Fallon, unless you have money to burn, I'd say that you should recondition the 917 for general mowing but get yourself a medium duty rotary for initial clearing of rough stuff. A flail capable of doing what a medium duty (eg Woods Brushbull 720) can do would be pretty pricey.
I'm fixing the bearings & getting it back online, but it's to old & beat to ever get back to really good.
It was missing the PTO shaft & a handful of knives. Replaced PTO & all knives. Promptly found out the knives were missing for a reason... they were hitting the hood. Torched out a large chunk of the dented hood on the back & patched it. It runs pretty well now, but still has some issues.
It's noisy, probably because of some big cracks on the hood where it's welded to support spars. The rear roller brackets were welded in place years before I got it, so the 3pt height is the only way to adjust height.
Some of the knife stations are a bit tweaked (before & even more after I "found" my well head in the tall grass) have the rotor itself might be ever so slightly tweaked.
I paid $100 for it not knowing about flails knowing it was a big project. I now know how lucky I was, even after dropping $400, probably $550 with the new bearings, on it. Even having most of the skills & tools & knowing what a replacement will cost, it's not worth it to do much more than patching the latest problems. It's a well used tired piece of iron 20-30 years old.
In the past 2.5 years there have been exactly 6 flail mowers listed on Craigslist in Colorado. I now own 1, 3 were huge crop shredders & 2 were way overpriced. Like I said I had no idea how lucky I was joining the flail nation with that $100 piece of junk I didn't know anything about.
I may still end up with a cheap (at least compared to a flail) beefy rotary, but I'm a nerd, I research & compare. It's fun. My current rotary is OK despite pushing it harder than it should be. But going forward I should get something more up to hitting yucca & brush. Not to mention a bit wider to fit the new machine.
