I've been racking my brains out trying to figure out what brand flail mower I had bought at auction 2 months ago. Flailmaster.com was convinced that it was a Jacobsen because of the bull-nosed type hammer hangers on the mower roller. It turns out that Ford manufactured the Jacobsens.
Tonight, while trying to put on a "C57" 61" belt (which will not fit), I found markings on the pulley wheels indicating IH.
The upper wheel had IH 404838 R2 and the lower had 484038 (with a IH logo next to it). The gear box had a number WA67-01B. I'm a new member here and if I can figure out how to do it, I will post some photos.
When I googled "international harvester flail" I found this link. Thank God, Himself!!!
This thread has photos EXACTLY like the flail mower that I bought, except the tension wheel assembly is somewhat different. Even the numbers on the gear box and pulley wheels are the same!
There were no decals or any markings to indicate the brand on my flail, only a black bordered metal plate which said "Identification Number 71 U-1111"
Does this match up to an International Harvester Model?
Where can I get replacement parts? Is there anyone near Northeastern Pennsylvania , NJ or NY who can work on and repair these flail mowers?
Anyone know the model? It has a 84" cut and the flail body itself is 92" wide.
OK about your flail mower first no worries;
No worries, V-belts are metric, V belt pulleys are S.A.E.,
roller bearings are metric, repalcement roller bearings
are available for your flail mower rotor bearings,
end bearing are available for the shaft driven portion
of the flail mower, and the rear roller if equiped with
roller bearings(most likely).
You can contact
www.flailmaster.com
if you have questions about specific parts with
no worries as they will very helpfull.
You can also contact a CaseIH equipment dealer
to try to identify it as well.
With the purchase of your flailmower YOU have become
a valued elite member of the flail mower nation with
the purchase of your flaimower. And in which is a very
large community of happy flail mower owners that
happily mow their fine turf and brushland that they may
want to make into fine turf using the "Verticut Method"
of grass and brush mowing with a full width of cut for
the mower versus being stuck with only using half the width
of a rotary cutter as the opposite blade is always trailing
the one ahead of it.
And killing both bad and good snakes with act of mowing the
good sod or shredding brush-you do know that the reason farm
folks started mowing around the farm house was to keep snakes
away from the farm house dont you?
Just imagine how much fun golf would be with tall grass and weeds........
Many members are destroying invasives like poison ivy, poison oak,
poison sumac, by mowing brushland and good turf to keep them
in check and eventually detroying them in the turf and brush.
Another favorite pasttime is grooving ones lawn with the flailmower in the
lowest mower setting.
Many happy flail mower owners dethatch thier lawns with
overseeding blades cutting deep grooves int he lawn to aerate
and allow overseeding which creates an excellent seedbed
and allows you to spread pelleted lawn lime or hydrated limestone,
and gypsum to dissolve clay and allow better turf grass to grow.
The act of dethatching removes dead grass which will harbor mold
moss and bad bugs which will live in the dead thatch.
this also allows the turf grass to grow better and thicker by eliminating
the dead thatch and stringy turf weeds which grow in shaded areas.
Flail mowers are quieter in operation and very efficient for grass mowing
and brush mowing as the full width of the flailmower is used to cut the
grass and brush in front of it and mowing down to the sod in one pass if
desired where a rotary cutter is only using half the width of the mowers cut
to do the same job as the opposing mower blade is always trailing the one
that is cutting.
Flail mowers are very safe mowers in operation and the flail mower design
itself limits ability to throw objects as the object remains under the the
grass directing hood wherein the flailmower rotor carries the grass over the
rotor and back down to the ground in some models and carrying the grass
forward in some models used in machines used for ditch mowing by many
municipalities.
The flail mower has much greater cutting edge length in total versus a
rotary cutter or rear finish mower as each knive has a cutting edge and
each knive hanger has two Y blades per hanger and the flail mower knive
usually has a second cutting edge allowing the knive to be flipped over
and present a new cutting edge ready to work some more.
The shape of the flailmower blade allows the blade to become an airfoil
and create suction withing the mowre hood to lift and cut the grass and
brush with very high speeds of rotation AND you will have the luxury
of recutting the clippings a second time to shred them a second time
where this is not possible with a rotary cutter or rear finish mower.
AND mowing wet grass and brush is always easy and there is no waiting
for the grass to dry to mow it.
The full width rear roller is cheap way to stripe your turf with out buying
a striping kit too.
Some flail mowers have a wide scoop knive or a hammermill knive or duck bill
knive which is used for heavy brush and tree sheddding. Beet flails are used
to flail the beet tops of sugar beets prior to harvest,
flail choppers are used to mow alfalfa ground to make ensilage and elminate any potential winter kill of long alfalfa or other hay left standing in the field over the winter.
Welcome to the "Flail Mower Nation".
Once you go flail you never go back.
