Flail Mower New Land Pride FM25 series flail mowers

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Hello Cahaba Valley Farm,

a. If I remember correctly Kubota/Land Pride is using the formed from strap steel
scoop knives and not using the cast hammers and that is why I said what I did about
them having a big minus.

b. The John Deere flails essentially use the wide metal weldment as an stationary
air paddle like the Mathews Company Lawn Genie Pick up mower to increase the
air flow up and over the flail mower rotor.

The air paddle on the Mathews Lawn Genie is mounted on a continuous hinge across the
entire width of the flail mower rotor on the Lawn Genies.

The JD flail shredders are made much like the Long, Balzer, Woods, and other crop shredders
where they use a smaller diameter flail mower rotor and longer flail knives.
The Inobreece, Maschio, Peruzzo, Perugini and others use a cast hammer that is either mounted
in a linear fashion with the following hammer knife rows overlapping the cut of the previous
hammer knife or like the Inobreece the flail mower rotor knives are mounted in a spiral pattern
around the flail mower rotor and quickly lifts the material that is shredded in several revolutions
as it advances over the crop or sod.


The Hiniker flail crop shredders use a 6 inch diameter tubular shaft and heavy side slicer flail mower knives in an
overlapping pattern to shred row crops and grasses.


LeonZ

So do you like cast hammers? Because I was under the impression that you favored Y knives.

 

[vlcakc]

vlcakc, did you have to rebalance the rotor to change from the Y knives to hammer blades?

Land Pride recommends purchasing a complete factory balanced rotor and blade assembly if the type of blades is changed. I certainly agree that a new complete balanced rotor assembly would be a very wise choice given the severe damage that could quickly occur with an out of balance assembly. I ordered the hammer blades at the same time the mower was ordered having not yet read the warning about the potential balance problem in the LP Owner's Manual. The rotor part number was the same for both Y blades and hammer blades, so I thought it should work. From a mechanical standpoint the swap is no problem, the hammer blades are a direct interchange. (The Duckfoot blades use a different rotor.) I was in a bit of a bind at that point. I could order a new rotor, but it would still not be balanced with the set of hammer blades I already had, or I could try to return the hammer blades and buy a complete assembly. I decided to go ahead and install the hammer blades and closely monitor any out-of-balance vibrations on start up. I got lucky for a change! The mower with the hammer blades ran smooth as silk! However, I really cannot recommend changing just the blades unless you have means to check and correct balance in the field if necessary. You might not be as lucky as I was.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Land Pride recommends purchasing a complete factory balanced rotor and blade assembly if the type of blades is changed. I certainly agree that a new complete balanced rotor assembly would be a very wise choice given the severe damage that could quickly occur with an out of balance assembly. I ordered the hammer blades at the same time the mower was ordered having not yet read the warning about the potential balance problem in the LP Owner's Manual. The rotor part number was the same for both Y blades and hammer blades, so I thought it should work. From a mechanical standpoint the swap is no problem, the hammer blades are a direct interchange. (The Duckfoot blades use a different rotor.) I was in a bit of a bind at that point. I could order a new rotor, but it would still not be balanced with the set of hammer blades I already had, or I could try to return the hammer blades and buy a complete assembly. I decided to go ahead and install the hammer blades and closely monitor any out-of-balance vibrations on start up. I got lucky for a change! The mower with the hammer blades ran smooth as silk! However, I really cannot recommend changing just the blades unless you have means to check and correct balance in the field if necessary. You might not be as lucky as I was.

Hey vlcakc sorry for the late response and thanks for your response. This helps me a lot. I called LP a couple of weeks ago and they told me that I would have to rebalance the rotor if I swapped the knives out. Man I am honestly torn about what to do. The LP is the most industrial grade, heavy duty flail out there but they don't put a lot of Y knives on it which is what I really want based on what Leonz and some others have said about it over the years. Like you said in post number #6 it doesn't have as many knives as your old NH 918H or the John Deere 370 so the cut quality is just not as good.

 

[Seven Gables]

You might check out the Rears mfg line of flails made in Oregon, big selection of models . I've got their OMF 750 model in a 7' cut which is designed to chop brush up to 4" diameter, use it to grind prunings in my orchard, probably a lot heavier than what your looking for but they also make a huge assortment of more traditional flail mowers in all sizes. Mines been bullet proof and it gets used extensively . Just another option if your interested .

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

You might check out the Rears mfg line of flails made in Oregon, big selection of models . I've got their OMF 750 model in a 7' cut which is designed to chop brush up to 4" diameter, use it to grind prunings in my orchard, probably a lot heavier than what your looking for but they also make a huge assortment of more traditional flail mowers in all sizes. Mines been bullet proof and it gets used extensively . Just another option if your interested .

Thanks for the suggestion. Is there any model in particular that you would suggest I look at?

 

[Seven Gables]

Probably there SPF or IFA series . If you go to there website it gives a great detail of all there models. Once you pick a series then go to there PDF format for the in depth specifics, they make a huge assortment of build hefts and widths. There pretty much the gold standard amongst us orchard growers.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Probably there SPF or IFA series . If you go to there website it gives a great detail of all there models. Once you pick a series then go to there PDF format for the in depth specifics, they make a huge assortment of build hefts and widths.

Ok thanks, I will look into it.

There pretty much the gold standard amongst us orchard growers.

Interesting, I did not know that.

 

[leonz]

You should also check out the Vrsimo line of flail mowers made in California by Valley tool Manufacturing.
They are also very well built and have been made for years first by the family that started the company
and continued by the new owners.

Home | BrushHound | RockHound | Vrisimo | Valley Tool Mfg

 

[leonz]

So do you like cast hammers? Because I was under the impression that you favored Y knives.

I much prefer the side slicer knives,

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Update on my earlier post: I've had the FM2584 for about 3 years now. I replaced the side slicer knives with the hammer blades about a year ago. The hammer blades give a much smoother cut, but require more power to turn because of the much heavier weight. I have mowed some rough pasture land with brush up to about 2" in diameter with no problems. There have been absolutely no mechanical problems whatever. The mower is very robust and well made. My only criticism is LP should have designed the side slicer equipped version with more sets of knives to give a smoother cut similar to my old NH 918H. Vic

Vic how do you rate the cut quality of the hammers on the LP to the cut quality of the Y knives on the old NH 918H?