Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2014 11:41:10 -0400
From: J
Subject: Mowing
> Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 09:07:54 -0400
> From: “John R Dykers”
> Subject: Thurman Maness Post about DOT mowing around his driveway
>
> ” I know for a fact, that from my residence, six miles to Pittsboro, no other driveway looks so
> shabby. And I am willing to bet, that no driveway, in the other direction, toward Siler City, has
> ragweed waist high.”
>
>Dear Thurman Maness,
> I make the trip from Siler City to Pittsboro from time to time, and I promise I will check for other
> driveway ragweed et al.
> Having operated a 15 ft bat wing bush hog that I bought second hand from another owner who
> had purchased it from the DOT, I can tell you that it is not nearly as easy to maneuver around a
> fence post or mailbox as your usual lawn mower. It is heavy duty and heavy, and I have
> skinned my own ground many times where it was uneven, maybe like your driveway.
> Maybe the Chatlist can help you find someone nearby who can trim up your driveway weeds
> with the proper equipment.
> John Dykers
As far as I know, the state hasn’t used batwing bush hogs (or any rotary bush hogs) to cut the sides of the roads for a long while. They may still use them to cut long wide medians and easements, but for trimming the road edges around mailboxes, driveways, culverts, street signs and guard rails, they’ve been using hydraulic flail mowers for quite some time.
These mowers are a lot more maneuverable than towing a rotary bush hog. Typically, they have a flail mounted on an outrigger that can be independently lowered and raised to get around objects like mailboxes, street signs and so forth as well as pull a second flail behind on the rear hitch, and some have a third flail mounted on an outrigger on the other side of the tractor as well.
That said, I was feeling froggy and decided to get a jump on the state mowers last month and took my own tractor down the road pulling my little 5ft bush hog and I still ended up miscalculating and knocked my own mailbox down.
But the nice thing about those side mounted flail mowers is that they can mow around objects (just mow right up to the mailbox, lift the mower to the vertical position, drive past the mailbox and lower it again). As to why they would be bypassing Mr Maness’ drive, I could not tell you. They’ve never failed to hit mine, even at times when I wish they wouldn’t have, such as when they mowed over some ripe blackberry bushes on the roadside that I wanted to harvest first.