BX1860 flail mower question

[shanonk]

Hello,
First of all im new to this site and owning a Kubota or any other tractor for that matter. Anyways, I purchased last year a BX1860 with a 48" bush hog mower for mowing 20+ acres. I would like to get a better cut and step up to a flail mower. Will my tractor be able to handle a 48in or 60in flail mower? I plan on taking my time and going slow! Thanks in advance....

 

[leonz]

Hello,
First of all I am new to this site and owning a Kubota or any other tractor for that matter.

Anyways, I purchased last year a BX1860 with a 48" bush hog mower for mowing 20+ acres.

I would like to get a better cut and step up to a flail mower.

Will my tractor be able to handle a 48in or 60in flail mower?

I plan on taking my time and going slow! Thanks in advance....

My goodness yes;

Your BX1860 will handle a flail mower with no issues. we tow a motorised
Mathews company lawn Genie Pick Up Mower 48 inch unit and mow everything with it-good turf and heavy brush both.

You can set the rear roller at its lowest position and it will slice grass and brush at its highest setting.

You have a number of things to decide with regard to your purchase.

I strongly suggest you investigate the the forum regarding flail mowers in the attachment and Kubota section. as we have a over a hundred plus pages of responses about flail mowers.

I will tell you that a flail mower rotor with 4 rows of knives will give you a better turf and better slicing of brush.

The flailmower rotor with 4 rows of knives will be better for the control of invasives like poison oak, ivy and sumac. You will be able to readily find knives and dethatching blades for most models on the market today from Flail-Master - Mower Replacement Parts, Commercial Riding Mower Parts, Rotary Cutter Parts, Blade grinders, Trimmer Line, Mowing Accessories - Flail Master - Flailmaster - Clean Cutter Tiller Blades and others who sell them.

The cup type of grass slicer knive givea a you a good cut but its a littte rough and you may wish to go over it a second time if its mowing good turf.

The L shaped blades are the more aerodynamic knives and cut very well.

I would like you contact Ken Sweet here on the forum and inquire about his lines of flailmowers and purchase a 48 inch flailmower from him as he is a forum sponsor in good standing.

You may also wish to visit the www.Caronispa.it home page to look at their flailmowers as they have 6 models fror your size tractor 3 36-inch units and 3 48-inch units with fixed position 3 point hitches.

Depending upon the rotor type you may have 2, 3, or 4 rows of slicers to slice brush and turf. We have found that the more knives you have the better.

Many forum members are Caroni, Ford, John Deere or Mott flailmower owners. Many Caroni owners have the A, B, and P rotors and are very satisfied with them. Many others have the F rotor which is the finish cut rotor with 4 rows of grass slicers and will give you the finest cut with brush and turf. The F rotors beat back the invasives more readily.


Agri Supply - Farm Supplies, Tools, Lawn Mower Blades, Cast Iron Cookware is the importer for the Caroni line of flail mowers.


I will take great pains to explain to you that you must keep the P.T.O., wound up at the high 540 RPM engine speed at all times as the flail mower will no cut as effectively otherwise the flywheel effect created bythe mowers rotor becomes very poor and will not cut as well.


As long as you proceed slowly you will be fine and then you can set the cruise control if you have it and overlap if desired.

I will also explain to you that if you mow in a spiral pattern you can easliy overlap and save much time and effort in mowing as you will not have to brake, turn around, stop, or reverse
until you reach the perimiter of the area you are mowing.



Another option is the Vrismo 46 inch mower in the picture i have provided.
I am unaware of its retail cost.

It uses the scoop knives and will mow to dirt in one pass.




I want you to succeed and not fail.


Please stay away from the numerous chinese made flailmowers as they are very poorly built in my opinion. The small flailmowers offered by Northern tool are a mower you should not even consider as the construction is very poor in my opinion with my 30 plus years of ownership of flailmowers. The rotors are tubular steel and that is not good and the steel mower shroud is not reinforced.

 

[Haywire]

You're gonna cut 20 acres with an 1860 and a 48" deck? Better say goodbye to the family and take a couple meals, you're not gonna see them for awhile.

Ian

Edit: Welcome to the site... lots of good advice and people here.
.

 

[J_J]

How long does it take you to do the 20 acres now? Asking that 18 HP tractor to do that is a bit much, especially if the brush is long. By the time you finish the 20 th acre, you will need to start back on the first acre. You can probably do it, and will give you plenty of seat time, but is it worth it.

I believe the general rule is 5 to 7 HP for each of ft of cut.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

My goodness yes;

Your BX1860 will handle a flail mower with no issues. we tow a motorised
Mathews company lawn Genie Pick Up Mower 48 inch unit and mow everything with it-good turf and heavy brush both.

You can set the rear roller at its lowest position and it will slice grass and brush at its highest setting.

You have a number of things to decide with regard to your purchase.

