You can combine, mow or swath up to twice as fast with the new "Double Stroke" sickle drive for cutterbars, introduced by SI Distributing, St. Marys, Ohio.

"It essentially doubles the length of each stroke of the sickle," explains Joe Whitney, president. "A conventional sickle knife travels about 3 in. forward and 3 in. back on each full stroke. With our new double drive, it travels 5.2 in. forward and 5.2 in. back.

"When operated at regular speed, our new drive has twice the cutting action of a conventional sickle. If a section is missing, that portion of the sickle will still cut because the new drive's longer stroke passes two sections across each guard on each forward and return stroke," says Whitney.

"By putting our new-style drive on a combine platform, for example, farmers can 'down size' to cut machinery costs without sacrificing capacity," Whitney points out. "For instance, a 10-ft. soybean header, equipped with our new drive and operated at 4 mph, can cover just as much ground as a more expensive 20-ft. conventional header operated at 2 mph."

Whitney notes that the new drive also helps reduce shatter loss because of its faster cutting action which slices off plants with virtually no jerking or jarring. It adapts to most mowers, combines, swathers and other cutterbar-equipped machines, and can be moved from one machine to another in a matter of minutes.

On floater type combine headers, and on mowers or swathers, a hydraulic motor is used to power the new drive. On rigid type headers, it's belt driven.

Whitney notes that the new drive can be used with conventional sickles but is recommended for use with his company's recently-introduced "upside" down cutter-bar on which every other sickle section is mounted upside down to eliminate plugging and bent sickle sections (featured in FARM SHOW's Vol. 10, No. 1, 1986 issue). Called the Easy Cut system, it includes special guards with cutting edges on both the top and bottom edges.