Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[StuartDK45SE]

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Hello Stuart,

Please do not use your drag harrow after the first mowing. The safest thing you can do with your flail mower if it has the scoop knives or side slicer knives is just mow at right angles to continue to mow the land as using the drag harrow is only going to plug it up with clippings and any existing rocks or limbs it may dig up.

Thanks. We'll see what things look like things look like after the first mowing. My problem is I have mats of dead grass from last year in spots. I'd really like to mow, hit it with a tedder then mow again. The grass is dry enough now that I think the flail would eat it up to small pieces. Zero rocks , stumps , limbs etc. It was / is a hay field established for years and years.

 

[JimCan]

LZ... "just mow at right angles". (..or 45deg) I wish I wudda thought of that! I mentally go on auto-pilot and attempt to cut the straight of lines, year after year. Thanks.

Stuart: Here's what my pasture looks like this spring. I cut it 4-5 times last year and this is the first year (of 20+) my wife made a nice comment; "..waving in the breeze.". Usually it is full of gum trees seedlings and tons of different weeds already.

Jim

 

[Reg]

I work for a non profit farm/orchard and was just put in charge of purchasing a tractor and implements. I know basically nothing about any of these things, 3 point hitches etc. Anyways, I got a Caroni TL 1200 flail mower with a kubota bx2680 When I moved the top link pin on the mower end from the hole to the slot, to allow for a better mow on uneven terrain, the pin slid out on the side with the cotter pin, warping the cotter pin in the process. Apart from the cottter pin, It doesnt look like anything is damaged, but Im wondering what Im doing wrong, how to avoid the pin angling and sliding out. Thanks for any help.

You didn't say whether you put a pin in the cotter pin to secure it from sliding out.
In any case, if what you are describing is the ball end of the top link swiveling around and allowing the pin to escape into the slot (?) then you need to shorten its effective length.
Washers may be needed on both sides of the pin, quite possibly a LOT of washers to "pack it out" and thereby keep it straight.

 

[leonz]

No worries Jim,

Wait and see how much fuel and time you save when you start mowing in a spiral in the center of the pasture block=lots!!

 

[Reg]

Could someone address the speed of cutting flail vs rotary?

There is an old formula that uses width in inches (minus overlap) and speed in MPH to figure acres per hour for any/every field work, whether plowing, tilling, mowing, spreading, etc.

I *THOUGHT* it was a simple multiply of the two, but can't remember the factor that product has to be divided by.

 

[MAD777]

^^^^^
99
Make it easy & call it 100.

 

[ronjhall]

Got my Woodmaxx FM62H Wednesday. Assembled it yesterday and did a couple rounds on my back 2 acres. Set it up high for first couple of cuts. Area has been cut by my rotary cutter for years. Sure makes a lot of noise until all the blades are out to full extension as rpm's build up. After that it runs smooth and quiet. Going to finish cutting my place an neighbors today.
Going to use lower part of metal crate that it arrived in as dolly for mower. Just need to add some bolts and dolly wheels.
View attachment 554793

 

[StuartDK45SE]

Looks good Ron. My WoodMaxx FM-78 is supposed to be here today. Just waiting for the call from Yellow Freight saying they are on the way.

 

[Ricn]

Ron, yours is the same unit as mine and you are going to like it very much. Be sure to engage the PTO when engine is at idle, then slowly increase RPM to get your PTO speed up. You may be doing this already but as you mentioned the knives being noisy during engagement, I wanted to mention this.

Ricn

 

[Fallon]

Noisy knives (or hammers) on spin up & spin down are a nature of the beast. My new Peruzzo with hammers is better (they only have 1 pivot point), but still makes a fair racket as it moves from gravity being the dominant force to centrifical/centripetal action taking over. My old Ford 917 with side slicers is worse. With 2-3 pivot points per knife or shackle there is just more motion.

Occasionally one of the side slicers will catch on the shackle at an odd angle where it can't straighten out. It will make a bit of a racket after everything else straightens out. Sometimes stopping things then spinning back up will straighten things out. Occasionally I have to shut it all down, wait for everything to come to a complete stop then reach under & un-twist a knife. Takes a lot longer to shut everything down & look for the tangled knife than untwist it though.