Flail Mower Caroni Flail mower with hydraulic shift kit

[jmessing]

Hi.

My Caroni 1500FSC has been on the job for a few weeks now. It has five or six presets for height adjustment. The lower the cut, the better. I plowed through grass between one to four feet and it did a great job! No windrows. The 1500FSC is a fixed offset at about 60/40 to the right side of the tractor. I think I have my wheels at seven feet on the tractor, so my left rear wheel is out of range of the flail. About a foot of the mower extends beyond the right side of the mower.

It doesn't do a good job mulching the grass as I would have liked. I guess I could make a rough cut and then lower the setting for a finish cut to clean up the cut grass. Going over it twice at the same height seems to have little effect.

I have an old Kioti LK3054, 30HP, 25HP at the PTO. It easily handles this flail. I think I could have handled the 72 inch, but it's a pretty big compact tractor.

I'm very pleased with the quality of the mower. It came with some place where the paint was rubbed off, but the color is the same as Rustoleum Red. I have a little complaint about the outside design. When I have the mower raised on the 3pt, it pools water on the back shelf of the mower when left out in the rain. I guess a couple of 3/8ths inch holes in the corners would allow it to drain through. The paint will scrape off the roller pretty quickly, so I imagine that will develop a nice rust patina.

You can't beat the price!

Joe

 

[GreenMtns]

Joe
Your right on. I have just used my 72" mower on 2 fields that I used to mow with a rotary cutter. Very big difference in the finished look of the fields. A much more finished look. Not like a hay field that has not been picked up.
Very competitive price, competitive with a lot of rotary mowers. It only took Agri-Supply 5 days to deliver the mower. Very impressive.
I am going to lower the cut after the old hay has rotted in the fields and see what that looks like. But be aware, it will find any old barb wire lying around the out side edges of the fields and allow you to become more intimate with your mower.

Al

 

[IllMarty1]

I have an old Kioti LK3054, 30HP, 25HP at the PTO. It easily handles this flail. I think I could have handled the 72 inch, but it's a pretty big compact tractor.

Joe,

I have 27 HP at my PTO, and really would prefer the 6'. Do you really think your 25 HP could handle the 6' rated at 30-60 HP? Anyone else want to weigh in?

Conditions will be just mowing grass, but will get tall occaisionally.

Marty

 

[GreenMtns]

Marty
I don't know where Joe is right now but I'll take a shot at it. When I talked to Agri-Supply about the mowers I asked about the HP rating. I was told HP listed is engine HP not PTO HP. My tractor is rated 37 HP engine and 30 HP PTO. It handles the TM1900 with no problems at all. If it ever does get into very heavy stuff, I will just take half swaths until I am through it. You will also note that the TM1900 uses different blades than the TL1500. Also the number of blades is different, TL1500 = 88 blades, TM1900 = 56 blades. I would think, but don't know for sure, It would be a little easier on the tractor powering 56 verses 88.

Al

 

[MarkV]

Can any of you guys fill me in on the hydraulic shift kit mentioned? Does it run off of a remote and allow the mower to be shifted to the side on the fly? How much shift will it do?

MarkV

 

[IllMarty1]

Thanks Al. I have 33HP on the tractor, so I should be good.

If I understand the info on Caroni's site, the TM1900 is a rougher cut mower that will work on smaller brush too. The blades, while less in number, must be heavier in weight and designed differently for this type of work.

Marty

 

[texbaylea]

MarkV
I did a quick check. The side shift is 35 cm, about 14 inches. This is about the width of the R4s on my Kubota. It is designed to run off a remote valve so could be shifted on the fly.

Vernon

 

[IslandTractor]

Thanks Al. I have 33HP on the tractor, so I should be good.

If I understand the info on Caroni's site, the TM1900 is a rougher cut mower that will work on smaller brush too. The blades, while less in number, must be heavier in weight and designed differently for this type of work.

Marty

You are correct. In fact the "blades" are not called blades on this type of flail mower but rather are refered to as "hammers" which is appropriate as they function more like a bush hog blade that bashes rather than slices. I would guess that the cut is not as fine but that the hammers can take apart brush and bounce off obstructions that would damage the finer flail fiinish blades.

 

[jmessing]

Hi. Here's the end-of-season review of my Caroni TL1500FSC. My wife took it out in the meadow behind our house and was able to go about 6 mph. I think she covered the entire six acres in about four hours. The grass had not been cut all summer. My neighbor took his bush mower out to his smaller field and it took him two full days to cut it down. Ours looks good with no windrows and the cut grass has blended into the field after a month. His has windrows in every pass. So I would recommend the flail over a bush mower. I think we'll take it out one more time to do a finish cut before the cold weather sets in. Also, I've checked the flails and they're in pretty good shape. I should be able to get another summer out of this side, then I'll flip them and get a couple more seasons out of them. I'd like to try a spatula shaped cutter after these wear out.
Joe

 

[napabavarian]

I'm about to pull the trigger on this mower to run behing our 8n's and 9n's so I can slip into those tight spots that the "I didn't think it would be this much bigger " Kubota and 6' bush hog just don't fit in, more for a finish work, but still out in the fields, and some comercial work (3500# trailer instead of a 9000# trailer

Big questions I have, the page dosn't mention if it has hammers or knives, I assume knives, I hope, are they? Also, for those who have one already, did it come with a PTO driveshaft?