bought a new 25A flail. Am I wrong in being disappointed? Put faith in the dealer when he said it would be able to mow grass better than a finish bladed mower.
Issues that I've found with this machine:
1. Single belt drive; belt drive has no automatic belt tensioner.
2. Cutting rotor runs in same direction as wheels -- less effective in lifting grass up?
3. No scraper on height roller.
4. Has skid shoes on the height roller that are less than 1/2" higher than the roller.
5. No capability to adjust positioning, set with permanent offset to right side.
6. Height adjustment is way off -- I adjusted it to the 3-1/2" setting, per manual, but the cutters are at least 4-1/2" from the ground.
What really flipped me out when I ran it for the first time today is the amount of gouging of the turf caused by the skid shoes on the height roller. Not acceptable. It appears the only place this unit can perform satisfactorily (without tearing up the turf) is on flat level surface. My property has slopes and undulating terrain.
Reading the discussions on this website, I now understand the mower is a model that is at least 25 yrs old, maybe more. Are my concerns legit, and was I wrong to expect better results from a flail mower? If so, guess I made an expensive mistake.
Jim
Hello Jim,
what type of tractor and brand do you have?
Lets back up a bit here as the mower is fine.
The 25A has a nine inch offset built into the design for
the basic mower with a retail price of $4,780.00 plus tax
Is the nine inch offset a real problem?????
Now the lower links have to be tightly adjusted to
hold the mower in place while mowing.
Now; if your right lower link is adjustable with a rack and pinion
with a crank is it fully retracted????????
The lower links must be tight and should not swing to the left or right .
Do the lower links have stop chains or turnbuckles to tighten them and to
prevent the swaying of the implement???
This may explain some of the issues with the
mower swinging to the right and left while mowing.
DO you have a right lower link that has the rack and pinion adjustment? is it possible the right
Your dealer did not explain to you the mower you have is an offset flail mower?????
Is it possible you have been given the wrong flailmower???????????????
Does the flail mower have scoop knives or side slicers?????? the side slicers
would work in either direction of rotation.
Your salesman was negligent in a huge way if he neglected to tell you it was
an offset flail mower that he was selling you.
There is no need to be dissapointed at all.
First, how fast are you traveling when you mow?????????
V belts will loosen a bit with heat and age. My fathers 25A had a flat roller and spring tensioner.
The belt drive is easy to adjust.
Second, do you own a grey market tractor???, thier PTO rotation is backwards as a rule
compared to what we have in the United States.
This would explain why the flail mower rotor is rotating counterclock wise.
Third the 25A that we owned did not have a scraper and we knocked down 10-15 foot
golden rod when reclaiming a pasture.
Fourth, what do you mean the skid shoes are on the height roller? that is not possible.
The adjustment of the rear roller is how the cutting height of the flail mower rotor is
used to adjust the cutting height.
Fifth, flailmowers are either sold as a standard integral non adjustable
mower or they are manually changed to adjust the cutting position or
they have a hydraulic side shift cyliner that allows the mower to be
moved from side to side.
Sixth, there is specific way the mower height is adjusted to prevent the mower from
scalping. The mower neeeds to be set up properly and the dealer is negligent in not
doing this for you.
seventh, you have to adjust the top link of the thre point hitch
by placing a very small bubble level oon the gear box
and adjusting the top link of the tractors three point hitch to
the point where the bubble is in the middle of the glass between the lines.
if you only adjusted the rear rollers mounting brackets you have the jub half done and if the top link is loose it will gouge flat ground and hilly ground because it will move too much.
My other question is where is the top link mounted? the top hole or the lower ones?-it has to be on the top hole on both the tractor and the mower.
Please elaborate as they apparently dropped it off and did not set it up with your tractor.
Your dealer appears to be the problem.....................
Call them and have one of their mechanics set it up properly as you spent a lot
of money on it $4,728.00 plus tax and frieght and they did not set it up properly
and were not doing thier job.
The base model JD25A has 72 scoop knives and if the tractors power take off is running in reverse (it will not work and you need a PTO reverser and you can obtain them from a supplier in Indiana if I remember correctly- I have a thread with the dealer name etc.