allen in texas
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2007
- Messages
- 919
- Location
- Levelland, TX
- Tractor
- Kubota Grand L 5740, loaded R1's w/640 lbs cast weight, 854 loader
This weekend was a perfect side by side of a 6 foot Woods Rotary cutter behind an L3400 Kubota and my Rears 72 SPC flail mower behind my L3240.
My Brother in Law and I mowed/shredded close to 40 acres of material that ranged from pretty nice Bermuda grass to nearly 6 foot tall heavy weeds.
My first note when starting off was the fact that I could have used a couple of hundred pounds of weight on the front. I removed the FEL for this job and I was a bit light on the front end. Occasionally but not always, my tires would skid instead of turning. I used my turning brakes quite a lot.
Another thing I discovered is that the flail will not cut very well backing up. The roller pushes it down but any time I need to back into something I was going pull out anyway so it is a moot point.
The third is this, the unit is compact and much easier to maneuver in tight areas.
Since the job was so big and our time was limited, my bil was worried that I may not be able to cut as fast as he could. Our speed was mostly determined by how much pounding we were willing to endure because of the rough ground but it turned out that I could move just as fast as he could, up to 6.5 mph at times on the lighter stuff and faster than he could on the heavy stuff. The cut material would ball up under his shredder and he would have to lift it to let it out and then re-cut what he just went over. His tractor also pulled down much more than mine in the same brush. He has 34 HP and I have 2 less at 32 so apparently the flail takes less HP to cut the same material and it discharges it instead of packing up underneath.
Admittedly, the quality of the cut at the speed we were running left something to be desired but in all cases, the flail made a much prettier cut.
On some of the nicer patches of grass, we split up (***more on that later) and cut on our own. I cut about a 3 acre patch of nice Bermuda that was about 10 inches high and when I finished, my bil commented that it looked as nice as a golf course.
His area of nice grass was scalped and windrowed. Not very pretty.
I picked up a piece of 1 1/4inch pipe about 20 inches long that I didn't see and it sounded like it went around inside my flail about a dozen times. Scared the livin pewaddlin begeezus out of me. I stopped and could see no damage to my flail.
There were areas of rocks and it was a terrifying noise when either of us hit one on them but *** in one area we were mowing together we heard a loud boom. Bil was in front of me and he threw a rock about 4 inches in diameter about 25 yards and it hit a tank. That's when I moved away from him
I had lots of rocks skittering in front of me that my flail kicked out under the tractor but none of them ever got airborne.
Summary.
6 ft woods rotary cutter,
Approximately $1500
6 foot Rears SPC flail mower.
$4600
I'll take the flail, thank you. My Brother in law is now looking into getting a flail and selling his rotary cutters (all both of them, a 5 and 6 footer) I hope this was interesting and helpful to everyone.
Allen
My Brother in Law and I mowed/shredded close to 40 acres of material that ranged from pretty nice Bermuda grass to nearly 6 foot tall heavy weeds.
My first note when starting off was the fact that I could have used a couple of hundred pounds of weight on the front. I removed the FEL for this job and I was a bit light on the front end. Occasionally but not always, my tires would skid instead of turning. I used my turning brakes quite a lot.
Another thing I discovered is that the flail will not cut very well backing up. The roller pushes it down but any time I need to back into something I was going pull out anyway so it is a moot point.
The third is this, the unit is compact and much easier to maneuver in tight areas.
Since the job was so big and our time was limited, my bil was worried that I may not be able to cut as fast as he could. Our speed was mostly determined by how much pounding we were willing to endure because of the rough ground but it turned out that I could move just as fast as he could, up to 6.5 mph at times on the lighter stuff and faster than he could on the heavy stuff. The cut material would ball up under his shredder and he would have to lift it to let it out and then re-cut what he just went over. His tractor also pulled down much more than mine in the same brush. He has 34 HP and I have 2 less at 32 so apparently the flail takes less HP to cut the same material and it discharges it instead of packing up underneath.
Admittedly, the quality of the cut at the speed we were running left something to be desired but in all cases, the flail made a much prettier cut.
On some of the nicer patches of grass, we split up (***more on that later) and cut on our own. I cut about a 3 acre patch of nice Bermuda that was about 10 inches high and when I finished, my bil commented that it looked as nice as a golf course.
His area of nice grass was scalped and windrowed. Not very pretty.
I picked up a piece of 1 1/4inch pipe about 20 inches long that I didn't see and it sounded like it went around inside my flail about a dozen times. Scared the livin pewaddlin begeezus out of me. I stopped and could see no damage to my flail.
There were areas of rocks and it was a terrifying noise when either of us hit one on them but *** in one area we were mowing together we heard a loud boom. Bil was in front of me and he threw a rock about 4 inches in diameter about 25 yards and it hit a tank. That's when I moved away from him
I had lots of rocks skittering in front of me that my flail kicked out under the tractor but none of them ever got airborne.
Summary.
6 ft woods rotary cutter,
Approximately $1500
6 foot Rears SPC flail mower.
$4600
I'll take the flail, thank you. My Brother in law is now looking into getting a flail and selling his rotary cutters (all both of them, a 5 and 6 footer) I hope this was interesting and helpful to everyone.
Allen
