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Three In One Lawn Mower
Three old rider lawn mowers, tied together with L-shaped hitches, let Bob Benson, Burnettsville, Ind, cut an 80 in. wide swath across his 3/4 acre lawn for far less cost than a comparable size commercial mower.
Benson tied together a 1982 10 hp electric start Sears model with a 36 in. wide cut; a 1980 belt-drive
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Three in one lawn mower FARM HOME Lawn Mowers (31h,38) 12-4-6 Three old rider lawn mowers, tied together with L-shaped hitches, let Bob Benson, Burnettsville, Ind, cut an 80 in. wide swath across his 3/4 acre lawn for far less cost than a comparable size commercial mower.
Benson tied together a 1982 10 hp electric start Sears model with a 36 in. wide cut; a 1980 belt-driven Sears "Golden Black" with a 36 in. cut; and a 1980 5 hp, chain-driven Wards model with a 20 in. cut. He rides the 10hp Sears mdoel, which pulls the other two.
"The three mowers would cut nearly 90 in. wide, except that we overlap each one about 3 in.," notes Benson. He figures he has about $700 invested in the three mowers. "We had the lawn mowers and two of them were too old to have any trade-in value. Using them this way saved money and labor. What's more, the independent floating action of each mower results in less scalping on our slightly uneven lawn than we'd get with a single, 80 in. wide mower."
L-Shaped hitches, made of 1 in. angle iron with braces for support, leave the trailing mowers offset and 3 ft. behind each other. There's room for each mower to turn without hitting the rear wheels of the mower in front of it.
To make the trailing mowers pull as easily as passible, Benson removed their drive assembly belts or chains. Then, across the front of each, he welded a 3 ft. long bar onto the steering spindle.
Benson starts all three motors, kicks the rear two blades into gear, jumps on the front mower and away he goes. . "Once you learn how to drive the train of mowers, it's easy. You have to learn how to judge where the rear mower will be when you turn corners. At the end of the lawn, I leave a strip where I turn. Then, when I comeback around the next time, I split the strip."
In corners and other tight places, he unhooks the pulling mower's hitch pin and finishes with that mower.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bob Benson, Rt.1, Box 71, Burnettsville, Ind. 47926 (ph 219 278-7282).
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