I got my latest ebay purchase yesterday, an Alamo flail mower. I've been looking locally for a year or so with no luck. I thought I'd post my first impressons of the machine and operation. Pics coming over the weekend.
My impression of the unit is that it's a tank. Side walls look to be 5/16" the main housing 1/4" or better, the roller equally robust. I think it's what I'm going to want for my use. I have 20 acres of uneven, rocky ground with lots of brush and plenty of hidden stumps and logs.
First impressions of operation:
"* With the roller raised a flail mower makes like a rototiller."
The higher the roller position the better the mowing especially with tall brush as the knives create a huge suction to lift up the brush
Using a flail mower as a tiller in rocky ground makes for lots of "flail tinkle
Yup, and if you cross asphault at right angles it looks like you had a family of beavers visiting
[quotye]Former owner wasn't too bright, roller wasn't adjusted equally side to side
whoopsie:smiley_aafz:
A floor jack makes adjusting roller height fairly painless
Unit works much better with roller adjusted. Cutting heavy grass and light brush went very well, tractor doesn't seem to feel the load and cut looks good, given what I'm cutting. The tractor turns the flail fine at low RPM, seems to cut much better with 2000 RPM (450 PTO) or more.
You should run it at 540 rpm to get the full advantage of verticutting
with the high speed of the flail rotor rotation to take full advantage
of the aerodynamics created by the knives becoming an airfoil with the knive edge
Clumps of heavy, 1-2" brush bend over readly under the weight of the mower and don't seem to strain the mower frame or roller at all. It doesn't cut much going backwards, the roller holds them down, but forward cut knocks down the bulk of it. With this material it leaves quite a few stripped stalks that pop back up. Sharpening/reversing the flails might help, they are pretty worn. Also, I have the light (standard) flails on it, heavier ones might help
Lower the cutting hieght by raising the roller to the highest mounting position
and you will shred everything-just try not to kill any of the good snakes.
Large rocks and hidden stumps create a lot of "flail tinkle", but don't seem to do much damage. Makes me wonder about the heavier flail blades, they might knock down brush and small stumps better, but the extra weight might add drama with rocks
You wont notice it much with the mower height at its lowest position as the mower hood will mask a lot of the noise and it will help with smoothing the rough gtound edges out too.
Barbed wire and flails combine to make unpleasant noises
Make you wonder how long the garden hose snake is that you have to unwind from the rotor when it was left where it became hidden and can be sucked up by the knives and then on the rotor too with lots of suction and speed- amkes you think you have an invisible skunk digging for grubs.
They don't make them like they used to applies to barbed wire. This old stuff was thick. No damage to the mower
Its always hungry for field fence at the first opportunity if you mow too close and part of a roll gets grown over.
I was impressed how quiet and vibration free mowing in nasty stuff is with a flail. I didn't notice any "projectiles" evey after hitting some softball to basketball sized rocks.
very safe to use around animals and road sides
Getting brush under control probably should be done in the spring before it leafs out, or after the leaves drop in the fall. Seems like it would be a whole lot easier to see obsticles and avoid them
Late fall with dormant dead brush is an ideal time as the moisture is all gone and you can shred right to the sod and eliminate the stalks ability to absorb moisture quickly as it is very brittle.
Trying to type a long post with a new kitten walking across the keyboard every couple of minutes is very aggravating
They get to be a bigger PIA when they get older-just dont use the squirt gun when your at the keyboard.
I think I'm going to be happy with this impliment. My intentions are to use this once or maybe twice a year just to keep brush under control in my forest. Once I get the heavy brush knocked down and the stumps cut back, I think this work well for my use."
I am sure you will be very happy and once you get everything knocked down to sod the invasives will be almost gone and you will spend much less time mowing and mowing wet brush is messy but easy and there will be little residue.
I'll probably spring for a set of the forged, "heavy duty" (M-108318) blades from Flailmaster. At $1.45 each times 72 flails, it's not too bad. It will be interesting to see how they compare to the standard ones. One nice thing about the standard blade (100759), at $.70 each it's not painful when one needs to be replaced. At that price, I'm not sure it's worth sharpening them, run one side, flip it and toss might be in the works.
If you can purchase a Wen brand wet well grinder for knives and scizzors it works wonders for flailmower knives and the edge is superb.
