Giant CRP Mower Built Out Of Combine

Giant CRP Mower Built Out Of Combine COMBINES Conversions 19-5-10 "We've seen lots of big self-propelled mowers in FARM SHOW over the years, but we've never seen one quite like ours," says Dan Nufrio about a 24-ft. wide front-mount combine mower attachment he and his late father, Rocco, built a few years ago. "We've got 100 acres of CRP land here in eastern Indiana and we figured if we could cut a 24-ft. wide swath we'd be able to mow it all in less than 12 hours, instead of the three days it took to mow it with a 9-ft. mower," Nufrio says. "Plus, we figured if people saw that it worked well we might get some custom work, especially if a lot of land comes out of the program. Farmers are going to need something to start to get it back into condition." The project started with a late 1960's Massey combine the Nufrios bought from a neighbor for $250. The men then built a triangular-shaped 24-ft. long by 10-ft.-wide by 6-ft. high mower attachment for the combine out of 4-in. square steel tubing. It mounts on the combine's hydraulic header lift cylinder with eight rectangular brackets they made out of 3/4-in. thick steel plate 12 in. long. The specially-built brackets let them quick-tach the cutter to the combine with four bolts. Four 15-in. dia. crazy wheels off an old New Idea corn planter, two per side, support the mower. The Nufrios fitted the mower frame with a commercial 24-ft. cutterbar with standard 1 1/2-in guards and sickle sections. A "wobble box" from an old haybine powers the cutterbar. It's belt driven off a gear reduction box and pulley connected by a shaft to the combine's header drive gear. The big mower is designed to cut 6 to 8-in. off the ground at around 5 mph. "At that speed we figured we'd be able to make one round in our 1/2-mile long field every 20 or 30 minutes," Nufrio says. "There are still a few bugs to work out," says Nufrio. "The cutterbar had problems cutting heavy infestations of thistle and foxtail, which are our worst problem weeds." To improve feeding, the Nufrios built a reel for the mower out of two old 12-ft. long combine reels. The reel was driven off the combine's reel drive, but that proved unsatisfactory. Too much pressure on the drive side caused the reel to twist. Nufrio says he may try an alternative to the current design. "I could probably mount eight 3-ft. wide lawnmower blades on the combine so it'd work just like a giant lawnmower," he says. So far, he's invested about $3,500 in the machine. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dan Nufrio, 881 W-Wallace Rd., Fountain City, Ind. 47341 (ph 317 847-2735).

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