Steep Mowing

[Nesikep]

I wouldn't trust tracks any more than tires... tracks just become sleds if they clog up. Unless they're steel tracks with GOOD cleats

 

[inyati13]

I will chime in on this post... We have some pretty steep hills on the farm here in TN as well. In my younger days, I would take a tractor just about anywhere! You actually get to a point where you think that you know everything that could happen and you think that you might even know how to respond when and if something bad actually happens.

As a "Survivor" of a tractor roll-over, let me tell you this... You Don't!

You can have the best equipment and even the best of intentions but that still doesn't guarantee you the best of results! I am reminded of a quote that my dad used to tell me all the time... "Machines do not feel pain, only you do"!

Good to hear this. I agree.

 

[TomA]

We don't have a lot of choice, our whole ranch is steep. We don't have any tractors with wheels. All D2 and D4 Cats.

Http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuRkBq4xXQI

 

[jltrent]

I have been bush hogging today on a hill that was so steep I would back down as far as I thought the tractor would come back up and then all 4 wheels would spin coming back up. I got to thinking, here I am with a 100HP 4X4 cab tractor and a 10 ft bush hog together worth $70,000 trying to keep a $500 1/2 acre clean that should be in trees to start with. :dunce:

Be careful, and let that old hill grow up. :lol2:

 

[tom4018]

I'vw hayed that kind of stuff. The good part is all the hay is accumulated at the bottom. The bad part is if you used to have fences at the bottom when you hayed it.

We are haying this, not as steep as his pics. My place is pretty flat in the fields, hills are wooded. Doing this hill ground on another farm is a learning experience.

 

[dun]

You mean that isn;t considered level?

 

[tom4018]

You mean that isn;t considered level?

Not to me, our place is in a valley so most of it is flat to gently rolling. Doing hill ground is a new experience for me. Now wet ground I have to deal with.

 

[inyati13]

You mean that isn;t considered level?

Not to me, our place is in a valley so most of it is flat to gently rolling. Doing hill ground is a new experience for me. Now wet ground I have to deal with.

Tom, my hay barn is on a hill steeper than that. In fact, I just open the door and the bales fall out.

 

[Ruark]

Yeah, slopes scare the crap out of me. I have a few small slopes I BH sometimes. What I do is carefully BACK up the slopes, then BH them going downhill in 1st gear. Going across a slope, leaned over sideways, gives me the heebie-jeebies. I just don't do it, ever. If I spray and kill the weeds and it's just grass, that's fine, let it grow.

In general, I don't want to end up a quadriplegic, or worse. If I'm just SLIGHTLY uncomfortable with a situation like this, I just don't do it, period.

 

[cow pollinater]

had a horse break traction on a hill one time and I thought we were all dead..

If you ever get used to it you're hired. :nod:
I have places where horses can lose five hundred feet rimming around the hill. A few years ago we lost a good hand in my area when his horse literally slid out from under him... he hit his head on a rock on the way down.

 

[tom4018]

You mean that isn;t considered level?

Not to me, our place is in a valley so most of it is flat to gently rolling. Doing hill ground is a new experience for me. Now wet ground I have to deal with.

Tom, my hay barn is on a hill steeper than that. In fact, I just open the door and the bales fall out.

When we mowed it Saturday I was only on part of the place. I raked it all today, the part that he said was the steepest really made you pinch the seat. Really is a learning curve when you normally do pretty flat ground.

 

[slick4591]

This little guy might help.

http://youtu.be/X60y8MKX3j0

[youtube]X60y8MKX3j0[/youtube]