A sickle bar ?

[Jackman]

Does thwe touch control raise the sickle bar all the way to the upright position or does it just raise the bar 6 inchs from the ground?

[danovercash]

Raises high enough to mow, Vertical requires manually lifting and bolting to special rod.

[Bus Driver]

Raising the sickle bar to the vertical is a potentially dangerous operation. The human fingers must not be placed so that the knives can contact them. The bar sometimes will drop as the assembly is lifted. A guillotine for the fingers.

['Country' Elliott]

Generally, the only time the sickle bar is raised to the verticle position is for travel. The STAYROD is threaded at the end...it goes through the hole in the bar and is held vertically in place by the CRANK NUT.

I would suggest making a sickle bar SAFETY COVER (like I made for mine out of hardware cloth, pine wood and nylon straps). THEN, your fingers NEVER come into contact with the sickle blades...but JUST AS IMPORTANT...NO ONE'S FINGERS (at tractor shows) can accidently be CUT by the sharp sickle blades!