Mower recommendation

[aarolar]

Looking at getting a new mower for my MX4800 to help maintain around the house more to take some load off my old zero turn the plan is to eventually get a nice commercial zero turn but that's just not in the cards at the moment until I get the tractor paid off first. I'm looking at RFM or possibly a flail but need some advice, I know there is a huge flail post but having never seen one in person I need some specific advice.

Option one the Agmate 8' RFM from Agri, this is a Chinese mower and only has 3 blades concerns are that it is Chinese and only has three blades, plus is there is only 3 spindles to service. Wondering about cut finish with only 3 blades.

Pros it is cheaper and only has 3 blades and spindles

Cons it only has three blades and is Chinese made plus it's an ugly blue color.



Option two is the Caroni 93" RFM from Agri, Italian made and having 5 blades pros to me are more blades and Italian made I've owned a 4ft Caroni before and was extremely happy with it.

Pros it has 5 blades and is a good brand name and I have experience with one.

Cons are it has 5 spindles to service when the day comes.



Option 3 is the Caroni 73" flail, I really want this mower but I'm not convinced it will do what I want, reading concerns of the cut quality issues with the B spindle is there a work around to get better cut quality?

Pros are that it's much shorter thus easier to manoeuvre in the yard around buildings and fences plus it'll work much better than the RFM for around the pond and road plus I hear it's safer and quieter both pluses. Plus storage space it would store in a much smaller space or even on a shelf

Cons are it's narrower than I would like barely covering my tire tracks, high maintenence, worried about cut quality.

 

[aarolar]

The other thing I like the flail for is shredding my garden and food plot cover crops and crop trash I can't even imagine not having to deal with long corn stalks again.

 

[Fallon]

I used my 30 year old beat to **** 7' Ford 917 flail over my brand new 5' LandPride rotary cutter every time. Once I got it fixed up & running the only time the rotary was used was when the flail had busted bearings I needed to fix.

Granted I'm comparing a rough cut mower to a finer cut flail with side slicers & not your finish rotary options. But I sold my rotary with my old tractor. I'll probably replace or retire my 917 as a backup in the next few years & get another flail. I'll go with duck foot hammers to handle the rough stuff better, but I'm a firm believer in flails.

A rotary makes sense for heavy rough stuff as it only has 1 gearbox to worry about. Finish mowers have as many or more bearings, belts & gearboxes to maintain. May as well go with the better safety & manuverability on the flail.

 

[leonz]

The Caroni finish flail mowers with four rows of side slicer knives will work well for you.
The Vrisimo orchard and Vineyard flail shredders will also work well for you with the side
slicer knives and every state in the lower 48 states has at least one Vrisimo dealer


I use my 37 year old Mathews lawn genie for rough mowing and grass mowing and I have never had an
issue with it.

As long as you go slowly in the heavy tall brush you will be fine if you choose a Caroni Finish Flail Mower
or the Vrisimo Orchard and Vineyard Flail Shredder.

The nice thing about a flail mower is once you have it knocked down to a 2 inch height you can go back and shred up the clippings even more to mulch them more finely and it will keep the invasive weeds to a minimum.

 

[aarolar]

I have a heavy duty rotary mower already and it's not going anywhere this is strictly for rough finish mowing if that makes any sense. I don't need the best cut quality around the edges of the yard or around the pond but I do want it to look presentable. Shredding the garden pretty much as me sold right now...

 

[Deere Dude]

I mowed about 8 acres and used a 62" garden tractor for a summer then got an 3 blade 84" Land Pride. I was looking at the next size up at 96" with 6 blades but the price jumped much mare than I wanted to pay for a foot extra.

So far after 3 years, no complaint. The wider deck would have cut mowing down by maybe 15 minutes but that is a guess.

How much lawn are you cutting and how many trees are in the way? Than may affect your decision. I didn't see it on your post.

 

[leonz]

If you are doing simply rough mowing the Caroni flail mower with the B rotor is
more than enough for what you are wishing to accomplish and still be able to
recut the brush as desired.

Once you see how well it mows you will sell your rotary mower.