I strongly suggest you investigate the the forum regarding flail mowers in the attachment and Kubota section. as we have a over a hundred plus pages of responses about flail mowers.

I will tell you that a flail mower rotor with 4 rows of knives will give you a better turf and better slicing of brush.

The flailmower rotor with 4 rows of knives will be better for the control of invasives like poison oak, ivy and sumac. You will be able to readily find knives and dethatching blades for most models on the market today from Flail-Master - Mower Replacement Parts, Commercial Riding Mower Parts, Rotary Cutter Parts, Blade grinders, Trimmer Line, Mowing Accessories - Flail Master - Flailmaster - Clean Cutter Tiller Blades and others who sell them.

The cup type of grass slicer knive givea a you a good cut but its a littte rough and you may wish to go over it a second time if its mowing good turf.

The L shaped blades are the more aerodynamic knives and cut very well.

I would like you contact Ken Sweet here on the forum and inquire about his lines of flailmowers and purchase a 48 inch flailmower from him as he is a forum sponsor in good standing.

You may also wish to visit the www.Caronispa.it home page to look at their flailmowers as they have 6 models fror your size tractor 3 36-inch units and 3 48-inch units with fixed position 3 point hitches.

Depending upon the rotor type you may have 2, 3, or 4 rows of slicers to slice brush and turf. We have found that the more knives you have the better.

Many forum members are Caroni, Ford, John Deere or Mott flailmower owners. Many Caroni owners have the A, B, and P rotors and are very satisfied with them. Many others have the F rotor which is the finish cut rotor with 4 rows of grass slicers and will give you the finest cut with brush and turf. The F rotors beat back the invasives more readily.


Agri Supply - Farm Supplies, Tools, Lawn Mower Blades, Cast Iron Cookware is the importer for the Caroni line of flail mowers.


I will take great pains to explain to you that you must keep the P.T.O., wound up at the high 540 RPM engine speed at all times as the flail mower will no cut as effectively otherwise the flywheel effect created bythe mowers rotor becomes very poor and will not cut as well.


As long as you proceed slowly you will be fine and then you can set the cruise control if you have it and overlap if desired.

I will also explain to you that if you mow in a spiral pattern you can easliy overlap and save much time and effort in mowing as you will not have to brake, turn around, stop, or reverse
until you reach the perimiter of the area you are mowing.



I want you to succeed and not fail.


Please stay away from the numerous chinese made flailmowers as they are very poorly built in my opinion. The small flailmowers offered by Northern tool are a mower you should not even consider as the construction is very poor in my opinion with my 30 plus years of ownership of flailmowers. The rotors are tubular steel and that is not good and the steel mower shroud is not reinforced.

leonz: Can you please post a picture of your flail mower? Looking at commercial ads doesn't do as well as an actual real live in person picture. That's why we like to see peoples tractors instead of just posting a picture from the Kubota Company web site. Come on leonz, lets see it.:thumbsup:

 

[CHDinCT]

Your BX1860 has 13.7 hp at the rear PTO - call it 14. You could probably run a 48" flail if the grass/weeds are not too tall and you're not cutting any woody material. I agree with JJ that that's a lot of seat time rough cutting 20 acres with a 4' cutter. I too would be interested in how long it now takes with the bush hog. You could go wider with a self powered, tow-behind type unit.

And welcome to TBN also. I just traded in a BX1860 for a BX25, so I'm familiar with your machine, though I never bush hogged with it.

 

[newdeal]

I cut like 4 acres with a 48" bush hog and it took FOREVER. I must have spent a good 12 hours working on that...and that was with a bx2360 which is quite a bit more powerful. Its not so much the long grass it had trouble with...if anything the 6 foot tall stuff was easier to cut...its the low matted grass that bogs it out because it tends to be much thicker

 

[leonz]

I will try to get a picture of it on wednseday
john when I visit my with my father.
Hooked on HP has a 5 foot P.T.O., Lawn Genie
with a picture on the site here.


I used to mow 12 acres every week with my fathers 1969 15-
horse 3 speed IH lowboy cub with a 6 foot rotary mower deck
and a 4 cylinder gas engine.

We mowed every week after we mowed down the 8 acres of
brush the first time with the lowboy over 3 days.


A smaller flailmower will allow you to mow faster and you do
not have to mow it all at once.

I mowed every night until it was dark and stopped and continued
the next day after school.


It was great tractor for sure and the seat was well made.
The only mistake dad made was buying a plow instead of
a snow blower and we had a storm the following year that
buried us and it took forever to push the snow to the bottom
as we had chains but did not have loaded tires.


If you mow an acre a day it does not take that long to do,
and the invasives will be gone.

If you get a deluxe seat or have one for the 1860 you will not notice the time.

 

[dodge man]

I agree with the others, that will take a lot of time to cut. Is it more of a rough lawn? If its more lawn like, you might get by with a midmount mower. If it is truly rough brush, I'd probably pay someone to come do it.