Hi, I have been reading up on past threads about flail mowers, some very good info, but I am getting a bit conflicting info. Some say that the flail is "almost" as good as a finish mower, and some say "as good, or better" I have several acres to mow which is mostly pretty level. Most is lawn, but I have some more rougher areas.
I just want to do all my research and get what's best now, before I buy and wish I did something else.
If the flail mower does do as good a job as a finish mower, than I think I should get that, although I tried looking at some videos, and all I see are flail mowers going very slow, do you need to go that slow?
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Hello mikect05,
Welcome to the forum,
About your needs for mowing you will have to decide what type of
cut you want and are living to live with on your sod.
What I want you to do is read the 120 plus pages of
threads and posts on flailmowers or at least some of
them to have a better understanding of how they work.
The two basic knives are the side slicer and the scoop knive
which is commonly referred to as the the duck foot kive
simply due to its appearance.
A hammer knive is typically used in a forestry mulching
flail mounted on ahigh horse power tracked carrier and
used for land clearing.
It is entirely possible to have a golf course quality of lawn cut with a
flail mower as you can mow over the grass clippings and shred them even finer.
The added benefit is you have a striper at no extra charge.
I mow mostly in a spiral pattern overlapping with my mower and a day or
two afterward there are no tread marks and no clipping left to look at
because they are shredded so finely.
I can dethatch with my flail mower as well and it has collection basket that
can carry all the clippings or thatch to be dumped later.
A finish cut flailmower with hardened side slicer knives will handle everything you
have described as long as you have the power to run one and operate it at the
540 rpm engine speed.
You also have understand that a hydrostatic transmission tractors
transmission robs power from power take off too AND IF you drive
too fast no mower is going to work well for you EVER.
Do some more reading and then come back and ask more questions
then do some more reading and ask more questions before you open
your wallet.
I hate my other rotary because it plugs up and you have clean the deck,
I do not have that problem with my flail mower.