardens and sub-pastures and trails like the 2520 does.

[GunnyMack]

I've been thinking on this Doc, I was going to suggest change the angle of the grade along to high side, would make mowing easier. However if it's an easement regrading might not be allowed.

As for burning, if you used a propane weed burner and not set the area on fire you could be selective, just killing the tall stuff that obscured your view.

Try baking soda, get a box and dump the whole thing on a section of weeds, all the rich folk use it here on their paver driveways, keeps the weeds from growing between the blocks- won't hurt your drinking water!

[AJMD429]

I've been thinking on this Doc, I was going to suggest change the angle of the grade along to high side, would make mowing easier. However if it's an easement regrading might not be allowed.

As for burning, if you used a propane weed burner and not set the area on fire you could be selective, just killing the tall stuff that obscured your view.

Try baking soda, get a box and dump the whole thing on a section of weeds, all the rich folk use it here on their paver driveways, keeps the weeds from growing between the blocks- won't hurt your drinking water!

True on the baking soda (or even straight sodium hydroxide) - just making the pH go super high does make soil almost 'sterile' for as long as it takes for the alkalinity to wash away - and by the time it would hit an aquifer it would be highly dilute and buffered by minerals in the soil. Acid would even be ok most likely although I would worry it might dissolve some otherwise chelated heavy metals in the soil (though they'd likely re-precipitate pretty quickly as they percolated to deeper more normal-pH environments).

But we're talking something like 500 yards and 10 feet wide - I think I'd need a semi-load of baking soda...!

[AJMD429]

.
I think I'm gonna take a gamble and do the 'Titan' model. It appears to be ok as long as the terrain isn't real rough (this is angled but fairly smooth), and as long as you don't expect some perfection around fenceposts (none exist in the area I'm dealing with). The construction doesn't seem robust, but it really doesn't need to be from the applications I can see using it for. The belt is reported in some reviews to jump off if you engage the PTO at too high a speed, but that's just common sense or maybe I need to re-engineer the idler pully system. If the 13" strings don't hold up (I think they will with the mostly thin-stem grass and goldenrod and ragweed there) I'm pretty sure I could substitute 13" pieces of the appropriate wire cable.

Hopefully it will do the job with minimal hassle. If not, it won't be the first time I threw money in a hole...

[Griff]

The tractor I'm rebuilding is a Ford 3000 (40HP) and I have a sickle bar mower for it, a Ford 501 model. It's rated for between 20 to 50 HP. It does a great job on the bar ditches along the highway my road is off of. While most of mine is fine with the brush hog, near the roadway the incline is steeper than I feel comfortable with, even with the wide front end on my 3000. I do have the luxury of a paved shoulder on the highway, but cars & trucks at 55 mph vs my 4 mph is still disconcerting. Even moreso now with so many non rural folks that just have to gawk & pay less attention than what they should be paying attention to. I think the 501 can cut up to 30º up or down. They can be found fairly cheaply, mine is getting new cutting blades and bolts where needed. Parts are still available. Check out Ebay, or local farm papers. Found this one on EBay.

On the other hand, burning (infrequently) is a good option. When I do a burn, I have to call the County and notify them, they'll let me know if the forecast is appropriate, (wind less than 10 mph, gusts less than 15, more than 100 feet from any structures, and water available). I probably fudge my response on a couple of those factors. Most of my burning is fallen trees, branches, etc. from storm damage or what I remove from my fence rows, so I can be selective of timing, etc.

[jeepnik]

The slope behind me is pretty steep. In 79' when we moved in I did it by hand. It took days and every year I kept telling myself I would just keep up with it so it wasn't such a big job. Never really happened.

For a few years my neighbors and I did rent goats. That worked until the coyote population took off. It's not easy to find herders that want to put their goats out on slopes in a ravine anymore.

The last few years I have just bit the bullet and hired it done. And in my 70's I don't figure I'll do it any different from here out. The fellow I use has a Bobcat. Actually he now has several. He started with an beat up F-350, a cheap flatbed trailer and Bobcat with a few attachments. Today he has various trucks, trailers and several Bobcats. Plus probably every attachment known to man. Not to mention that he rarely operates a Bobcat anymore, he's got people for that.

[AJMD429]

.
"...He started with an beat up F-350, a cheap flatbed trailer and Bobcat with a few attachments. Today he has various trucks, trailers and several Bobcats. Plus probably every attachment known to man. Not to mention that he rarely operates a Bobcat anymore, he's got people for that..."

That's the beauty of America - entrepreneurialism works for folks who take the initiative and work hard.

I understand the 'in my 70s' mindset too though. Not quite there yet, but I start thinking "how many years/times would I likely have to pay for someone to do the trimming...?" Or alternatively - "Would my wife DO it (trim brush, whatever) after I die, or HIRE it done - and if she hired it done, could she sell the stuff I used to use to do the thing myself...?" Since it is a family homestead, most likely my youngest son-in-law (lives next door) will be the inheriter of most of my groundskeeping 'stuff'.

There is a little bit of "some new piece of equipment to learn to use and modify if necessary..." and I'm still young (sort of) and energetic (on some days) to still think that is a 'fun' thing...

Of note when browsing all the options, I found a "Rossi" sickle-bar mower...! Sure enough, it's Italian.

My BCS it Italian, and I really like it - https://www.bcsamerica.com/. Got it 25 years ago - tiller, rotary brush mower, sickle bar, and chipper/shredder.

One thing I just might try first though - is a wire or blade replacement-head for the Stihl string-trimmer. I could use the 'leisurely walk' down the roadside string-trimming a few times a year if I didn't have to take 30 feet or so of extra 'string' and keep replacing it. It only takes a couple tanks of fuel and our driveway is mid-strip, so I can just stash the can there, but the constant bumping and hoping the string doesn't jam then it runs out anyway, is (maybe a 'first-world problem' but it is) very annoying.