Flail Mower Caroni TM1900 flail mower vs. Woodmaxx FM-78 flail mower, which to buy, any others?

[ericm979]

Which Betstco model was that? Any problems with it?

 

[Fallon]

The Y blades are actually referred to as side slicers. Cast hammer knives are mounted on orchard and vineyard flail mowers with linear or spiral mounting systems on the flail mower rotor.

Scoop flail mower knives are not "cast hammer knives", scoop knives are used on flail shredders as one of two optional knife methods for the end user, these specific knives are made from machined steel that has been formed and then heated to hold its temper.

The Caroni scoop knives are made using heat treated flat stock. that is bent to form.

WoodMaxx duckfoot blades are advertised as forged structural steel that weigh 1.75lbs each. I assume cast then forged, but they also claim a final heat treat & rated up to 1" brush. As others have noted the Carconi duckfoot blades are apparently just stamped stock & a lot lighter.

Side slicers (at least on my ancient Ford 917) do fine in 2-3' high heavy grass & light brush. I've chewed through 1" stuff with em & while a bit noisy & slow, they work. My next flail will likely have duckfoot hammers as I mow as a side gig & want to be as flexible as possible. I'll probably get a spare set of side slicers as backups though.

In short, go for side slicers in your situation with little to no brush.

 

[tommott77]

Which Betstco model was that? Any problems with it?

It's the medium duty 41" EFG 105. Got it on the recommendation of the sales Rep as it is heavy duty enough to handle large scale clearing, and it definitely is, while being close enough to fhe PTO output of my little tractor. I believe they are sold out of all of their medium duty units at the moment.

It is very tough and seems well built to last. It's about 550 lbs. It's fairly basic compared to some of the more expensive units, I believe it runs two belts and the tension is only adjusted be moving around some set screws on the gearbox. I have probably close to 20 hours on it already and more than half clearing as opposed to lawn finishing and the only issue has a fit finish issue where one of the tabs for the belt cover was misaligned out of the box.

Just a follow up, my dealer let me demo a 3032e this weekend and I just had a chance to use it with my flail. I'm definitely in the market now for a larger unit. The 41" flail leaves about a 4" of uncut area off the rear wheel on the longer offset side. The short offset side is almost a full foot short of the edge of the tire.

I also had one of the my worst looking mows I've had yet with the flail and hammer blades. I have been letting my grass go out for a couple weeks after getting a bit close when I was playing with cutting heights of the flail. My yard has a bunch of clover and all the grass, weeds, etc, were all of varying heights after being let to grow out. For whatever reason the flail struggled at a higher cut setting in effort to just top off the higher growth with sporadicly laying down some random areas of the taller stuff. Weird as it absolutely eats up everything when going through the tougher, close to ground, consistent turf.

I've got my eye on the 60" Woodmax with the hydraulic offset. Wonder how well that reverse cut and mulcher work. After today's results I may opt for the grass blades.

 

[leonz]

About your EFG 105 flail mower,

Any flail mower with a scoop knife or side slicer will have a harder time topping simply
because it cannot create the pressure gradient required(suction) to slice the brush or grass.
This is why you have the poor mowing with the higher cutting settings.

This happens with all brands of flail mowers when trying to cutting as a higher mowing height.

Once you have a cutting height of 2 or -3 inches your mowing will be better and look better.

 

[tommott77]

About your EFG 105 flail mower,

Any flail mower with a scoop knife or side slicer will have a harder time topping simply
because it cannot create the pressure gradient required(suction) to slice the brush or grass.
This is why you have the poor mowing with the higher cutting settings.

This happens with all brands of flail mowers when trying to cutting as a higher mowing height.

Once you have a cutting height of 2 or -3 inches your mowing will be better and look better.

That all makes sense and was kinda along the lines I was assuming. I just checked and the blades are about 3.5" off a flat concrete surface. I'll lower it a bit for the next mow. I wasn't sure if the y/grass blades, with a higher quantity and thus more surface to potentially move more air, would have any improved effect on the pressure gradient.

The pressure gradient on this little guy is no joke at the lower cutting heights I've previously works with. I think it sucked up a probably 10-15 pound, if not more, cast iron, water meter cover and absolutely obliterated it a couple weeks ago. I don't believe the mower was set low enough to catch it with the blades so I'm assuming it got enough pressure into the finger hole on it, pulled it up, and the rest was history in a matter of seconds until I realized what happened.

 

[ericm979]

Probably the low pressure area (where the flails are rotating up?) sucked the cover out of the fixture. F1 and Indy cars with lots of aero wings have been known to suck heavy manhole covers out of their fixtures on street circuits... sometimes even when welded down.

If you think about it the hammer shaped flails will move a good amount of air.

It didn't damage the mower? I'm impressed!

 

[leonz]

Once you lower the cutting height you will find that it will mow better for you and if you switch to the side slicers it will increase the total cutting edge length to allow even finer clippings. This will also increase the amount of air being moved over the flail mower rotor due to the increased pressure gradient from each side slicer moving more air within its orbit around the
flail mower rotor.

 

[dalola]

Thanks tommott, appreciate the detailed info.

This low cutting height has me second guessing. I never (finish) mow anything under 4". Around here, in the summer, with heat & dry spells, mowing shorter than that really stresses the grass. Sounds like flails don't do so well with a higher cut height.

Looks like I may be back to a rear finish....

 

[RoyJackson]

Just ordered a Woodmaxx 78" w/ hydraulic side shift. I thought seriously about the Caroni, but Agri-Supply doesn't have any in stock.
Even the Woodmaxx is about a month out.

I don't know about the quality or robustness of either the Caroni or Woodmaxx...but the Woodmaxx weighs about 200 pounds more than the Caroni.

BTW, for the Woodmaxx buyers...how much assembly work was there?

 

[tommott77]

Just ordered a Woodmaxx 78" w/ hydraulic side shift. I thought seriously about the Caroni, but Agri-Supply doesn't have any in stock.
Even the Woodmaxx is about a month out.

I don't know about the quality or robustness of either the Caroni or Woodmaxx...but the Woodmaxx weighs about 200 pounds more than the Caroni.

BTW, for the Woodmaxx buyers...how much assembly work was there?

Yeah, not sure if its just because it's the heart of the cutting season or if there is unexpected increased demand this year, but just about everybody is sold out of flails at the moment. I was going to check in with both Agri-supply and Woodmax to see their wait times, so thanks for that. Either way looks like I'll be working with my way too small flail with my new tractor for a bit.

Curious if you will be using your fail for clearing, mowing or both? Would love to hear back on how you like it, especially with the hydraulic offset. Considering getting aux hydraulics and going that route myself.