Sandman,
Thanks for the info on your very prompt reply--I certainly appreciate it. You suggested that I get one and try before buy. Will a dealer just let me walk out the door with an implement knowing that I will get it nice and dirty but still not buy it? A little dirt is no big deal, but I can also understand the idea of curbside appeal of a brand new implement, and use would basically destroy that appearance.
On the other hand, I have heard about dealers letting potential customers trying our CUT's before committing to sale. Is this try-out option a requirement for dealers?
Thanks in advance for your help.
SI2305
Most all dealers will not do this unless they own the attachment for their own use.
About flailmowers;
Before we get to far with this, the geometry of a flail mowers drive has to be understood by the end user.
Using my motorised flail mower for the first example:
I have a 48 in Mathews Lawn Genie which is no no longer manufactured(but the parts are all off the shelf)and is powered with a16 horsepower Briggs and Stratton I/C single cylinder engine which is no longer manufactured.
My flailmower has a high speed flywheel clutch like te ones used on go karts the worldwide and for other applications like the small brush shredder chippers which have the same clutch in most cases.
This centrifugal clutch is made by Hillliard Inc. in Elmira, New York and they are used the world wide for many small engine applications.
This flailmower is belt driven using a drive pulley connected with universal joint and driveshaft from the engine crankshaft.
The dirve shaft passes through an open bearing which is connected toa small singel groove V pulley.
The V belt used is a NAPA Branded B43 kevlar V belt(Gates Rubber Company)
the V belt powers a much larger single sheave(single groove) V belt pulley
The Pulley is connected to the flail mowers mowing drum which carries the mounted 3 inch side slicer knives which mow the grass and brush.
The Lawn Genie can either be used to collect the clippings or drop them back to the ground for collection later if the grass is tall.
The flail mower rotor on the Lawn Genie is a larger diameter weldment/cylinder which has end discs welded to create the cylinder to which the spring tensioned knive shackles are attached to the drum with individual weldments. The entire assembl is balanced using a high speed balancing machine/lathe arrangement.
The advantage of having a cylinder type rotor is that the side slicer knives can be shorter and allow an increased amount cutting surface available per (width inch) of cut as the side slicer knives overlap.
The higher number of knives you have per foot of row allows the flail mowr to have a greater amount of cutting edge per foot compared to any rotary cutter or rotary mower simply due to the design of the side slicers and the amount of overlap per inch of cut at the high operating speed.
In my case each side slicer has 1.5 inches of slicing edge per knive and the 132 kinves combined have 198 inches of cutting edge exposed for the 48 inch width of cut on one side of the knive offering 16.5 feet of ground cutting edge across the 48 inchs exposed to work.
Most side slicers have two ground sides doubling the amount of cutting edge simply by flipping the knive to the fresh edge and in my case I have 396 inches of available cutting edge which aids in mowing heavy brush and scrub if needed.
The balanced rotors offered today for most flailmowers are tubular and and much smaller in diameter which requires longer side slicer/grass slicers and consume more available horsepower. as they do not have the advantage of a larger drum cylinder which uses smaller(in length) side slicer knives.
After examining the available motorised flailmowers made in the United States I would not buy one because in my opinion the construction of them is very poor which is something you do not want in a flail mower motorised or powered with a Power Take Off.
The Sicma folks from Italy make very nice implements and you can purchase them from Ken Sweet who is a sponsor of the TBN forum and I believe he still offers them.
Now on to P.T.O., powered flailmowers:
The P.T.O., powered flailmowers use a right angle one to one transmission gearbox which rotates the cross shaft to the open bearing where the shaft is connected to the smaller driven pulley which may be a banded beld or a single V belt sheave system.
The driven pulley is connected to a weldment attached to the flail mowers rotor. Some flailmowers like mine have air paddles to increase the airflow and aid in carrying the clippings up and over the rotor back to the ground. On some of the older flailmowers the air paddle also carries a knive hanger and the side slicer knive/scoop knive or dethatching knife.
The size of the driven pulley is increased to reduce the flailmowers rotor speed and provide adequate torque for the mowing attachment.
The PTO powered flail mowers do not take advantage of a Centrifugal clutch which is extremely dissappointing as it would allow the end user to take advantage of huge amounts of the avaialable power to mow with.
The V belt drive is a safety valve for the flail mower and it will burn up or be torn apart if the mower encounters extreme brush and or the operator drives to fast while mowing(its a learning curve for the end user) The driven V belt is tensioned using a snubber pulley or spring tensione flat pulley to provide proper traction for the single or banded V-belts in use.
The slower you mow the greater the efficiency of a side slicer or scoop knive as the clippings are smaller and are disposed of quickly as they are smaller.
The lower the grass height is kept the faster mowing will be for a flail mower or anymower for that matter.
I can operate at very high ground speeds with the Mathews Company Lawn Genie as the grass is kept at a low height when mowing and it reduces clippings to a minimum and they degrade quickly.
The really great thing about any flailmower is the grass can be recut and shredded into smaller clippings for the end user and that is very hard to do with a rotary mower unless the grass is dry to the point that it is brittle.
A rotary mower tears the grass it has a limited amount of cutting edge available to the mowing width as only half the cutting edge is exposed to work at any time compared to a flailmower as the opposing edge is always following behind the previous one and the power available is wasted in my opinion where the entire width of the flailmower is slicing grass and brush at all times.
I would suggest that you read the information available here on flailmowers in the attachment section as we have several hundred pages of posting and threads available to the reader.
I simply want you to be an informed consumer of the avaible information to make a decision about them.
Ideally if you know of an aquaintance that has a flailmower or have knowledge of a local parks or municipal highway department that uses them you will obtain wealth of information about them from the end user.
One of the biggest plusses for flail mowers is that they will not collect grass clippings in the flail mower hood like a rotary mower will do all the time due the design of the wind tunnel chamber and baffles in a rotary mower to dispose of the grass clippings. A flailmower will also have much less difficulty mowing wet grass and turf as well as it is cut and carried over the flail mowers rotor. and not rehandled from side to side as occurs in a rotary mower with side discharge.
