Flail Mower Flail or Brush hog

[xdakotakid]

I've never used either but its seems its almost a religious issue between those who prefer the flail mower to a brush hog or vice versa.

Does anyone have any good information on the pros/cons to help in my education process???

Thanks,
Jeffrey

 

[IslandTractor]

Not sure it is a religious issue. Brush Hog type rotary mowers are far more popular in the USA but I think flails are more popular in Europe. That said there are situations where one clearly is preferred to the other. Rough stuff is generally best dealt with by the brush hog style. The flails can be configured with hammers so they too can handle "rough stuff" however. The place where flails have a clear advantage is in situations where you don't want to have "missles" flying out of the rotary mower and where you want a higher grade cut. They are used by highway crews to mow a lot and also on athletic fields etc where it would be dangerous to have rocks or sticks flying about. Flails are more expensive, maybe by a factor of 2-3 and require a bit more maintenance (all those flails need to be replaced occasionally).

There are many more rotary brush hog manufacturers in the US than flail mower manufacturers. A number of heavy weight flails (>$3000) are made in the US but it seems that most of the lighter weight flails (less than $2000) come from Europe (specifically Italian) companies.

 

[Highbeam]

The tools are not interchangable, each has its place. There is some overlap though so your specific needs must be evaluated.

 

[xdakotakid]

I've got various brush, blackberries and small alder saplings that I'd like to get rid of. I've tried using the FEL but that only gets so much and leaves most of the roots and lots of the stronger brush/saplings which I guess I could try using the box blade on.

I talked to a couple different people and each one felt that one should have one or the other and than the opposite was worthless and I'm trying to figure out whats the right tool or purpose of each.

Thanks

 

[Highbeam]

The name "brush hog" says it all. If you really want to take some land from briars and other junk to walkable pasture then a brush hog is ideal. Realize that a rotary cutter will walk through anything the size of your wrist and even larger wood with a little skill. I took a bunch of brush hogging photos and posted them in the Kioti owning and opp forum in just the last couple of days. A one inch stem is pretty dinky.

People will almost always like what they have. You won't hear from many (any?) people on TBN doing any brush work with a flail mower.

 

[eberlej]

Each mower has it's place. I own 3 different types to cover all the bases. A finishing mower for the groomed yards, a flail will handle the fairways, and the brush hog will knock down the real nasty stuff. Keep in mind that a brush hog can leave a pretty nice finish, relative to what you started with. But a flail will not cut the mustard if your dealing with rocks and actual brush. A flail can get pretty close to the fine groomed cut of a finishing mower.

 

[LarryD]

Another neighbor trying to rid the property of the auful weeds, alders and blackberries.

I sprayed the berries with crossbow the last couple years and now only have a few runners left in the trees. Once they're dead, the FEL can really bust them up.

The alders (which by the way are bringing more on the timber market than fir, there's a brand new mill going up in Mt. Vernon just for alder) I just cut about 18" above ground. Then I back up to them with the box blade raised to push them over and when they pop into the box, drop the blade and drive away. Pretty much gets most of the rootball. Of course this only works on 2"-3" sapplings but I can take 3 or 4 of these at a time.

Now the faster way would be a brushhog, but then what would I do with the weekends?

 

[xdakotakid]

seeing you're a SeaBea I'd be expecting more "con"struction than "de"struction, of course maybe all that "con" needs some DE to let off the stress...

Yea, hard to believe that alder is worth more than fir, I've seen so many people over the years just treat alder like it wasn't good for anything but firewood.

I did about 15 years in the Navy between active duty, reserves and then being "activated" after 9/11. Lots of boredom and every now and then a bit action.

 

[Highbeam]

My blackberries already have 4 inches or so of new growth this season. The alder market is grand, cedar was best this fall when I had some logging done. Fir seems to be the lowest and hemlock gets sent to the pulp mill nomatter how good it is.

 

[LarryD]

<font color="blue"> seeing you're a SeaBea I'd be expecting more "con"struction than "de"struction... </font>

Well I guess you've never seen John Wayne in "The Fighting Seabee's". Put a machine gun on a D8 and that's pretty much the ultimate destruction machine. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif