Rotary Cutter Horse power needed for 15ft. Batwing

[bigbull338]

as said a 50 to 85hp tractor will pull that batwing shredder.but what you have to remember is that the older batwings are built heavier.so youd want some extra hp.nothing wrong with gearing down shredding it just takes longer to get done.

 

[aczlan]

Depending on the grass and height you want to cut 50 to 80hp.

If you got a flail,you could run twice as fast and only need 60 PTO HP :laughing::laughing:

Aaron Z

 

[foreman Etexas]

If you got a flail,you could run twice as fast and only need 60 PTO HP :laughing::laughing:

Aaron Z

I read that a 15ft Flail would req.minimum 75hp but could have been just the brand,guess they could have lower hp ones,dont know alot about them. Dont you have to run them on clean pastures? Whats the knive life on one in heavy stuff? How long would it take to change knives,compared to changing blades on bushhog? I'm learning myself on flails

 

[Jules083]

I'd say more in the 80-100 range. Depends a lot on how fast you want to go and how thick. I pull a 10' with a 70hp John Deere and wouldn't want to go any bigger. With my set-up the tractor sometimes needs geared down, but only in thick grass going uphill. I don't like having to slow down though due to lack of power, I think you can get more work done and not beat up the tractor with correctly sized implements.

 

[Brimstone10x]

I think the 76 chevy should run it no prob.

 

[GE222]

I agree with Jules083, 80-100 is about right. A smaller machine on that sized mower will be under powered when things get tough. The farm I work on has a 15' Woods batwing and we run it on a JD 4230 which is just about right.

 

[leonz]

I read that a 15ft Flail would req.minimum 75hp but could have been just the brand,guess they could have lower hp ones,dont know alot about them. Dont you have to run them on clean pastures? Whats the knive life on one in heavy stuff? How long would it take to change knives,compared to changing blades on bushhog? I'm learning myself on flails

It all depends on the width of the flail, A duck billed flail knive/hammer knive is good for everything and gives good cut on grass.

A smaller width(than 10-15 feet) flailmower with Y blades would be fine for this as you are shredding the material with many more knives than you would be with a wing type rotary mower. You have to remember that only one blade is cutting at anytime with the opposing blade following the leading blade versus the entire width of a flail mower is cutting at all times.

There is no reason you cannot mow at the highest mowing setting for a flial mower and then lowering it to get a better cut at the sod level as the full width of the flailmower is cutting at all times with so much more cutting edge length. If you mow a bit slower with a flail mower of any size the clippings will be very small and will compost quickly.

It does not take long to change knives and or hangers as long as you have scrapers, the proper tools and spare knives and hangers if needed.

The nice thing about the Y blades is that all you have to do is flip them to the opposite knive edge to save time. The sharpening of a Y blade can be done well with a wet well grinder to prevent overheating the knive and adding to its useable life.
The hammer knives are forged and heat treated from what I remember and last along time.

There are a lot of good used flail shredders and flail mowers for sale on tractor house every week.

 

[Willl]

The pick up has a 540 PTO shaft.

The truck has a PTO ?, out the rear ?, any pics ?

 

[Jules083]

I agree with Jules083, 80-100 is about right. A smaller machine on that sized mower will be under powered when things get tough. The farm I work on has a 15' Woods batwing and we run it on a JD 4230 which is just about right.

We had a 4230 I ran when I was younger, almost bought a 15' for it. My uncle ended up getting a 10' to pull with the IH 674, didn't want to deal with a cab along tree lines. I had a lot of fun running the big JD when I was a kid though, it was a great tractor. Worn out oil burner with a bunch of hours and still had plenty of power.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

For the record, I've put flails vs rotaries to the test (HP required) and found 16' worth of flailmower to require 145hp tractor when mowing along side of a 15' rotary behind an 90hp (pto hp on both ) tractor. Rotary was cutting @ 4.75mph (ground speed) while flail was cutting @ 2.9mph. (both in heavy fescue grass) Demo was conducted by Alamo sales rep to promote the flail mowers. After a couple hours of being on the losing end of the comparison, the sales rep suggested I stay with rotaries....(I'd already arived at that conclusion about an hour and 45 minutes earlier.) We continued to demo flail mowers for a few weeks, until the loss of productivity (and the cost associated with that) made it too costly to continue. I had 'em load up the flails and suggested they take 'em to my competition so they could have the same wonderful experience I just had. Consider the flail being demonstrated was nearly double the initial purchase cost as a similar width rotary cutter, as well as requiring a MUCH more expensive (to purchase AND to operate) tractor, as well as the fact the flails required nearly double the routine maintenance budget, and the flail mowers came away looking pathetic. Not to mention the loss of productivity (per hour) with the flails........