leonz,
I'm about 3 hours west, 1 hr west of Buffalo, up in the hills above Dunkirk.
Thanks for all the info.
I replaced some of the bearings when I first got the mower, new belts and a paint job too. I used it a while, tried sharpening the old blades, used it some more but it was leaving alot of stems so I went back to the brush chopper but that needs a lot of work.
I've been reading some of the posts on flail mowers here and I think that the problem was due to the old blades and probably not running it fast enough. I've been using my old Ford 2000, 4 cyl gas but I just bought the Mahindra 5010. I'm hoping the additional power will keep the Mott running faster.
There are no removable shrouds. The deck is round with a piece of flat diamond plate, with 1" square tubing at the leading edge, across the front. Would it make sense to make that removable?
How heavy is the brush I can expect this mower to handle? Will small branches an inch or so in diameter be too much?
How does removing opposing rows help with the heavy stuff?
How do neighbor? May I address you as Vincent? My aunt and uncle moved to Dunkirk for a teaching job many years ago. I always loved Dunkirk Ice Cream too.
Anyway onward and upward,
540 RPM Power Take Off speed at all times when using the flail mower.
Mowing any brush with a finish flailmower will take time and once its down to ground level the mowing time will be much less.
You can very easily take half cuts to mow the brush down and then go back over it with the full width of the mower when you have an area knocked down.
Running the flailmower in the late fall with the brush dormant and dead is always a good thing as the brush is frosted and killed and there will be less water in it as the green plant fibers are dead from the cold.
If you remove two opposing rows of side slicers the cut will be rougher and it will be a bit easier to do. The issue is travel speed-running the Implement at the 540 R.P.M., engine speed is the key at all times with heavy brush as it directs the pwered required to the flail mower rotor to mow.
The square tubing is there for a specific reason it adds strength and rigidity to the flail mowers shroud and side weldments and prevents it from twisting and racking to maintain the side weldments position to prevent binding the open bearings used for the flail mowers rotor.
I have picture on the forum here of a Hiniker brand flail chopper (and links to wide flail mower vidoes also)that uses a 4 inch tubular steel to maintain the cross sectional rigidity of the mower frame just like yours only larger.
If you can buy a wet well grinder for the knives you will be a happy camper,
I have a WEN wet well grinder that is used for cutlerty and believe me it works, I bought it from Northern Hydraulics -now norther tool in 1988 and still have it in the original box. works like a champ with a wet drum to grind and cool the knive edge to prevent its over heating.
As far as the dealing with the brush type goes both travel speed and mower height is the issue.
If you can leave the mower raised a bit off the ground when backing over the brush clumps it will shred the brush. you may have to go over it a couple of times but it does work.
If you have the mowers rear roller adjusted so the mower is operating at its highest cut it will reduce the load on the mower as well.
As long as you creep backwards over clumps of brush and drive forward at the same speed with the mower down to the ground it will shred the brush.
You may need to change a broken blade or two but it will work for you and leave a pile of shredded cuttings.
No worries as you have good mower. I would see about buying a wet well knive grinder as it is a god send for sharpening thses side slicers/Y blades.
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Once you go flail you never go back:thumbsup::licking::drool:
Pronovost or not at all:thumbsup::licking::drool: