purpose of sickle bar swathboard

[portuncia]

what function did it serve, I have a mower but no swathboard.

[SmilinSam]

Its supposed to drag the cuttings back to the left some so they dont get tangled up in the skid plate when you make your next pass.

[Brent_Baumer]

I have a replica swath board if you are interested. Made a copy of one out of solid ash lumber and painted it orange. Sold the mower with the original board and kept the copy. email me for pics and details. bbaumerPE@cs.com

[MPH]

Just had a thought as I read Sams reply, maybe the reason I broke my sickle is because of not having one, thus possibly causing more stress on those two teeth to the inside of the pitman hool-up because of already cut , in my case thick clove, bunching up there somewhat hmmmmmm??????

[SmilinSam]

In some vegetation the swathboard functions good, but I found in some material its more of a hinderance. What happens in some instances is that rather than just lay the material over a bit the swathboard tries to drag the material with the mower and you end up with a piled up mess and then the tractor gets dragged sideways from the weight at the end of the bar. Its a 50 50 thing. Sometimes I used it sometimes I didnt. If I didnt use it I tried to run the skid as close to the new cut as possible without leaving a thin row of uncut material. You just have to play it by ear with the stuff you are cutting.