Buying used flail mower (JD or Ford)
- Thread starter pripyat
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leonz
Super Member
rmissildine
New member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 14
- Location
- Fort Mitchell, AL
- Tractor
- 1952 Ford 8N, 1965 Ford 2000 Diesel, 1965 Massey Ferguson 165 Diesel, 1966 Massey Ferguson 202 Workbull / loader / backhoe
pripyat,
Not sure why you bought a flail mower for the grass you are cutting, seems to me you would have bought a rotary cutter.
Flail mowers are designed to cut fairly smooth, flat areas. Like road sides and open field areas where the grass want's to be kept low and nice looking.
As blades go, they don't have to be manufacture specific. All you need is the length, width and thickness, although thickness isn't as important.
Do a google search, find the blades that somewhat match your dimensions and give it a go. There are a lot of blades out there for a lot less that $8.00 a piece.
Roger
Not sure why you bought a flail mower for the grass you are cutting, seems to me you would have bought a rotary cutter.
Flail mowers are designed to cut fairly smooth, flat areas. Like road sides and open field areas where the grass want's to be kept low and nice looking.
As blades go, they don't have to be manufacture specific. All you need is the length, width and thickness, although thickness isn't as important.
Do a google search, find the blades that somewhat match your dimensions and give it a go. There are a lot of blades out there for a lot less that $8.00 a piece.
Roger
But I did buy a rotary cutter. :laughing:
The plan is to get all of this mess knocked down so I can plant it in longleaf this winter. I joined the NRCS program so instead of letting the land sit idle I'm going to let them pay me to plant trees on it. :thumbsup:
Plan is to use the flail for the several acres around the house that I want to keep cut short and clean. But, I'm using it for the tall stuff right now because it does such a good job of mulching up the clippings. People keep telling me that I'm going to end up with a zero turn for mowing but I'm having a hard time believing them. I have nothing against using roundup for anything I can't get with the flail mower. I hate working on the yards. Love working in the yard. :cool2:
[edit] While I'm posting.. I did start working on the rotary cutter. The gearbox isn't bound but when I pulled the gear oil level plug it was dry. Going to fill it and see where it is going and hopefully just replace the seal. The mower was missing the wheel, it was broken off of the swively part. Welded the wheel off my gearbox-missing cutter onto the rotating portion of the newer cutter. I wouldn't post most of my welds but this one was moderately decent..
Also, flipping the knives around on the flail was a real PIA. Basically, the protruding part of the bolt was beaten up and had to be ground off before I could take the nuts off the bolts. They were pretty bad. Super time consuming..
TheFarmerInAdell
Gold Member
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- Adell, WI
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- Massey Ferguson 2706E, Massey Ferguson GC1705
Did you contact Flailmaster? They're still around, just reorganizing. They have an account on here that you can message, you can email them, or you can call them. Someone on the flail mower thread contacted them earlier this week and were able to get blades.
rmissildine
New member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 14
- Location
- Fort Mitchell, AL
- Tractor
- 1952 Ford 8N, 1965 Ford 2000 Diesel, 1965 Massey Ferguson 165 Diesel, 1966 Massey Ferguson 202 Workbull / loader / backhoe
Good looking weld.
My mower had pins with cotter keys. A lot easier to take apart and a lot cheaper if you have to replace a few.
As far as cutting a few acres around the house, you should get a very nice cut and like you said, roundup makes a good weed eater... My dad used to call it liquid edger!!!
Good luck with the long leaf...
Roger
My mower had pins with cotter keys. A lot easier to take apart and a lot cheaper if you have to replace a few.
As far as cutting a few acres around the house, you should get a very nice cut and like you said, roundup makes a good weed eater... My dad used to call it liquid edger!!!
Good luck with the long leaf...
Roger
John0829
Veteran Member
For the rubber deflector on my Mott I bought a horse stall mat at the local farm store for under $20 and was able to cut a strip off that made a perfect deflector. The mat was is a 1/2" thick, it was easy enough to cut with a utility knife then with it held in place with clamps drilled and bolted it. A lot cheaper than purchasing one and other than some grass stuck to it cannot see any wear whatsoever.
Thanks, I was trying to think of something that would work for this but those rubber mats you walk on (at the industrial supply store) are outrageously expensive.
I haven't called flailmaster yet, It will be a while before I need blades, I was just wondering if I should be picking up the JD HD blades on ebay whenever I saw them for less than $8 a piece (for future use).
I have cut at least 20 acres of weeds with the flail. It has done really well, I wish the 6' rotary was up and running so I could do a side-by-side comparison of the cut. I still have to reinforce the wheel mount on the cutter deck as it has several cracked welds. I was in weeds as tall as the top of the ROPS of the tractor at one point, running in M-4 without issue. I have an umbrella mounted on my ROPS and was actually hitting the tops of the weeds with the umbrella. :laughing:
The thickest stuff on my property, it is some kind of grass that only grows in one area, I had to cut in M-2. Interestingly, the belt starts chirping the same time the tractor starts dropping RPM. I've got a replacement belt and replacement bearings coming this week for spares.
Some of the stuff I cut really should have been done with the rotary, I felt bad hitting some of the saplings and hearing the blades clanking all around. Should have left all saplings for the rotary and grass/weeds for the flail. Just to conserve them knives..
One last thought - I had a conversation with a guy once who was trying to sandblast an old jeep which had been coated in that rubber undercoat paint. He said that he had the hardest time getting the stuff off, that it was a perfect storm for the sandblaster. Would it make sense to rubber coat high wear areas under the cutter to protect the steel? I have a LOT of sand where I'm at and it is going to be years before I get grass to cover it all up.
BTW, this is the stuff that was giving it a fit -
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def38
Platinum Member
Aw, that stuff is for sisssy flail mowers. My grass and weeds are much thicker and taller and interspersed with Buick hubcaps, logs, DeSoto hood parts and the occasional B&S lawn mower engine. My M-F has about 36 PTO HP running a Chicomm 60 flail with hammers. In the thick stuff, I sometimes need to run in the lowest gear I have in the gearbox. But, the flail makes mulch out of most anything in its path.
leonz
Super Member
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Hello Pripyat,
Do not use any of the rubber undercoating you mentioned as it will make mowing harder to do as the knives will be cutting through anygrass build up that becomes attached to the flail mowers shroud.
If you are really worried about build up you can flip the mower over; wash it with dawn and straight hot water with hand held sprayer and then clean off all the build up that does not wash off and then you can coat the interior of the shroud with 3 or 4 coats of fluid film letting it dry between coats and you will have little to any build up of material. Stay away from the spray cans of anti stick stuff that they sell in the mower stores as it is extremely poisonous.
Fluid Film is made from the lanolin that comes from sheep's wool and is non toxic when sprayed or painted on.
You could purchase some blue stripe slick sheet material from Horn Plastics and use carriage bolts, washers and nylock nuts to secure it in place under the shroud.
About your mowing you can back over the brush on the first pass as a crawling speed and then drive forward over it to mow it all down in 2 passes.