Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Menagerie-Manor]

I have the Betsco 48" HD Flail too and it does a great job. Rocks chip the hammers pretty easily and I am sure the belts that come with it won't last long. But the cut is good and it chews up 1-2" stalks pretty easy on my little 25 HP tractor.
Congrats on getting the flail.

The belts on my Bestco 48" HD Flail only lasted a few hours, this is a Kevlar replacement belt from NAPA and I probably have 10 hours
and they show no sign of wear since replacement.

 

[arto98607]

Thanks for the read. Took me forever to get through all these posts. To tell the truth I've skipped through quite a few. So, I just bought 8 acres in south east Kentucky. About 3 of it is grass and the rest is steep woods. Looks like I can clear at least 2 more. Bought a Kioti LK3054. After reading this I really think a flail will be my best bet allowing me not to buy anything else for keeping it trimmed. Wasn't wanting to spend a fortune but a couple grand would be doable. Really concerned about some of the slopes but would be comfortable on the rest. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable crowd. Needing something ASAP.

Welcome to flail mower users or watchers!

I would suggest take a look at Betstco medium and heavy duty models, as well as Woodmax to start with.

You choices will be very limited if you are in a hurry, and "couple of grand" budget will limit it further?

It's probably not the time to be buying any implements "ASAP", but lets hope you will succeed.

 

[workinonit]

The belts on my Bestco 48" HD Flail only lasted a few hours, this is a Kevlar replacement belt from NAPA and I probably have 10 hours
and they show no sign of wear since replacement.


View attachment 710892

Does your mower only have a single belt?

 

[Menagerie-Manor]

Does your mower only have a single belt?

It has a set of 2.

 

[workinonit]

You may need to get a matched set. Mine has 4 matched belts.

 

[Fallon]

My 917 had 2 belts, the new Peruzzo has 4 (rated up to 90hp). Of course they are metric belts & nobody local has them. Even a bit scare online. Had to order them online & hope for a matched set. They show up today so we'll see. Even if one or 2 is a bit looser than the rest I'm hoping that a 40hp tractor on a 90hp rated mower means I'll be fine.

Haven't checked them in longer than I care to admit. All 4 had huge cracks in them but had been performing fine.

Interesting fact for any Peruzzo owners. The belt length (but not size) is stamped on a tag on the frame under the belt guard. Metric V-Belts - SPZ, SPA, SPB, SPC | VBeltSupply.com lists out details for the metric belts. SP is the standard prefix & the 3rd letter is the belt thickness & height. The following number is the belt length in mm.

 

[cstamm81]

I recently purchased an Italian made Lipa brand flail from Phil at Needham Ag LINK. I went with a TLS series, 72" cut, hydraulic offset, mulches 3" plus material with hammer blades, and leaves a really nice finish cut. The quality of the unit is exceptional. Phil has been amazing, it;s really nice to deal with someone who sincerely cares about what he is selling you, before and after the sale! He said Lipa makes him carry spare parts for all his flails, and all he ever sells are belts and hammers, nothing else wears out, and he has some people abusing the hell out of them he said. I bought a demo and saved a bunch of cash. It's all but 1300lbs, but surprisingly my little 28HP Mahindra can handle it, unless the cutting is too thick then it bogs down. I have many, many trees on my property and it;s so nice to mulch them as they sit, it makes little wood chips out of 3" round 10 foot long branches.

If you want a really well made piece of equipment that will seemingly just continue to work, give them a serious look. He can get anything Lipa offers, just takes some time to get a container in from Italy.

 

[arto98607]

Just what we needed - tractor implements with V-belts you can not find locally and end up having to get them from the dealer!

I will stick with the old stuff that woks!

 

[Fallon]

Just what we needed - tractor implements with V-belts you can not find locally and end up having to get them from the dealer!

I will stick with the old stuff that woks!

$70 for 6 belts (2 spares) & they showed up in 3 business days. Not to bad & they aren't to hard to find from a decent number of places online, once you understand the nomenclature. All the belts have the belt size on them, but not a number that matches belt length.

All 4 are now on the flail & seem to fit fine with equal tension.

 

[workinonit]

Say what you want about belts but they sure make heavy bush hogging much easier on the tractor. The one thing about my Maschio and I have no idea if it's standard with all flails but they have "freewheel". Very nice feature for tractors with PTO brakes. Can't get that on a standard bush hog.

 

[TheFarmerInAdell]

Say what you want about belts but they sure make heavy bush hogging much easier on the tractor. The one thing about my Maschio and I have no idea if it's standard with all flails but they have "freewheel". Very nice feature for tractors with PTO brakes. Can't get that on a standard bush hog.

My Alamo doesn't have an overrunning clutch and neither did my Ford 917, but my tractor does. Alamo mowers only have 1 belt, and it seems to transmit the power just fine. I've blown the belt a few times when I've run over things I shouldn't be mowing (fire wood chunks). But they're cheap enough that when I need to put a new one on, I order a replacement spare (~$20 each). Plus it's just a C section belt so they're easy to find anywhere. My Ford 917 had a banded B/02 belt. Not as common as the single belts, but still available aftermarket.

