Offset Flail Ditch Bank Mower

[bspeedy]

Thanks for the info. I have another reason to be curious. I bought an hydraulic mower for my mini excavator and wanted to compare prices. A new cutter would have been about 6 grand fully set up. I think your cutter will do 80 percent of what I want. Excavator has the advantage of reach out and UP. It's awesome that your mower can do double duty as bush hog and offset flail. Please post action shots when they are available.

 

[powerscol]

It's looking great. We'll see how it performs when the weather warms up a bit.

Five grand plus shipping is about right. I choose this one because it offers the widest offset in it's class, which is important to me with the wide rear wheels you see in the second photo, and because it's relatively light weight which I thought best because of the size of my tractor and my hills. The Del Marino is a bit cheaper but the offset isn't as large and it weighs more. The Chinese-made brands are a lot cheaper but I questioned the quality and couldn't find anyone who owns one who was willing to vouch for them.

Glad to see you got it. Your lucky as I had to assemble my hydraulic hoses and swing arms. How does you tractor feel with the weight out back?

 

[TerryR]

Thanks for the info. I have another reason to be curious. I bought an hydraulic mower for my mini excavator and wanted to compare prices. A new cutter would have been about 6 grand fully set up. I think your cutter will do 80 percent of what I want. Excavator has the advantage of reach out and UP. It's awesome that your mower can do double duty as bush hog and offset flail. Please post action shots when they are available.

Will do, but don't hold your breath. It's snowing again so nothing to mow except snow for a while.

Glad to see you got it. Your lucky as I had to assemble my hydraulic hoses and swing arms. How does you tractor feel with the weight out back?

That must have been a pain. On mine the hardware was completely assembled, and they attached the extension hoses, but left them open and put the right-angle fittings and couplings in a bag. It was well packed. It's supposed to weigh 339 lb. but the shipping weight was 991 lb. It was on a large heavy pallet that I can lift one side of with considerable effort, with a steel frame on top of that, all wrapped in cardboard and plastic. Still not convinced all that weighed over 300 lb.

Only issue I had was there is a locking bar for the lift cylinder, which I saw was there (the red bar in the photos). but when I tried to lift the unit off the pallet the mower didn't lift (with the hydraulics open). Turns out the bar was shipped in the stowed position and not on the cylinder. Once I installed it there was no problem.

Truth is I didn't really feel it on the tractor. But it was cold and dark, there was snow and ice on the driveway, and I had the FEL in place for this operation, so we'll see once it's removed and I can focus on the unit. I did order two more suitcase weights today to complete the set which should help some. Also ordered the four color-coded JD dust caps to make it easier to hook up the hoses correctly.

 

[TerryR]

It finally got warm enough to put the mower together and test it a little. Figuring out which outlet was supposed to go to which hose was "interesting," but I lucked out and got it right the first time. I bought a set of JD color coded dust covers so it will be easy to connect them correctly again.

The tractor seems to handle the weight quiet well, though I've not yet tried it on the steep parts. I did extend the mower all the way and tried to see how much I could bounce it by putting my weight on the end of the mower. It seemed very solid even without the suitcase weights on the front.

Here's a couple of shots of it doing a bank:


It handles it nicely, even with my wide-set wheels. I'm sure I won't have any difficulty doing the rest from below. This bank has always been a pain - I have run the rotary cutter as close to the edge as I dare, then back up many times from below. I think I can now do it with two easy passes.

Here's a shot of doing the far side of a shallow ditch:


I'd given up mowing that with the rotary cutter since the trees have gotten to big to get the tractor up in there. I think I can get most of the rest of it with a second pass with the tractor straddling the ditch.

I think it's going to do well for this sort of thing. We'll see how it does with open field work once I have something to cut in the spring.

