Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower

   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower #1  

frontyardfarm

Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
27
Location
ware, ma
Tractor
Grillo 107D, Cub Cadet
I'm sure there has been a lot of discussion about flail vs brush mower, but I'm wondering if anyone would like to add there opinion on walk behind mower attachments. I just purchased a Grilllo 107d and I'm going to save up for a Berta flail mower or Del Morino brush mower.

We have some land out back that i cleared with an excavator and chain saw two winters ago. Now the clearings have grown back with lots of vegetation, including clumps of saplings and tall weeds and brush.
Also, I would like to be able to mow cover crops/chop up plant debris to help breakdown faster, and help tiller incorporate material into the soil.

It seems like the flail mower would be the best all around option. The Berta has a removable baffle that would allow brush to be cleared faster and blades can be changed out for different applications. However, it sounds like the brush mower would be a better application if I was only clearing land.


My first thought is to buy the brush mower for the clearing, and later on, get a flail mower. Whichever mower I get, it would be used more for land clearing than munching up plant debris and cover crops.
Also, it sounds like the brush mower is cheaper to buy and maintain, but more dangerous.

Anyone have experience with land clearing with a walk behind flail mower or brush mower?

Thanks,
Chris
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower #2  
I would say that a flail or sickle would be safer and less likely to be damaged than a rotary type mower on "virgin" ground. I will generally use a sickle mower on unknown terrain first and then after a rotary, once debris has been dealt with, sickles will cut near anything that fits between the guards with little to no damage or flying debris. I've never used a flail, then again I have a Gravely and flails are pretty rare, also Gravely brush decks don't have the swinging blade tips either.
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanks for the reply. The sickle bar mower does seem the safest. I would rather not have to buy multiple implements for mowing, but it might be the best choice, as each mower has its intended purpose.

Also, I have a Stihl trimmer that can run a circular brush blade. Maybe I could go through and get all the larger stuff and then use the flail mower. That way I can have a mower for brush and for cover crops/ plant debris.
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower #4  
The flail is versatile as it can be used for finish mowing, brush hogging, and initial clearing, however it requires the most hp and slowest ground speed when working on brush and high weeds. A sickle is just plain economical to run and can cover a lot of ground even running reduced engine speeds but all the growth is left whole and takes time to rot away.

I see you have a Grillo, I would look up some old posts from a member oldmech, he made an adapter to run Gravely attachments with his Grillo 107, to date I have seen the Gravely rotary plow, 30" brush hog, and a modified snowblower mounted to his Grillo. Though old designs many of the Gravely attachments work fairly well once gone over and repaired and compared to new they are pennies on the dollar, especially those that don't see a lot of use, and you have another "weapon" for cheap till/if you decide to go with a new one.
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks that is really cool. I didn't know you could use gravely attachments on grillo. Somebody should sell an adapter like that. There are many gravely attachments for sale on craigslist

I noticed the gravely brush hog has fixed blades that don't retract if they hit an object. The Del morino mower I was looking at has blades that swing out with centrificual force to protect the shaft from hard objects.
Will the fixed blades damage the tractor if they hit something hard? Maybe there is a shear pin or something?

Thanks
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower #6  
Most Gravely attachments have a slip clutch on them where they attach to protect the tractor and attachment. The adapter may help/hurt the tractor balance depending on the attachment as it puts the attachment further forward of the wheels, also the bearing on the end was meant to be run in the transmission oil and attaching to a Grillo there will be none. However Gravely did use what they called a retro adapter on quick hitch machines which also did not supply oil to the end bearing, grease was used, sounds messy to me. There would be an easy fix to this if its a problem by switching out the bearing for a sealed type. Pto rotation is the same between Gravely and Grillo (BCS is backwards) and the Pto rpm is close enough for things to work, actually the Gravely Pto speed in high is in the area of 1200rpm, low is in the 900's, I believe Grillo is 900 rpm or so on the Pto output so things will work. Many say the newer attachments for the Grillo's work better than the old Gravely stuff but for hardly used items I think one could "make do". Mind you the adaptation is not without it's glitches there is a small height difference at the Pto depending on the tires used on the Grillo, also a Gravely 30" deck uses a very heavy blade and it will keep spinning after power is removed which doesn't affect a Gravely since it has an independent Pto but will cause a Grillo to continue traveling since its Pto is driven differently, see oldmech's explaination on the subject http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/2-wheeled-tractors/314881-grillo-gravely-rotary-plow.html . But many attachments would have no affect.
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Okay, I understand. That's some good info. I have a friend who has a machine shop and is really skilled at fabricating parts for heavy equipment. I bet he would be able to help me make an adapter for gravely attachments. I'll make a post if I end up going that route.

Thanks
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower #8  
If you can afford the half-again higher price for a flail mower, you should go that route. The Del Morino is a good mower, but the flail mower will do nearly everything it will do and better. The only advantages the Del Morino has over the Berta is a lower price and a slightly higher cutting capacity. The Berta is far less likely to hang up on very rough terrain, will do a better job of actually mowing and distributing material, and replaces the flail side on the chipper when cleaning up the garden in the fall.
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower #9  
I have a Grillo 107d on order along with the brush mower. What I have done in the past (using a Steiner 420 with a tree farm mower) is just run through what you are going to mow without the mower blades engaged. This will expose any "surprises" and allow you to mow smarter.
 
   / Berta Flail Mower vs Del Morino Brush Mower #10  
That's a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
 
 
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