If you measure the belt you should be able to find the size with a cross reference chart.

 

[AllWaysBreakinSomething]

If you want a fine cut and don't want hay hanging around for months go with the flail. Safer, quiter, cuts closer. Some cons: heavier, not good for anything woody, needs for horses than brush cutter, pricer... Teeth are about $2 each in bulk. I think my NH 7ft is over 250 teeth (replaced once). If you plan to keep make sure you can get parts (mostly bearings, teeth, slip clutch etc) rear rollers are expensive if you bend dropping it. Common thing I've seen with new owners. Good luck

 

[TMGT]

Used my Betstco AGL165 to cut the range the other day, its only about 1/2 acre but hadn't been cut in way too long, was close to 2ft in most areas and thick. Usually I cut it regularly with my zturn but it was well past that point.

Did a fantastic job even with less then fresh hammers on it, I do have a rubber flap I added to the rear which helped with mulching but in the thick stuff bogged it down a little too much. I need to make it so I can easily open the back up when needed. The grass was thick and wet in a lot of areas making for some slow going!

 

[cstamm81]

Used my Betstco AGL165 to cut the range the other day, its only about 1/2 acre but hadn't been cut in way too long, was close to 2ft in most areas and thick. Usually I cut it regularly with my zturn but it was well past that point.

Did a fantastic job even with less then fresh hammers on it, I do have a rubber flap I added to the rear which helped with mulching but in the thick stuff bogged it down a little too much. I need to make it so I can easily open the back up when needed. The grass was thick and wet in a lot of areas making for some slow going!View attachment 711228View attachment 711229

Can you please show us pics of the rubber flap you added?

 

[TMGT]

Its a peice of conveyor belting, about 1/4" thick. I had to make something real quick, one day I'll redo it so it can be adjusted out for more discharge out the rear.

 

[Beeenvenue]

You may need to get a matched set. Mine has 4 matched belts.

Look for “bx” belts sometimes called a power band (2/3/4 v belts in one almost like an htd/timing belt). Prevents worrying about matching a set.

 

[Beeenvenue]

Say what you want about belts but they sure make heavy bush hogging much easier on the tractor. The one thing about my Maschio and I have no idea if it's standard with all flails but they have "freewheel". Very nice feature for tractors with PTO brakes. Can't get that on a standard bush hog.

I bought an overriding clutch pto attachment. Takes care of any pto issues plus I needed a 6” extension. $85 from Amazon. Works great with my flail - you can hear it spinning down for almost a minute from full speed after I kill the engine.

 

[workinonit]

Yea, it takes mine quite a while to spin down but the PTO stops immediately.

 

[toolslinger]

Mornin' folks...

I'm off to check out/purchase a Mott tomorrow... It's a 6' finish cut machine.
I'm new to flails, and I generally blame all of you for this, but I kinda had it in my head for years anyway... Should be a nice upgrade from our 4' finish mower... (who buys a 4' mower for behind an 8N? I wonder about my family's sanity at times)

Photos look ok. Doesn't look like it has had a particularly hard life. Paint looks like it should with some wear, and rust patches, and not some rattle can special. It has the long knives that pin on, no shackles. What I can see in the photos don't look too bad.

Other than that, is there anything specific to a Mott that I need to be checking? I don't see a model tag in the photos, but they're overall shots anyway. Where did Mott put their tags? Can't see the back side in the photos unfortunately, so no guess on the roller condition.

This will be running off the back of a MF135. So, it'll cover the tread width barely. Had hoped to find a 7', or hydraulic offset machine, but after a number of months of searching in my price range, this one popped up at a price that doesn't seem right... So I'll go see what there is to see...

 

[Lnk]

Mornin' folks...

I'm off to check out/purchase a Mott tomorrow... It's a 6' finish cut machine.
I'm new to flails, and I generally blame all of you for this, but I kinda had it in my head for years anyway... Should be a nice upgrade from our 4' finish mower... (who buys a 4' mower for behind an 8N? I wonder about my family's sanity at times)

Photos look ok. Doesn't look like it has had a particularly hard life. Paint looks like it should with some wear, and rust patches, and not some rattle can special. It has the long knives that pin on, no shackles. What I can see in the photos don't look too bad.

Other than that, is there anything specific to a Mott that I need to be checking? I don't see a model tag in the photos, but they're overall shots anyway. Where did Mott put their tags? Can't see the back side in the photos unfortunately, so no guess on the roller condition.

This will be running off the back of a MF135. So, it'll cover the tread width barely. Had hoped to find a 7', or hydraulic offset machine, but after a number of months of searching in my price range, this one popped up at a price that doesn't seem right... So I'll go see what there is to see...

As long as you want it to cut grass that isn't two feet tall, sounds like a winner. Does it have the scoops or the Y blades? As long as you aren't looking for a golf course cut, you will be happy. So between golf course and hay field should be the sweet spot for a finish flail. Let us know.