Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Big Bri]

My first pass around and i Had to jump off the tractor . . . Could not believe what what i did. . . ran to the building (where i work) my wife looked at me an said WHAT. . . I told her to come quick she knew something was up.

made her stand here in the photo. . . that is just one pass!

 

[Big Bri]

So back to the tractor and a cutting i go. . .

 

[Big Bri]

and then it happend. . . .

 

[Big Bri]

I broke all three belts. So i called Agri Supply to find out what size belts i need (didn't get the owners manual). I told Vernon at Agri Supply what i did and told him that i need to know the belt sizes so that i could finish cutting. Well he asked me a few questions. Did i hit some thing (no) what size brush are you cutting (Grass, Briars, and a sapling or two) how tall/thick is the grass (4 to 5 ft)how fast are you going (low 3rd)
so he thinks i might be going to fast. . . i'll buy that because i don't know how fast you can cut with a flail The Great thing is Vernon tells me that i need a B43 belt and that i could pick them up at any parts store and then he tells me that he is going to send me a set of belts for FREE I wasn't looking for free belts but he offered. That is customer service, i will look at agri supply first for my purchases.

Bad news is that none of the stores had all three belts in stock but
one told me that they would be there tomorrow so thats not bad.

this is how the field looked where i stoped

 

[Big Bri]

So my question to all of you who have a Flail at what speed do you cut.

i don't know what speed low 3rd is on my tractor is but will call my dealer tomorrow to find out.

all in all i really like the cut i got with the flail and that i think anyone who cuts fields would benefit from having one. But i also see that there is still a need for a nice rotary cutter to knock down the bigger stuff (over 1 inch)

thank for the help

 

[doubleedge]

Would a JD 2305 be able to handle a 48-49" flail mower?

 

[KennyV]

Your speed will be determined by what you are cutting/mulching... The taller and thicker it is the slower you will need to go. After a while you will know by the sound of the flail, you will definitely know by looking behind what you have cut, if it is not chopping everything as your pictures show, your going too fast. I have roasted a few belt sets on flails over the years. Don't get in a hurry in the big stuff and your belts will last for years, get in a hurry and over feed to the point the belts start slipping and they will burn up in minuets.
Keep it sort of trimmed and you can move rather quickly. It's too bad there is no easy way to monitor the temperature of the belts, you could then know when to slow down. And by slow down I am referring to your forward speed not the pto speed, keep the flail at its max rpm ... Flails are fun mowers! KennyV

 

[J_J]

Big Bri,

Just listen for the sound when the mower is cutting good, and you will have a reference when the flail is loading up, otherwise straining to keep up. Do some test runs at different speeds to get an idea about how fast you should be running.

Just curious which way, the blades are turning, same as the tractor wheels or opposite. and what kind of blades you have on the flail. Once you wear out those blades, you can step up a bit and get heavier blades, for more aggressive cutting, either forged or stamped.

 

[sunspot]

Big Bri. Don't beat yourself up. Some other new owners of Caroni had broken belts.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/124814-caroni-flail-belt-failure.html

NAPA had belts in stock. No failures after the first replacement set.

 

[tutorbell]

and then it happend. . . .

No offense intended, and this is just an opinion, but I really think this is why the industrial grass/weed flails use forward rotation. Stuff is not mulched, it is just cut and thrown back under the flail rotor. I think the reverse rotation flails tend to load up more in tall grass, however, they do a better job mulching things up more finely.

I think the forward rotation ones cut once and move on, therefore they don't really load up much...I don't know how my 62" Ford flail would do in this type of stuff, but the shoulder along the highway where I live is about 3' or 4' tall and I'm tired of looking at it. I'm gonna mow it and I'll let you know how it does with it. It only has two belts, we'll see if I am able to smoke them. Keep in mind that I only have 17 PTO horsepower though, so it's doubtful that I could actually smoke a belt.

So my question to all of you who have a Flail at what speed do you cut.

With my flail, I cut grass 6-8" at a pretty good clip, I'd say 4-5 MPH or so...with brush, I move much slower. I dinged the heck out of my knives by going over brush too quickly. The racket really made me nervous, so when I saw something larger about to go under the flail, I sped up to get over it quicker. Since I got new knives and hangers from Flailmaster, I have started slowing down to a crawl over bigger stuff and this gives the knives a chance to chip away at it without throwing them back into the drum and banging them up. The original shackles were so worn down that the tips of the knives contacted the flail housing!

It's really amazing how quiet this thing is now that it's back in shape.

Just curious which way, the blades are turning, same as the tractor wheels or opposite.

All of the Caroni's I have seen on TBN are reverse rotation, opposite tractor tires.