Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

Catman8 · Mar 7, 2017

Dan in MN said:
The manual tells you how thick, and has a pretty good picture to estimate size, so I'd still start there. You won't be an exact match, but presumably much closer than no weights at all..

Yep, cut a piece of steel 1-15/32" thick and start from that point. From the photo the width and height should be obvious. Thanks for the idea.

Dan in MN · Mar 7, 2017

Just make sure you put some good threadlocker on the bolts or you'll probably be making another set in short order... :thumbsup:

IslandTractor · Mar 8, 2017

Catman8 said:
Update: Bush Hog FH188, I called Bush Hog and they no longer have parts available for this flail, they can't even tell me how much the adjustment weights weighed so I can make my own, talk about not being able to support what you build, I know it's old but most companies have documentation and blueprints on hard drives.

Flail-master is sending me sample knives and hardware so I can compare the hanger brackets. Looks like I will be troubleshooting the vibration problem one step at a time.

I wonder if you can just figure out the size of the weights based on where they attach and any evidence from paint lines. Obviously the weights would have been mild steel so if you can figure the approximate dimensions you can come pretty close using scrap steel. Not sure the drawings you posted from the manual are actually to scale but even that would give you a decent idea of weight dimension. As I noted earlier, I don't notice when two blades are missing from my rotor and while I cannot recall how much each of the HD Flailmaster coarse cut blades weighs, it must be in the range of a couple ounces at least. If 4 ounces of imbalance doesn't affect the rotor much then if you can come under that with an estimated ballast weight you have a good starting point.

IslandTractor · Mar 8, 2017

Catman8 said:
Yep, cut a piece of steel 1-15/32" thick and start from that point. From the photo the width and height should be obvious. Thanks for the idea.
View attachment 501288

I'd think it would be easier to fabricate a weight that attaches via a bolt to the empty hanger hole than to attempt to attach it to the original ?threaded bolt holes. Easier to fabricate a number of different weights and swap them out to see what works best too.

Catman8 · Mar 8, 2017

This was in my email this morning, Bush Hog came through, Awsome.
So did Ford make this flail mower and Bush Hog put their name on it, or is Bush Hog just using Fords rotor.

This is what I came up with weight per side, let me know if you see any discrepancies.
What weight are they using, ounces, grams? .88 ?

Quantity Part number Thick. Wt. total Wt.
each side. each side.
5 F7501925 .250 .15 x 5 = .75
1 F7501926 .125 .07 x 1 = .07
3 F7501927 .031 .02 x 3 = .06 .88

Xfaxman · Mar 8, 2017

Good deal.

And the drawing gives the part numbers of the three different thickness weights.

IslandTractor · Mar 8, 2017

Catman8 said:
This was in my email this morning, Bush Hog came through, Awsome.
So did Ford make this flail mower and Bush Hog put their name on it, or is Bush Hog just using Fords rotor.

This is what I came up with weight per side, let me know if you see any discrepancies.
What weight are they using, ounces, grams? .88 ?

Quantity Part number Thick. Wt. total Wt.
each side. each side.
5 F7501925 .250 .15 x 5 = .75
1 F7501926 1/8" .07 x 1 = .07
3 F7501927 .031 .02 x 3 = .06 .88

View attachment 501325 View attachment 501329

The plan specifies dimensions in inches so I would assume the weights are in pounds. The numbers in parentheses are millimeters (0.25 inches equals 6.35mm)

Fallon · Mar 8, 2017

Catman8 said:
This was in my email this morning, Bush Hog came through, Awsome.
So did Ford make this flail mower and Bush Hog put their name on it, or is Bush Hog just using Fords rotor.

The whole mower is pretty much identical to my Ford 917 down to the bolts & 1 stud configuration for the belt guard side panel. I'm 99% sure the whole unit was OEM by Ford.

Catman8 · Mar 8, 2017

Fallon said:
The whole mower is pretty much identical to my Ford 917 down to the bolts & 1 stud configuration for the belt guard side panel. I'm 99% sure the whole unit was OEM by Ford.

Fallon, thanks for posting those pics. A few photos of your flail I can see the adjustable weights and the ends of the two bolts sticking through the end plate of the rotor.

Catman8 · Mar 13, 2017

I just received samples form Flail-master for my Bush Hog FM188, and all the existing parts are wrong.

The bottom hanger bracket is the correct bracket and has the hole closer to the top and corrects the misaligning issue I had with having to pound the bolt through the holes.

The two blades on the right are the correct ones for my flail, the incorrect blade on the left with the short link when mounted is even with the skids and the correct longer link has the blade extending past the skid, does your knives extend past your skids.