sickle bar mower

[Drtumolo]

I just aquired a simplicity sunstar 20hp tractor and would like to put a sickle bar mower on it. Did anyone ever make one to fit this tractor?

[Les]

To the best of my knowlege, you are out of luck. Haban mfg. made sickle bars for Simplicity Sovereign-type tractors up until somewhere during the 1970's. Well before the advent of the SunStar. A retrofit does not seem likely as the Sunstar uses shaft drive PTO, as opposed to cone disc belt drive on the Sovereign tractors. A regular "farm" type sickle bar would be a Cat I 3pt and 540 rpm PTO. I do not know exactly what the Sunstar PTO rpm is but it is different than 540. I dont know if you can adapt or not. Plus you are probably looking at more weight than the SunStar lift can handle. There are pull type sickle bars mowers around too. The 720/Powermax sickle bars are faily common, but the mounting points are probably much different and the drive was via front belt-driven PTO.