Flail Mower Advice on buying used flail mower

[greg_g]

I'm gonna check out the knocking noise and try it on my Kubota to see if it will handle it and will let you know what happens.

The round hole in the knife elongates as it wears a groove in its hanger. Look for a knife that's about to cut through its hanger, that's likely what's hitting the shroud. You might be able to tell which one it is by lifting the mower with the hitch, then rotating it by hand. As the rows hang straight down, look for a knife or knives that seem longer than the others.

//greg//

 

[dlwalters3]

Well, I had a chance to try out the John Deere flail mower this weekend on my Kubota B3300. I mowed some of the field behind my house which is light grass, and tried to mow some brush which is what I need the mower for primarily. My tractor handled the mower OK in the light grass, but I had to slow down considerably in heavy grass because it bogged down the tractor in the heavy stuff. I had to go WAY too slow in the brush, although the mower did a good job cutting it up. My conclusion is that it is a bit too much machine for my little Kubota. The seller was using it on a 50 hp John Deere tractor and it handled it well, but my Kubota is a little too small for this mower. I hate that because it seems to be a good mower and is an excellent buy. But, I think I would be better off with a rotary cutter that my tractor will handle to cut the brush with. I appreciate all the advice from everyone but I am regretfully going to have pass on this one. I'll be taking it back to the seller tomorrow. The good part is that the seller is a really nice guy and I've made a new friend to talk tractors and equipment with.

 

[leonz]

Before you take it back I would lower the rear roller to the lowest position which raises it about 3 inches and then try mowing the brush again as the lowest setting brings the grass slicers to with an 1/8 of an inch of the sod- you can always lower the cutting hieght during the year if desired.

 

[IslandTractor]

I've been reading the threads on flail mower discussions and think I want to buy one instead of a bush hog and finish mower. I found a used John Deere 6 1/2 foot flail mower in fair shape for $200. Some of the knives are missing so I would have to replace those, but otherwise it is in good working order.

First of all, would my 25 PTO HP Kubota B3300SU handle a flail mower of that size and secondly, does anyone have a John Deere flail mower that can tell me if they are good mowers, and thirdly, how much will it cost to replace all of the knives on this unit. Thanks for any advice or other input you can give me.

Dan

Edit: Sorry if some of this has been covered above, for some reason I didn't see the other responses before replying to the OP

1) other than the things you can just see like condition of metal work, knives, PTO shafts etc, the main issues to be concerned about with a used flail mower are the condition of the gearbox, the flail rotor itself and flail rotor bearings. The bearings can be replaced for not a lot of money but the gearbox would be expensive. Best way to check obviously would be to run it and check for unusual mechanical noise or excessive heat buildup. Short of that I would look to see if the gearbox had adequate oil and evidence that the bearings had been greased. Don't worry about the knives.

2) JD flails have a good reputation. They are generally middle or standard duty mowers similar to the Caroni.

3) Replacing flail knives is straight forward and neither cheap nor a budget buster. I don't recall what the linkage system is for the JD (could be just a bolt or could be a clevis and bolt). Bolts are cheap even in grade 8 but clevis's can cost 4-8 bucks each. The blades themselves are typically quite cheap if you get them from Flailmaster. Depending on style they can cost a buck or two each. Knives are typically double sided so you can turn them around and/or sharpen them if dull.

$200 for a decent condition JD flail with functioning gearbox and undamaged flail rotor (the two most expensive parts) would be a pretty great deal and worth putting the effort into bringing it back to "new".

You should be clear that flails come in two main flavors: rough cut and finish. A rough cut flail can do most of what a bush hog does but with much cleaner cut that is not quite up to finish mower standards. A finish flail can take more abuse than a finish rotary mower but will not handle more than say 1 inch brush easily. You can most easily tell which type you are looking at by counting and looking at the knives. Thin long knives are typically associated with finish mowers and usually will have about 100 on a six foot mower. Thicker knives with maybe sixty or so on a six foot mower is more the rough cut style.

I'd say that 25 PTO hp is just about OK for a 6 foot finish or rough cut doing lawn or pasture but would be shy for a six foot rough cut doing brush clearing. I'd imagine that with 25hp you wouldn't want the grass to get more than 12 inches high or so at least when it is really green or wet. I have a six foot Caroni on a tractor with about 32PTO hp and it does fine but I need to cut at full PTO speed in low speed if I am in really thick early summer grass.