why more people don't use flail mowers

[Anonymous Poster]

Our city has an auction a couple times a year of police cars, public works trucks, etc. We've noticed they always have a few alamo flail mowers that they used to cut the road sides with. They look like they are in good condition, but we are leary of them because we never hear of anyone using them to cut large yards with it. Is there a reason no one uses them? I'd imagine it would need new blades and I think it's no fun to change them, but if you do, you should never have to buy them again. Educate me.

Thanks,
Warren

[s1120]

My father used one for years. It worked well. It is VERY loud though. As for the blades, he had to replace a few every year. Not that bad of a job, but I would not want to change them all. $$$$

[Mike_Dumond]

I had the opportunity to use one a few years back, belonged to my brother who stored it at my place. (Don't you just love brothers who do this?) It did a decent job on the back yard and was just as comfortable going into the brush. Nice thing in the brush, is that everything was chipped when it came out. The knives are double sided, so when you just can't sharpen them anymore, you can just turn them around.

I used it on my B6100Dt, almost not enough power, but do-able. I'd line myself up for my run, drop into neutural, rev up the mower, (took a few seconds to get up to speed), then hit the clutch, put it in 1st or 2nd lo and start off. The momentum would keep the mower going plenty long to do this. I used the middle setting on the PTO which gave me 876+/- RPM @2800.

The worse part was when he sold it, (don't you just hate brothers who do this? [img]/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif[/img]), I was in withdrawal for a couple of months.

[gordon]

I think one of the main reasons that people don't use them is the price. I would love to get one, the only thing that holds me back is price. I've almost closed the deal on a couple but we just couldn't come close enough on price.

The Mott (Alamo) mowers are built rock solid.
Gordon

[RMEADOWS]

Ok, what is a flail mower?

[s1120]

heres one....


heres where I got it from...
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.flailmower.com/>http://www.flailmower.com/</A>

[DocHeb]

The one that has caught my eye is:



with hammer flails:



at <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.thestgeorgeco.com/catalogue/Farm_Forestry/Orchard/body_orchard.html>Seppi Orchard Mower</A>.

You could whup the he!! out of just about anything with this unit.

[MarkV]

Another plus about flail mowers is they do not throw an object (rock) like a rotary mower will. This is why you will see them used in parks so many times.

MarkV

[markcg2000]

<font color=blue>cut large yards with it.</font color=blue>
I don't know what you mean by "yard", but flails are more in the line of rotary-cutter than finish mower. I'd love to have one, but they are danged expensive.

[Anonymous Poster]

Not true, I grew up on a farm and used one for a number of years. I can personally attest to the fact that flail mowers will throw objects just as far as a rotary mower, the only difference being the objects almost always fly straight out in front of the tractor, where a rotary mower can throw objects in any direction. That being said, flail mowers do a much better job of shredding the material your cutting.