Highline Manufacturing has introduced a roadside mower that keeps municipalities out of the ditch.
“We went out to look at a concept mower created by a fellow at St. Brieux, (Sask.,)” said Blake Neudorf, who heads Highline’s research and design team.
“We opened the shed door and knew we had to develop the idea. It was too good to pass up.”
Julien Denis, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Grant, which includes Vonda, Sask., where Highline is located, is also sold on the new mower.
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He said municipalities have a hard time keeping equipment operators, especially if they have to spend weeks each year perched at an angle inside a tractor cab while mowing ditches.
Grant was the first municipality to buy Highline’s radial contouring hitch mower, which allows the tractor to remain on the top of the road while the mower is in the ditch.
George McKay of Highline said machine reliability, ease of maintenance and operator fatigue are the biggest challenges for roadside mowing.
The company, better known for bale handling equipment and rock pickers, decided to tackle those issues when it started developing the mower a little more than a year ago.
Rob Laskowski of Highline said the company has already sold out of the mowers for 2008.
“This machine’s ability to stay on top of the road, if that is what you need, is a big selling point,” he said.
Neudorf’s design team has applied for or received 10 patents on the unit, including the 120 degree hitch that allows the machine to work beside the tractor, even in a heavily sloped ditch. The prototype machines mowed more than 3,200 acres during development last year.
The company also hired Lethbridge Iron Works to cast gear boxes to drive the blades. Each drive box has oil level site glasses and temperature monitoring. The unit also features self levelling mower decks based on floating hitch systems found on air seeder drill designs and easy to remove blade bolts. To reduce maintenance, the company eliminated constant velocity joints from its design.
Automated wing locks safely put the 4.57 metre wide unit into transport, without pins, by overcentring the wings.
The unit is rated from 80 to 250 horsepower.
Highline is marketing the mower directly in North America rather than establishing a dealer network. It sells for about $52,000.
Neudorf said the company will soon release another mower with fewer options but will retain the self levelling characteristics of the radial contouring hitch mower.
