Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Bill the Elder]

0 Sure would appreciate any thoughts on how to set this mower up properly.

It's a long read but there have been some very detailed directions on set up , greasing , shaft shortening and directions for flail usage in this thread . Get a cup of coffee and some bikies and settle in .

Now that would be a reasonable thing to do and I'm pleased to say that I did. Now there is no doubt that I do better outside taking care of the place than I do with searching computers and I may very well have missed these items but:

1. I coudln't find any reference to how one checks the gearcase level afer adding the extension to cut out the leakage. Important for me to leak as little as possible as the flail will be cutting green manuare to be spaded back into our beds.

2. Sunspot's just mentioning having to unship the roller was the first mention I've heard of that here much less in the manual.

3. You discuss the skid shoes on 5/24 but the relationship between roller, cutting height and skid shoe setting is not clear to me.

4. I can't find any mention of whether it is possible to force to much grease in the fittings. You discuss the subject relative to your mower's fittings, just wanted to make sure that was the same on the Caroli.

I've actually cut and pasted a lot of the great information here and printed it out as a supplement to the limited information in the manual. Just thought I'd ask for clarification on an few things and get any additional tips to add to the document. The folks on this forum should write the manual for the mower, you're all a lot more informative.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[IslandTractor]

1. I coudln't find any reference to how one checks the gearcase level afer adding the extension to cut out the leakage. Important for me to leak as little as possible as the flail will be cutting green manuare to be spaded back into our beds.

3. You discuss the skid shoes on 5/24 but the relationship between roller, cutting height and skid shoe setting is not clear to me.

4. I can't find any mention of whether it is possible to force to much grease in the fittings. You discuss the subject relative to your mower's fittings, just wanted to make sure that was the same on the Caroli.

1) I plan to measure the difference in height and hopefully the current dipstick will just need to be recalibrated to show the appropriate level. Otherwise I'll just periodically remove the snorkle and check with the dipstick.

3) This is a bit confusing for those of us used to rotary cutters. What I have learned is that the key to operating a flail is to focus on the rear roller. That should be on the ground and you then use the toplink and 3pt to adjust/pivot the mower to achieve appropriate cutting height. The rear roller position can be varied by about 4 inches or so by moving the roller mount but that is not something you would do regularly to change cutting height. It serves more to help set a cutting height range. The toplink and position control are used to set cutting height regularly. I set the toplink so that when the rear roller is on the ground the side skids are almost parallel to the ground with a slight angle up/forward. That is for lawn/pasture cutting. When I decide to back into some brush, I will often raise the 3pt so the roller is now off the ground by 3-6 inches then back in and then I lower it again as I back out to cut closer (or I don't bother and just tolerate having 3 inch stubble). The side skids are, as far as I can tell, just there to prevent you from accidently using the mower as a tiller. I have my side skids set at the lowest/shortest position and they rarely if ever touch the ground.

4) I don't know if it's possible to put in too much grease but I routinely put in about 4-5 pumps into each of the 4 exposed nipples for each 2-4 hour mowing session. You will not see excess grease come out of the bearings as a guide as you might with FEL pins or PTO shaft etc. I don't know that this is optimal but that is what I have been doing and so far so good. After Ironhorse posted his note about feeling the heat over the cutter bearings, I have done that but just note that is has been warm. Not too warm to keep my hand on it so I decided that is OK.

 

[sunspot]

Hi Bill

I routinely put in about 4-5 pumps into each of the 4 exposed nipples for each 2-4 hour mowing session.

I prepped mine with 4-5 pumps to the zerks. Now I use 2 pumps before each mowing session. I remember what that ex-Caroni dealer said about the gear shaft seizing up as the main problem because owners forgot to grease. If I see signs of too much grease, I'll cut back some on the greasing.

Sunspot's just mentioning having to unship the roller was the first mention I've heard of that here much less in the manual.

It is in the manual. I could very easily understand missing it. I think I read both the mower and PTO shaft manuals at least twice before I hooked up the mower and read it again after the first cut.

 

[Bill the Elder]

Hi Bill

I prepped mine with 4-5 pumps to the zerks. Now I use 2 pumps before each mowing session. I remember what that ex-Caroni dealer said about the gear shaft seizing up as the main problem because owners forgot to grease. If I see signs of too much grease, I'll cut back some on the greasing.

It is in the manual. I could very easily understand missing it. I think I read both the mower and PTO shaft manuals at least twice before I hooked up the mower and read it again after the first cut.

Found it, wow they don't make it easy do they. Maybe you guys could do a rewrite of the manual and send it to Caroni. I'm going out and getting started on the "commissioning" process. I think I missed it due to its proximity to the upsetting reference on the prior page stating that it's "strictly prohibited to cut PTO shaft in order to adapt its length."

Good thing we haven't needed to buy any new equipment for some time. This global economy and multilanguage manuals make my head hurt.

 

[sunspot]

This global economy and multilanguage manuals make my head hurt.

Yeah, the shaft manual is about the size of a pack of smokes and written in 10 or so languages. We even have to translate it from British English to American English.

 

[allen in texas]

I've got my Rears ready to go. First job this afternoon after I get off from my "day" job.

My mower turns against the direction of travel.
I thought it would turn with the direction of travel.

Which way does all of yours turn.

 

[Reg]

Dip stick extender mod.
{Just don't - - Do this instead}

1) Remove drain plug - might as well change the break-in oil anyway.
2) Drill and tap for a suitable 90 degree male to hose barb fitting.
3) Thread it back in, tighten just enough to get the hose barb pointing up.
4) Attach about a foot of clear plastic hose to act as a sight glass.
5) Loop the top over to avoid rain, tie it off to the fill plug cap with a tie wrap.
6) Re-fill with oil, note level on sight glass, feel good about knowing where the liquid level actually IS relative to whatever it is in there that you would worry about if you didn't know.

 

[Nuru]

Dip stick extender mod.
{Just don't - - Do this instead}

1) Remove drain plug - might as well change the break-in oil anyway.
2) Drill and tap for a suitable 90 degree male to hose barb fitting.
3) Thread it back in, tighten just enough to get the hose barb pointing up.
4) Attach about a foot of clear plastic hose to act as a sight glass.
5) Loop the top over to avoid rain, tie it off to the fill plug cap with a tie wrap.
6) Re-fill with oil, note level on sight glass, feel good about knowing where the liquid level actually IS relative to whatever it is in there that you would worry about if you didn't know.

actually that is an interesting idea.

 

[DirtHauler]

Went out and looked at my rotary mower and my rototiller and they're not equipped with a "dip stick", how will I know what is the correct oil level?



From a simple $3.00 quick fix for the oil slinging problem to an "over-engineered" extension........... GEEEEEEEEZ

 

[GinNB]

Hey, don't complain. I know of people who use multi-thousand dollar guidance systems for mowing with their tractors. Seems like overkill, but the mowers are wider than the tractors and it eliminates missed strips and wasted mowing time for having too much overlap. Talk about overengineering a solution for a problem of just learning how to drive though.