Flail Mower Used 6' 918H Ford Flail mover

[BigAl]

Used 6\' 918H Ford Flail mover

I recently picked up a used 6' Ford 918H flail mover that the previous owner never used at all . I know very little about these things ,other than they can cut small brush . I have learned that New Holland now sales and has replacement parts for these . Does anyone out there have one and can you give me a few pointers on proper use , RPM speed and so forth . I headed straight for the welding shop after I purchased this and had them reweld any breaks or repair any damage they could find .
My tractor is a DK45 Kioti so I suppose it has the PTO power to do the job ??? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif The old owner also gave me a box full of new blades ,but they are shorter than the ones on the flail mower now . It was missing two blades and the blade mounting brakets were sheared off on the mower. I wonder if I can just put two blades of the other size on ? The welding shop welded on two new mounting brackets to hold the blades .Any help or experience with one of these would be deeply appreciated .
Big Al

 

[AndyMA]

Re: Used 6\' 918H Ford Flail mover

I've used Flail mowers since an original walk behind Mott in the early 60's. From what I've seen they are all very similar in design. You could order a manual from New Holland for your mower. LandPride has several Flail mowers and their Operators and Parts manuals are online, free for the downloading. I think the Landpride manual will give you some good setup and operating advice. LandPride Flail Mower have fun, you'll love it. I'm not sure about balance, but it doesn't take too much to unbalance a fast rotating shaft so be careful with diifferent blades.

Andy

 

[geneP]

Re: Used 6\' 918H Ford Flail mover

I bought a Bush Hog brand 6' flail mower this fall, my first experience with one. This one is offset about 60/40 so about 18" extends off to the right side of the tractor. This mower has four rows of cutting knives. Each row has about 32 mounting stations of two knives each. I've noticed several different designs of drums and knives. I cut some bihaya (sp?) grass with a 32hp gas tractor and it handled it well, so I suppose yours will have no trouble with it. This unit spins the cutting drum four revolutions to each revolution of the PTO shaft.

 

[BigAl]

Re: Used 6\' 918H Ford Flail mover

Hey Gene ,
How big, diameter wise, of brush will it cut ? I have mostly small 2 inch diameter or smaller pine trees in the three to four foot tall range to get rid of . I know that pine is a soft wood and hope that my mower might do the job , otherwise I am going to spend a lot of the spring cutting off these little guys to ground level . I also designed and built a custom grapple /ripper set up for my DK45 front loader . I guess I can use it if the mower will not cut the trees . I did not want to tear up the ground that much .
My winter project is a tree shear that will handle up to 6 inch diameter stuff . The design is finished and now I am in the process of building . I know it would work too ,but again it would be slow compared to mowing . Thanks,
Big Al

 

[geneP]

Re: Used 6\' 918H Ford Flail mover

This mower must be of the "finish mower" category. It doesn't even cut up brush that is slightly over pencil-sized. I understand there are knives for various jobs. These must be strictly for grass. The knives on this mower are not worn out, but they are not heavy. I suspect that they just deflect on the woody brush. It's ok with me because I'll use it on open areas that are clipped every 2-4 weeks.