Flail mower first try = terrible cut… SOLVED

[S854]

You could always pull out the flapper rod, and replace the flaps with chain. I failed to mention my Woodmaxx has chains for guard instead of the metal flaps.

That's on my list of "Things I May Try" if I can't get this going to my satisfaction... Hooking up to the Massey is also on the T.I.M.T. list...

How long are the chains on your Woodmaxx?

 

[kenmbz]

I have the 48" model and mow at about 3" bottom of hammers to ground, Lifting over some objects and do not get the same issue, even with small blackberry and autumn olive and the crazy stiltgrass.

Make sure your tilt is set right with the top link too.
Sometimes I lift the flail and back into larger weeds and drop the flail on them, but that is for much larger than what it looks like you are trying to mow.

On a flat surface, measure bottom most hammer to ground and let us know distance.
Be careful of rocks, chipped a few hammers hitting hidden ones.

 

[S854]

I have the 48" model and mow at about 3" bottom of hammers to ground...

...Make sure your tilt is set right with the top link too...

From what I've been able to gather, tilting the mower back, by extending the top link, increases the cut length...

After I lower the roller/skids I should be able to get to the 3" mark you suggest by varying the length of my hydraulic top link... No?

If that works, I'll try to raise the mower up to match the 4.5" cut left by Julie's mower... see if it still works...

Guess this is a Work-In-Progress...

I'll report back...

 

[K5lwq]

The right side of the yellow line was mowed by Julie on her new Bad Boy... I think she did a nice job for her first time in the seat... there was alfalfa where she mowed, too...

Inside the red circles are what's left of 2-3' diameter alfalfa bushes where I mowed with the flail...View attachment 809033Outlined in red is a stripped alfalfa stalk... again, about 2-3' long...
View attachment 809034

Gonna try to answer a few questions here...

I varied my ground speed from barely moving to a brisk walking speed... the flail does sound somewhat like a shop vac ... the one odd thing I noticed was, when I first spun the mower up to test it in the garage, it sounded "good"... when I shut it down, it continued to spin for a few seconds then, as the rotor slowed, I got some loud clanging as the hammers were no longer held by centrifugal force and came into contact with the rotor... after actually using the mower on my test strip, when I shut it down the clanginig was greatly diminished... I'm not sure if that's because of some weeds which may have wrapped around the rotor or what... this just occurred to me as I was reading and replying to posts here...

Gonna check further into this when I adjust the roller/skids/belt tension...

I have "hammer" flails...

The front guard on Betestco flails consists of 20-30 sections of sheet metal... all about 1 1/2" X 2"... hanging like flaps from the front of the mower... (I'm going from vague memory here... didn't pay too much attention to the moveable guards other than the fact I thought "that's cool"...)

I'm getting ready to bring the mower into the garage for some adjustments... gonna lower the roller to it's lowest setting (I believe there's 2 choices)... I'll also lower the skids back to the "factory setting"...

With these two changes I'll be able to get a closer cut... and, hopefully, be able to lift the mower when I come across one of the larger obstacles (rocks, ant hills) in our field...

A couple of observations from this post.

1. It is apparent that the Bad Boy‘s deck was set an inch or two lower than the flail cut.

2. A flail is not going to give the same finish cut as a zero turn so your expectations may be a little high.

3. How tall was this field to begin with? If it was really tall, mowing again a few days later would help then mowing mow frequently.

 

[ptsg]

Might be a dumb question but are the flails/hammers pointing the right direction?

 

[S854]

We have been experiencing an “extended spring” here in western Montana… the rain and cool weather has stuck around… causing our fields to grow more than usual… best guess is about 3’ tall…

I may have to mow twice… probably not the entire 20 acres this year, just the stuff closest to the house… leave the rest with stubble… I can live with that…

im gonna check out the mower thoroughly… including direction of rotation and hammer orientation…

 

[K5lwq]

We have been experiencing an “extended spring” here in western Montana… the rain and cool weather has stuck around… causing our fields to grow more than usual… best guess is about 3’ tall…

I may have to mow twice… probably not the entire 20 acres this year, just the stuff closest to the house… leave the rest with stubble… I can live with that…

im gonna check out the mower thoroughly… including direction of rotation and hammer orientation…

That explains some of the issues. Mowing lower and more frequently will give a lot better result. But when mowing taller stuff I go slower and usually am happy with one pass on stuff I do not care much about. If I don’t like it I go over it again a few days later.

Here is a picture of an area that I only mowed once this year with my flail. This was about 3’ tall and went over only once. But the mower is set for about 2-1/2 inches.

 

[TerryR]

I'm getting ready to bring the mower into the garage for some adjustments... gonna lower the roller to it's lowest setting (I believe there's 2 choices)... I'll also lower the skids back to the "factory setting"...

With these two changes I'll be able to get a closer cut... and, hopefully, be able to lift the mower when I come across one of the larger obstacles (rocks, ant hills) in our field...

From my experience, I can tell you that lowering the mower will not help with the stiff weeds, but will make it worse because they will be pushed over more and will lay on the ground below the blades. About all you will accomplish is hit more rocks and dull the hammers. Get ready to sharpen them.

What you need to do to cut them is create more opening in front of the blades. Adjusting so the front is higher may help some, but I couldn't tell much difference when I tried that. The only thing that helped was making the front guard more "transparent" to the weeds.

As many have said, a flail only really works well if you cut often. The corollary, seldom stated, is they don't work well if you only cut a couple times a year. I only mow twice a year. I replaced my rotary cutter with a flail only because mine can be offset past the tractor tires and thus doesn't have to deal with stuff mashed down by the tractor. It wasn't because it cuts better, because it aside from that, it actually doesn't do as good a job with tall material.

 

[diesel85]

That's on my list of "Things I May Try" if I can't get this going to my satisfaction... Hooking up to the Massey is also on the T.I.M.T. list...

How long are the chains on your Woodmaxx?

I just measured, and they are 6" chains from the rod.

 

[leonz]

Might be a dumb question but are the flails/hammers pointing the right direction?

Scoop/spoon/hammer knives face the rear wheels, side slicer knives have 2 cutting edges.