Flail Mower New Caroni TM1900 Flail Mower

[danielcuilhe]

My question is why a "gently used" flail would need new knives, bearings and belts? If it is not a very high hour unit however the fact that virtually all the wear parts have been replaced would seem to make it a good deal. I'm happy with my Caroni but if I could save $250 to get a truly "gently used" Mott I'd certainly consider it.

It was gently used until the guy hit a rock and lost some blades, so the Mott became unbalanced. He thought he had bent the shaft, so he took it to the nearest place for repair and they replaced everything... I tend to trust the guy on this story, and I had him run the Mott in front of me: it cut finely, was not vibrating, seemed to work just fine. He got it used from a filbert orchard, so hard to estimate the hours. The only other question is: the Mott has the smaller, very numerous blades that do the finer cut; on my 25 acres I'll be dealing with 2-foot tender blackberry, some grass (won't let it get too tall) and weeds -- mostly tender stuff, but there's a lot of debris from old Scotch broom that was shredded up and now is littering the place. I wonder if that would be on the rougher side for this Mott? The terrain is a hillside, gently sloping, but uneven (bumps and holes here and there), not as clean as a filbert orchard. Any thoughts on how well this Mott would do in there?

 

[J_J]

There are a bunch of different blades for the Mott. Check out this.

Mower Parts

Select Brand, and select blades on the right.

 

[IslandTractor]

The only other question is: the Mott has the smaller, very numerous blades that do the finer cut; on my 25 acres I'll be dealing with 2-foot tender blackberry, some grass (won't let it get too tall) and weeds -- mostly tender stuff, but there's a lot of debris from old Scotch broom that was shredded up and now is littering the place. I wonder if that would be on the rougher side for this Mott?

I own a Caroni TM1900 which is designed for that kind of cutting. The Caroni you are comparing to the Mott is set up the same way as the Mott....many knives designed for lawn mowing primarily. However, I'd think that both the Mott and the fine cut Caroni could deal with the type of stuff you are dealing with. Toss up regarding capability from my perspective so you'll just have to decide if a new Caroni is worth more than $250 more than a well renovated Mott. I'd be happy with either.

 

[danielcuilhe]

There are a bunch of different blades for the Mott. Check out this.

Mower Parts

Select Brand, and select blades on the right.

Thanks JJ. I did take a look at the different kinds of blades. Not sure if all kinds are interchangeable (I think I read somewhere on this forum or a similar one about someone having issues with some blades not fitting unless the entire rotor was changed).

 

[danielcuilhe]

I own a Caroni TM1900 which is designed for that kind of cutting. The Caroni you are comparing to the Mott is set up the same way as the Mott....many knives designed for lawn mowing primarily. However, I'd think that both the Mott and the fine cut Caroni could deal with the type of stuff you are dealing with. Toss up regarding capability from my perspective so you'll just have to decide if a new Caroni is worth more than $250 more than a well renovated Mott. I'd be happy with either.

Guess I'll start by saving the $250 and see. If the Mott performs well enough, great. If not... they seem to hold their value well, and I'll probably find someone else interested in it, and I can switch to the Caroni. But since in the long term I want to be left with lawn-like grass on the 25-acre hillside in between the rows of trees, the Mott (or the Caroni with 88 blades) is the type of flail I will need. I just need to get rid of the rougher stuff, and for that my neighbor has a 6' Woods rotary that will deal with the bigger, rougher stuff. Thank you again for your advice.

 

[danielcuilhe]

I own a Caroni TM1900 which is designed for that kind of cutting. The Caroni you are comparing to the Mott is set up the same way as the Mott....many knives designed for lawn mowing primarily. However, I'd think that both the Mott and the fine cut Caroni could deal with the type of stuff you are dealing with. Toss up regarding capability from my perspective so you'll just have to decide if a new Caroni is worth more than $250 more than a well renovated Mott. I'd be happy with either.

