Fixed vs. trailing sulky...

[Joel B.]

Imagine you are running a fixed sulky behind a hydro walkbehind and you're mowing next to a curb with the curb being on your left. You come to the corner of the yard and want to make a 90 degree turn to your right and continue mowing. When you make that turn, will the sulky end up swinging into the street? Or say you're trimming along a bed on your left and want to make a 90 degree turn to the right, will the sulky swing into the bed?

I would think those would be good places for a trailing sulky, but then there's the problem of jackknifing when backing up.

Maybe that dual mode sulky would be the way to go. You could use it in the trailing mode for trimming around the edges and switch to the fixed mode when you work your way into the yard and have more room.

What do you think?

Joel B.

[edrenckh]

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I run a Toro hydro with Toro's Tru-Trak sulky. That is exactly what happens. The rear of the mower swings wide. Just got to get used to it. You can pick up the sulky and 'hang' it when you rather walk or if you have a hill, etc. I'm not sure how the pivot sulky's can be 'turned off'.

I really don't do too much backing up (other than turns), but I think the fixed sulky beats the pivots. Of course I haven't used anythng else......

[lawrence stone]

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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Joel B.</i>
<br />Imagine you are running a fixed sulky behind a hydro walkbehind and you're mowing next to a curb with the curb being on your left. You come to the corner of the yard and want to make a 90 degree turn to your right and continue mowing. When you make that turn, will the sulky end up swinging into the street? Or say you're trimming along a bed on your left and want to make a 90 degree turn to the right, will the sulky swing into the bed?

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

It all depends on the mower and the offset of the mower deck. Also the width of the sulky and in which position the sulky is actually mounted to the machine.

On a 52" and 62" Toro (pre 2000 production)you will NOT have any of the above issues. With the 44" Toro (pre 2000 production)you will have to pay a little more attention to where your sulky will end up.

BTW fixed sulkies are the way to go on Toro belt drives also.
My belts give the same grounds speeds except for climbing "uP" hills.

I don't work in the rain so belt slipage is not a problem.

[nlls]

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Hey Lawrence,
Which Sulky would you put behind a Toro belt drive 36" floating deck? What happens when you back up or when you put the mower on the trailer, does it pick up out of the way?

[lawrence stone]

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Nils for your application IMHO the Proslide sulky would be the best fit.

And yes the machine will be too light on the nose. Get a piece of heavy pipe that will fit in the channel of the carrier frame between the front castors and fill the pipe full of concrete and strap it on.

An oem Toro grass catcher will also add some weight to keep the front end down.