Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[John861]

Island - How well does the flail cut when backing into the brush? Does the roller get in the way?

-John

[myyaz33]

Could someone address the speed of cutting flail vs rotary?

[greg_g]

OK, another question, how close or high can you adjust a flail to finish mow??

There are exceptions, but typically one to four inches

//greg//

[Iron Horse]

I have a 6' Mott flail mower that the local school system had until the ran the gearbox out of oil. I have a 1-1 right hand gear box on it but it needs a 1-3 ratio. In short lawn type grass it cut terrific and chopped the clippings to tiny bits. Tall weeds will smoke the belt drive.

One of my projects is to find a proper ratio gear box or add a geared system to get it to the right rpm. I like the way it cuts and I think my 4110 JD would have enough power to operate it in the big open spaces. I also have a ton of cutters with it which seem to cut rather than tear the blades of grass.

I didn't think parts were available for this machine as it was traded and sold for scrap price.

Look at your drive pullies , they are usually different sizes and are usually interchangable . Swapping from top to bottom will give you a ratio change .

[IslandTractor]

Island - How well does the flail cut when backing into the brush? Does the roller get in the way?

-John

The roller is not an issue and the flail, in reverse, behaves essentially like a bush hog. I occasionally raise the flail when backing into a big bush just like you would with a bush hog. Otherwise you just back up and the roller will push stuff over before the flails cut it up. Here are a few photos from backing up. The photos I showed earlier in this thread of the "flailed" bush stumps were also done in reverse. Of course once I back in I need to drive out again so these areas were initially cut in reverse then recut while driving out. I suppose I could get some photos where I cut some areas only in reverse then lift the mower as I drive out but that will need to wait until I take my BH off and start mowing again. In that setting the quality of the cut would be determined solely by how quickly I backed up. When I back into brush normally I back in at the same speed I used to use with a bush hog but then I drive out quickly. There is some recutting on the drive out but mostly just of odd stumpy woody bits. The last photo is of an area that was near where I turned around frequently with the flail running. You can see how fine it cuts with multiple passes (about three I'd guess)

[IslandTractor]

Could someone address the speed of cutting flail vs rotary?

From my experience about the same as a bush hog in similar conditions. The only thing that might be different is that with the flail you can hear the thing chewing up a bush while with a bush hog it just breaks it and flings it about. As you can hear the flail working you can adjust your speed to insure complete cutting while backing into a bush. While it is noisy in that setting it is not nearly as violent or noisy as what happens when you back a bush hog into the same size bush. It chews away efficiently at brush rather than gobbling it in one too big bite and then thrashing about.

[AndyMA]

OK, another question, how close or high can you adjust a flail to finish mow??

On many flail mowers you can actually cut into the ground by replacing the blades with straight ones for dethatching. also helps open slots for overseeding.

As far as height in many ways it depends on your tractor. If you have a larger tractor and can adjust the 3 pt hitch to maintain the mower parallel to the ground and keep the pto shaft within acceptable angles I would think you can mow as high as you want. Of course when used like this the roller wouldn't be on ground. On our walk behinds we routinely mowed about 10-12 inches by tipping the mowers.

Andy

[Reg]

I just got off the phone with Agri Supply, they have a 73" Coroni flail with 53 blades (hammers?), item #30837 delivered by truck with a lift gate (to Wisconsin) priced at 1,947.95. Price seems too good to be true considering my local dealer offers a Landpride 72" RCR1872 rotary mower at 1,595.00 + tax. Same dealer has a NH 60" flail for 2,600.00 or a NH 71" flail for 4,100.00.

Search other threads.
I think the $19xx.xx price is an all included ("free" ?) shipping to anywhere in the contiguous.... mumble, mumble, etc. price.
As I recall, other TBN'ers have been able to get the in store price of $159x.xx plus ACTUAL shipping, which can be a lot less if you aren't at the farthest reaches of the aforementioned contiguou.... etc.
Also, if you have pallet forks (and confidence) you can forgo the lift gate charge as long as you KNOW when the delivery guy will be there and you can be home (sick day ?).
I think this requires that you tell them it is a biz address and/or has a loading dock or you have unloading capability - e.g. pallet forks.

FWIW, etc.

[allen in texas]

I like this thread.
I studied, researched, called, haggled, hammered,, kicked, screamed, stomped, fussed, fought, threw things.
I looked at Rears, Befco, Landpride, Vrisimo, Gearmore, John deere and a bunch more I can't remember and decided...

I'm buying a Rears SPF 72 inch with the FL 940 knives.
I'm working on shipping now.

Kinda high, over $4000, but I made my decision.

I hope it's a good one.
I'm glad it's over.

I don't want my rotary anymore.
Matter of fact, it already has a new home

[IslandTractor]

I like this thread. .......
I don't want my rotary anymore.
......

Having seen the light and bought a flail myself, I wonder why rotary mowers are so much more common than flails. I'd hazard a guess that rotary mowers out number flails by 100:1 in the USA based on TBN experience. I'm surprised because for many uses you can get by with a single flail mower rather than a hog and finish mower. No need for a separate pasture and lawn mower. The flails are smaller and easier to store. Easier to manuver too. You also have a quieter mower and one that is less prone to eject harmful projectiles at fearsome velocity. Of course the heavy duty road maintenance and Ag flails can be expensive but I am referring to the Caroni and other "medium" duty flails that equate generally to the light/medium weight bush hogs and finish mowers in cost.

There are some different maintenance issues (number of flails needing replacement/sharpening vs rotary cutter) but that seems a manageable task requiring only a couple of wrenches rather than "flailing" around with a breaker bar to get rotary blades off. Changing flails probably won't take more than an afternoon every ??few seasons or so. By buying one mower instead of two I can justify spending one or two hundred bucks on knives every few years.

Why don't companies like Bush Hog, Rhino, Woods make medium duty or residential/pasture weight flails? Is it just a North American thing? Are flails more common in Europe/Oz?