PS Any idea how Caroni can sell for such low prices? Where are they saving money? are these maybe made in Romania (where a lot of Italian firms opened shop in the past 10 years, especially in the Ag business)? worse, are they made in China (which I doubt, because all Caroni owners seem to be pretty happy with their flails)?

 

[IslandTractor]

PS Any idea how Caroni can sell for such low prices? Where are they saving money? are these maybe made in Romania (where a lot of Italian firms opened shop in the past 10 years, especially in the Ag business)? worse, are they made in China (which I doubt, because all Caroni owners seem to be pretty happy with their flails)?

They are not made in China. I believe they are still made in Italy. However, the main point is that US flail companies tend to focus on the heavy duty side of the market as there has been relatively little market in the US for consumer or medium/light duty flails. As such, there is a huge price gap between the heavy duty US made flails and the Caroni type flails. I wouldn't recommend a Caroni to a highway maintenance department but for pasture mowing and medium duty bush hogging they are more than up to the task. I don't know why the US market has stayed with rotary for both bush hog and finish mowing but that is not the case in Europe. Caroni and a number of other Italian companies produce very good equipment (to my mind similar to Woods, Landpride, Rhino) for the European market which has recently started to catch on in the US. They also produce rotary mowers and either Caroni or similar companies are the source of many rebadged mowers, tillers etc (eg Kioti mowers, tillers and I am sure other tractor companies use them as well).

 

[Builder]

Still haven't bought my SQ84T Squealer twin spindle. Still sitting on the fence. There's still a chance I'll buy a Caroni.

Are they time consuming to clean-do they even NEED to be cleaned?

How about the belts? I hate belts.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

I'll be straight with you....

I have the 88" Mott with HD blades on it and I'll still lose some blades every now and then. If it's rough, they can take a beating. With that said, I've never tried the fine cut flails before- so maybe they are tougher than I'm thinking.

Also, my biggest problem is not the blades, pins or the yokes but rather the cotter pins break off easily and this allows the pins to come out of their holder. The cotter pins are too long and this allows them to catch on lots of things.

Lastly, with my blades sharpened and cutting in an already groomed area, my fail does a pretty darn good job. I don't think it will cut as smoothly as a finish cut but i'll come fairly close. The Mott/Alamo flails have a good resale but I'm not sure that the fine cut ones do. If you can hold out for what you are looking for, I would...

It was gently used until the guy hit a rock and lost some blades, so the Mott became unbalanced. He thought he had bent the shaft, so he took it to the nearest place for repair and they replaced everything... I tend to trust the guy on this story, and I had him run the Mott in front of me: it cut finely, was not vibrating, seemed to work just fine. He got it used from a filbert orchard, so hard to estimate the hours. The only other question is: the Mott has the smaller, very numerous blades that do the finer cut; on my 25 acres I'll be dealing with 2-foot tender blackberry, some grass (won't let it get too tall) and weeds -- mostly tender stuff, but there's a lot of debris from old Scotch broom that was shredded up and now is littering the place. I wonder if that would be on the rougher side for this Mott? The terrain is a hillside, gently sloping, but uneven (bumps and holes here and there), not as clean as a filbert orchard. Any thoughts on how well this Mott would do in there?

 

[nomad]

PS Any idea how Caroni can sell for such low prices? Where are they saving money? are these maybe made in Romania (where a lot of Italian firms opened shop in the past 10 years, especially in the Ag business)? worse, are they made in China (which I doubt, because all Caroni owners seem to be pretty happy with their flails)?

There is no manufacturing company in Romania. Romanian labors have moved to Italy after they joined EU. Many Italian companies working with Chinese companies.

But, none of these are main reason their machines are still for "reasonable" prices.
2 reasons: global economy crisis and pricing policy of Agri-Supply (who sells mostly Italian products, including Caroni's. They also sell some Turkey products.) Knowing the "source prices" of many items which have been also supplied to Agri-Supply (ASC), they (ASC) put a "reasonable" profit on the items they buy & sell. This must be their old-school trade approach: "make low profit - do continous." I appreciate ASC even though I lost money because of them.