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 | kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 5275 South Carolina 
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2008-10-01 156966
A question I have asked when the use of a gas engine was suggested is how much angle can you run the engine at due to lubrication.
Last night talking with a friend he mentioned using chain saw engines on go carts and the thought came to me, 2 cycle engine. Any thoughts on using a chain saw engine to power a cutter for a steep angle such as a ditch bank? kt
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 | candoarms
Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1932 North Dakota 
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2008-10-01 156967
Kthompson,
The problem with most 2-stroke engines is the fact that they produce almost no torque. They'll rap out at around 11,000 rpm, but they bog down quickly when asked to do any real work.
When working steep angles, the best option is a hydraulic motor.
A friend of mine built a ditch mower using a Briggs 2 cylinder engine, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 horses. He built it on an slanted platform, made of angle iron, that sits nearly verticle when in operation. It looks goofy as hell when sitting in his driveway, as the engine is tipped at about a 45 degree angle.........but it works great for mowing his ditches.
We have laws here in North Dakota that require all farmers to have their ditches mowed by October 21st of each year. This is due to the drifting snow, which piles up behind anything standing next to the road. Ditches must be mowed to keep the roads clear during the winter. A mower like his works well for that job.
Building a mower like this, from an old riding lawn mower, is a whole lot cheaper than buying a sickle mower......along with a tractor big enough to handle one.
Joel ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-10-01 156971
Another option is to belt drive the mower off a regular 4 stroke engine on a swivel mount.
You can twist the belts to some pretty extreme angles before you run into any problems.
Some of the old golf course mowers used a series of belts to achieve articulation and to allow the mowers to move up and down and twist to follow the terrain while the engine stayed stationary on the chassis. We ran lots of those machines forever with no problems at all.
Best of luck.
Best of luck. ....
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| kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2008-10-01 156972
Joel, The problem with most 2-stroke engines is the fact that they produce almost no torque. They'll rap out at around 11,000 rpm, but they bog down quickly when asked to do any real work.
So on go-carts, guess they just geared them down? I was told about one that used two McCulloughs and ran over 100 mph, way too fast for me on such.
Murf, you keep repeating and I appreacite it as each time it does come into understanding better.
Thanks both of you, kt
....
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 | earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2008-10-02 157010
We use ditch bank cutters run purely off hydraulic motors. Simple and effective. They are articluted on a long reach arm similar to a backhoe or mini excavator. some are articulated to go vertical to cut high tree limbs along the ditch. If you lack hydraulic flow and PSI, simply use a PTO driven pump with reservoir to allow for expansion and cooling with an appropriate-sized hydraulic motor.
(Picture a Swisher-brand tow-behind string trimmer--but not a gas-driven one)
If you're inventive enough you could modify the hitch to an existing rotary cutter or mower and make it swing or extend to one side while mowing the bank. When not needed to be offest it could return to the center position. Having it offset on the bank would require a ballast opposite the mower but that could include or be the hydraulic reservoir and mounting assembly. SurplusCenter.com now offers PTO-splined hydraulic motors that IMHO should bolt right up to an existing cutter replacing the PTO shaft.
BTW, the articulated boom-type mowers we use here are great for reaching over road signs and mailboxes, so Kenny if you are leaning toward mounting a mower on your excavator, this may be an option. Keep in mind like I told you privately though, you can't expect to "travel" down the road mowing "doot-ty dooo" without rapid wear to the undercarriage---rubber tracks, rollers, bearings and especially the drive motors. They just ain't made to do that for long. (I have done it for another guy, and seen it done in Katrinaland where albeit "anything goes" driving a full-size excavator a mile or two down the highway shoulder for lack of a trailer (or sense---or both).
Anecdote: SPeaking of anything goes down there, one day driving on a major highway I came upon a Chevy S-10 pulling a 16' car hauler with a full-size Ford LTD. Normally, this woulbn't be a big deal or even worth mentioning. However, and this is a big HOWEVER...the car wasn't on the trailer---the guys apparently didn't have ramps. So bless their lil' redneck hearts they got the Ford as far as the front bumper which was resting on the very back end of the trailer! Son of a .... it was working! I quickly passed them trying to get a pix on my cell phone which diodn't work. I thought it best not to hear about a three-car-pile up with only two drivers involved.
And yes, I'm jis' sayin' ya'all.
Oh yeah, then there was the guy who had a flat tire and was sitting in gas staion parking lot trying to figure how he gonna remove the tire without a jack or a wrench. Lucky for him I had a compressor and impact wrench with me. I asked him for the proper sized metric socket and he said he might have one in the trunk. I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "everything is in there including the kitchen sink". This time it was not a metaphor. There it was--a used, banged up two-bowl kitchen sink! But no tools. I had a good laugh. Oddly or rather predictably, he didn't think it funny. Oh me. ....
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