Chain Guards for Flail Mower?

[TerryR]

I have a Peruzzo flail mower, as I've mentioned here before, which works well except for one thing. I only mow twice a year, and by fall the growth has typically reached about two feet tall. The mower cuts the grass well enough, but some of the weeds have gotten pretty stiff by then. The belting front guard Peruzzo supplies pushes them down nearly flat, and many don't pop up enough for the mower to cut them. The result is a really poor job.

I've found that taking the front guard off lets the weeds stand up enough that most are cut. But taking off the guard of course lets some debris fly out the front which isn't great. I'm thinking a chain guard would solve the problem. The stiff weeds should slide between the chains and stay up enough to be cut, while the flying debris will largely be caught by the chains.

I've contacted Peruzzo but they do not make a chain guard.

I've searched for third party suppliers, and have found Marsh Bros. Tractor company in Dundas, Ontario, offers them in various sizes. Has anyone found another supplier? Has anyone done business with Marsh Bros.?

Any other ideas?

 

[toolslinger]

How's your welding?...
Just finished these. Hoping to get the whole machine finished in a couple weeks.

 

[TerryR]

How's your welding?...

Not that good, I'm afraid. It's been 60 years since I've done any, and as long since I've had a welder.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Not that good, I'm afraid. It's been 60 years since I've done any, and as long since I've had a welder.

Dont *need* to weld. Cut metal tube (conduit?) spacers for the chain if really needed. Even UV rated conduit (grey) would work.

 

[TerryR]

Just finished these.

OK, Midniteoyl's got me thinking. Could you explain what you did?
What's the size of the chain?
Where did you get the yellow blocks that hold the rod? That's a neat way to hang it.
Did you use a rod with spacers between the links?

 

[toolslinger]

OK... The yellow blocks are just 3/4" steel stock cut something like 1" x 2". Hole in the face for the hanging rod (7/16" in this case), and then two holes for 1/4" bolts the other way. Cut the blocks in half, and you've got mounts. They're only yellow, because I happened to be painting something else that day. I used whatever rod I could find enough of in the scrap pile. Cotter pins and washers on the ends. It's 1/4" chain, of whatever happened to be around. Then there's little pieces of pipe between each chain section to hold the spacing.

The piece it's all built on is some 6" channel I had hanging around, and I tapered the ends in simply because the OEM unit for that mower was shaped that way, and I wanted to play with my plasma cutter.

Figuring out the safe chain length to stay out of the blade, and then cutting all that was the hardest part. Otherwise it was a pretty simple, if a little tedious project. On a flail it should be pretty straightforward since you can use a straight mount.

 

[TerryR]

Thanks, toolslinger. Yes, making it for a flail is simpler. The clearance to the blades is considerably more than the length needed for the chains.

I could mount them directly to the face of the mower and avoid having a separate mounting plate. I'd prefer that to avoid adding more weight than necessary, as this is a ditch and bank mower that can be extended to the side which is a load when mowing side hills.

I was puzzling your description of your mounts - why cut them in half? Then I figured that that lets them tighten on the rod to make it more secure than just the cotter pins holding it.

 

[toolslinger]

Yep, the rod is clamped tight. The rod I had was extremely rusty as well, so it also meant I didn't have to try to slide it through a tight clearance hole.

 

[TerryR]

Thanks, toolslinger. I think this is the direction I'll be going. Since I don't have either the materials laying around or much in the way of metalworking tools, I'm thinking I'll offer this opportunity to our local welding shop to make up the mounts, and maybe to cut the spacers.

FYI, to anyone in the US considering using the one offered by Marsh Bros. Tractor company in Dundas, Ontario, the answer to all questions about the product is "The freight and customs will make it expensive." So I have no idea how well their product might work for me.

 

[Halftrack]

Another option to throw in the basket is found on the NH 918H flail. Swinging metal panels line the opening and basically only swing backwards. Hung from a !/2" metal rod and secured through the end panels with a couple of center supports. The panels have 1/2" metal pipe welded as the pivot point. This could be substituted with 1/2" U bolts.

 

[TerryR]

Thanks, Halftrack. That looks like it would be very effective. Constructing it as a retrofit looks like it might be a little challenging.

 

[TerryR]

It took a while, but I got a chain guard made up, and installed it today:

I basically use toolslinger's design, modified just a bit. Thanks to him for the design help.

Since this is a flail and not a rotary cutter, and because I didn't have any of the materials lying around so had to buy new, I figured I could use a bit lighter construction. In part that's to save weight when the mower is offset to the side.

I used 3/16" chain, and hung it on a 5/16" rod. I used the holes for the factory belt guard, which gave me about a 10" span between mounts. I had the mounts made from 1/2" steel so they are the same width as the spacers. Here's a closeup:

I don't have any real metal working tools, so I had a local welding shop supply the materials and fabricate the parts, which they did for $140. The chain was from Lowes Hardware, and was about $80. I cut it to length myself. Around the same or a bit less than factory options I found, and I got exactly what I wanted.

I gave it a quick test on the yard and driveways, and it seemed to work fine. But I can't test the real effectiveness until fall when I cut the stiff weeds that forced me to remove the factory belt guard.

 

[ibbuckhunter]

That looks awesome. Great Job. My only concern on this type of guard is when you are mowing vertically along a path. It seems the chains would jus hang parallel to the mower and not offer any protection for the tractor driver. I have an ACMA and they have guards similar to the New Holland. Let me know how this works.

 

[TerryR]

I finished my fall mowing a few days ago, so finally got to really test the chain guards. They did everything I had hoped. Mowing as clean as without the guard, but no little stuff flying out the front. Here's a shot of mowing some tall stiff stuff:

I don't mow anything truly vertical, but did a couple of banks well over 60 degrees and didn't find an issue.

 

[WinterDeere]

Nice work! Real clean job. I'd have been concerned your chain was too light, but I guess time will tell, it's definitely better than open.

 

[TerryR]

So far I've not had anything come near me, which did happen a couple of times with the guard removed. I think flails really throw less stuff with lower speed than rotaries.