 

[RoyJackson]

It finally got warm enough to put the mower together and test it a little. Figuring out which outlet was supposed to go to which hose was "interesting," but I lucked out and got it right the first time. I bought a set of JD color coded dust covers so it will be easy to connect them correctly again.The tractor seems to handle the weight quiet well, though I've not yet tried it on the steep parts. I did extend the mower all the way and tried to see how much I could bounce it by putting my weight on the end of the mower. It seemed very solid even without the suitcase weights on the front.Here's a couple of shots of it doing a bank:View attachment 532552 View attachment 532551It handles it nicely, even with my wide-set wheels. I'm sure I won't have any difficulty doing the rest from below. This bank has always been a pain - I have run the rotary cutter as close to the edge as I dare, then back up many times from below. I think I can now do it with two easy passes.Here's a shot of doing the far side of a shallow ditch:View attachment 532553That looks great, Terry!!I'd given up mowing that with the rotary cutter since the trees have gotten to big to get the tractor up in there. I think I can get most of the rest of it with a second pass with the tractor straddling the ditch.I think it's going to do well for this sort of thing. We'll see how it does with open field work once I have something to cut in the spring.

Looks great, Terry!!

 

[bspeedy]

Thanks for the update. That is a very cool rig, indeed!

 

[leonz]

It finally got warm enough to put the mower together and test it a little. Figuring out which outlet was supposed to go to which hose was "interesting," but I lucked out and got it right the first time. I bought a set of JD color coded dust covers so it will be easy to connect them correctly again.

The tractor seems to handle the weight quiet well, though I've not yet tried it on the steep parts. I did extend the mower all the way and tried to see how much I could bounce it by putting my weight on the end of the mower. It seemed very solid even without the suitcase weights on the front.

Here's a couple of shots of it doing a bank:
View attachment 532552 View attachment 532551

It handles it nicely, even with my wide-set wheels. I'm sure I won't have any difficulty doing the rest from below. This bank has always been a pain - I have run the rotary cutter as close to the edge as I dare, then back up many times from below. I think I can now do it with two easy passes.

Here's a shot of doing the far side of a shallow ditch:
View attachment 532553

I'd given up mowing that with the rotary cutter since the trees have gotten to big to get the tractor up in there. I think I can get most of the rest of it with a second pass with the tractor straddling the ditch.

I think it's going to do well for this sort of thing. We'll see how it does with open field work once I have something to cut in the spring.

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Hello and Good morning TerryR,


I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the Flail Mower Nations from the great State of North Carolina.


Happy Mowing

 

[powerscol]

It great to see the set up is a great match for your tractor. The pivot point appear to be well outside of your rear tire - excellence. I may invest in some weight for the front of my unit too. Did you get into any heavy grass and notice any power issue. Also how do you like the cut?

 

[TerryR]

It great to see the set up is a great match for your tractor. The pivot point appear to be well outside of your rear tire - excellence. I may invest in some weight for the front of my unit too. Did you get into any heavy grass and notice any power issue. Also how do you like the cut?

I have been using four suitcase weights with my RC. For this I bought two more to fill out the rack.

I didn't fiddle with the roller adjustment before this test, and I find it came set at the lowest height. There was no tall grass available - what I was testing on was mowed a couple of months ago with my RC but was not cut very closely because of the bank. I did find in one place it got very close to the ground and loaded up my tractor. I'm not sure that's a fair test. I clearly need to work on setting it to the right cutting height. The quality of the cut was super.

Beyond that, I'm very impressed with the quality of the machine. The finish is very nice. All the nuts you might have reason to remove are the type with plastic locking inserts. The grease fitting for the bearing for end of the shift inside the pulley has a hose to a fitting in location you can reach. The belt cover has a plastic guard on the edges where it contacts the end plate.

The only issue I've found is the plug for testing the oil level in the gearbox is behind the guard for the PTO shaft. I don't see how you get it out without removing the guard, which means removing the shaft first.

 

[powerscol]

One trick I learned quickly is be sure you side skids are off the ground after resetting the roller. Otherwise they gouge on turns. For me the perfect setting is roller on ground and skid shoes 1" higher and level. I set the unit on the ground (roller) the adjust the top link to get the skid shoes level. You want to be close to create suction when cutting. Should sound like a big vacuum cleaner and you should see the grass under the skids be sucked in. The other trick you will find is to put the unit at 90 degrees to work on the knives. It is so nice to have everything right where you need it and not be crawling on the ground in an unsafe place. Next spring I need to touch them up, but be careful not to overheat the knive edges when grinding.

BTW can you post a link to those color coded JD caps you mention. Would help to this old guy to get then straight too.:laughing::thumbsup:

Merry Christmas - Keith