The Gang of Three

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In addition to the mowers, you'll need three 26" pieces of 1" electrical metallic tubing or other thin-wall pipe, a 33" length of the same material, a hunk of 1/8" X 1/2" X 2" X 11" channel iron, two 5/16" X 2" X 3-1/2" Ubolts, and at least five scraps of bar stock measuring 3/8" X 1" X 3" or so. You'll also need a half-dozen 3/8" X 2-1/2" bolts and some short sections of 1 /4" Schedule 40 pipe, as well as a drill with metal-cutting bits, and some means of bending the thin-wall conduit without kinking it. (Conduit benders can be purchased for about $16 . . . or you can see if a local electrician will loan one for a few minutes.)

It's best to fabricate the lead mower framework first. This involves nothing more than bending one of the 26" lengths of tubing at a 45° angle to form a tow bar that pulls the mower from a point just below the handle mounts. To keep those mounts from crush ing the tube, slide the short sections of 1/4" pipe crosswise into the conduit after you match-drill the handle holes, then replace the bolts. The front of the bar is reinforced with a drilled bar stock insert . . . and the channel iron tongue is then fastened to the beefed-up conduit with a 3/8" bolt.

To make the crossbar that pulls the two trailing mowers, simply tap a bar stock section into each end of the 33" tube, then flatten the ends in a vise and drill a 7/16" hole through each "ear." Use the U-bolts to secure the bar to the lower sections of the handle mounts, making sure that the bolt plates are substantial enough to hold without bending. (If they're not, replace them with scraps of the 3/8" bar stock.)

Finally, rig up the remaining two tow bars as you did the first one. The attachment at the handle mounts is the same . . . but instead of adding a channel iron tongue, just drill a 7116" hole through each remaining piece of bar stock, slide them into the ends of the tubes as before, and use these inserts as tongues. Then connect the trailing mowers to the crossbar with 3/8" bolts, and you're ready to roll.

Just as with any mower, the sharper the blades, the better the cut. Our three 16" reels clipped a 48"-wide swath without missing a spot, even at the greater speeds necessitated by the ATV. If you do choose to use an all-terrain vehicle to pull the mowers and you don't have a factory- or dealer-supplied hitch, be sure to attach your drawbar to a substantial part of the vehicle's main frame and not just to a fender support or other lightweight member.

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