Flail Mower Flail failure, (Sort of)

[allen in texas]

This past weekend I had the pleasure (?) of shredding 5 acres of weeds and grass. The weeds were 6 foot tall in places and the grass about 2 to 3 feet for the most part. Those were no problem. The problem was the yukka type plants that were growing all over this place. Those were the hardest dang things I have ever tried to cut. When I went over the first one I thought had hit something hidden in the grass. The belt squalled and it pulled the tractor down almost killing the engine. WOW. that was one plant all alone. There were patches where the plants were solid and it was horrible work. It took me 9 hours to cut this place and I was beat up. Of course it wasn't just the plants, the weed chaff kept plugging up my radiator and I was constantly stopping to clean it out to keep the tractor from over heating. it got to the point that I was stopping every pass. I finally remembered that I had my blower with me and I blew everything out and I was able to cut a lot longer between cleanings but man!!!!
This job sucked.
And based on the work and time, I seriously under bid the job. Oh well, the owner felt sorry for me and said that I can do it again in the not to distant future and it won't be near as hard since I have already knocked down those plants. I am also going up on the price. He is ok with that. He even told me that he thought I had under bid the job in the first place.
Bottom line of all this, my flail did NOT like those yukka plant thingies.

Ps, I've had my flail for a long time now. In the time before this job, I have lost 3 sets (pairs) of side slicer knives from hitting something. On this job alone, I lost 13 sets. Yes 13 pairs of knives and the "D" rings all from hitting these dang plants. I was just lucky in the fact that I had spares but I am down to only 2 pairs now. Guess I need to order some more.

 

[nybirdman]

Wrong tool for the job;should have used a brush-hog.

 

[allen in texas]

Don't have a brush hog. Never had a problem until this job but I was sure thinking about it.

 

[leonz]

Hello Allen,

Being familiar with the Yucca I would suggest that you back over them first then
drive forward if you encounter a large tract of them as the rear roller of the flail
mower will be your friend in this case.

As the yucca bends back the stem will be exposed to the flail mowers side slicers
and shred the yucca stem as the mower continues in reverse.

Mowing with the rear roller set at the 4 inch height is the way to approach this with all the
fibrous woody material created by the yucca plant in the first couple of passes as you want
to break as much of it as possible to get it to dry out and begin to decompose.

With the rear roller in full contact with the ground it will reduce the area of the yucca
exposed to mowing on the first pass and then you can either continue in reverse to mow
or drive forward to finish the row. Knocking them back and breaking the trunk of the Yucca
will aid in the plants drying out and then allowing the fibers to begin to separate like corn
stalks fibers over time.

The more you back over them the better they will shatter from the wieght of the mower
crushing the trunks of the wild Yucca plants.

It will look ugly at first but the mowing will go better on the second and third pass if you
have time to do it.

I do not remember which flail mower you have but the losing knife hangers in heavy stemmed
woody brush is a problem with smaller flails that are not crop shredders. It might be worth calling
Hiniker or one of their dealers and finding out what the mounting hole size is for thier side slicer
knives and installing half the number of knives on two rows of knife hangers as thier side slicers
are very thick and ment for cotton stubble, sugar cane stubble,corn and soybean stubble, and sugar beet topping.

 

[leonz]

I forgot to add that a rotary cutter will also shatter the Yucca plants and
create as much or more plugging of your radiator from the fibers in the stalks
as well as the flowers and seed pods.

 

[IslandTractor]

Wrong tool for the job;should have used a brush-hog.

Agree. As much as I prefer using a flail there are some brutal jobs that require a medium or heavy duty brush hog for the first clearing.

 

[Thomabear]

Depends on the flail mower. A heavy duty forestry flail mower with hammers will make a bush hog look like a 22" push Murray.

 

[IslandTractor]

Depends on the flail mower. A heavy duty forestry flail mower with hammers will make a bush hog look like a 22" push Murray.

Forestry flails really are a different category. Can't lump them with field mowers anymore than a battleships guns can be lumped with man carried guns. They use the same principle but are designed and built specifically to mulch trees. Not sure they can even cut grass.

 

[Thomabear]

Not trying to start an argument here but I wouldn't say (from a category standpoint) a heavy duty flail is less related to a medium duty flail than a heavy duty rotary cutter is to a medium duty flail. Just clearing up a general statement indicating that a rotary cutter needs to be the tool to replace a flail during rough conditions. A flail mower that accepts knife options and hammers is far superior to a rotary cutter reclaiming tree infested property and converting it to lawn.

 

[IslandTractor]

Not trying to start an argument here but I wouldn't say (from a category standpoint) a heavy duty flail is less related to a medium duty flail than a heavy duty rotary cutter is to a medium duty flail. Just clearing up a general statement indicating that a rotary cutter needs to be the tool to replace a flail during rough conditions. A flail mower that accepts knife options and hammers is far superior to a rotary cutter reclaiming tree infested property and converting it to lawn.

I would certainly agree that a forestry flail would have made quick work of the woody plants in this case. However that is a very expensive piece of equipment that not many property owners or even commercial pasture mowing businesses have readily available. If I recall they cost close to $10K or even more. On the other hand medium or heavy duty bush hogs are readily accessible and most every mowing company or farm has one.

I love to watch the videos of forestry flails on armored skid steers do their thing but that tends to be done by specialty contractors.