Flail Mower Choosing the correct flail mower

[leonz]

Hello Kieth, I hope all is well and you have all your hay in by now.

My neighbor was late getting his second cutting and the rain made
a mess of things delaying cutting, crimping, baling and wrapping.
He still has another 12 acres to cut and bale of second cutting alfalfa that
is already dark in color.

I guess they are having a lot of snow on Donner Pass now and
they had a 16+ car pile up due to the snow.

The weather has been cool here and a welcome change for me.


Leon

 

[powerscol]

Leon - doing well. We will get our first frost Sunday night. I was lucky on my second cutting a record for me. Forecast was 20% several days, but they went around me. I baled and stacked 268 bales one day and moved them and stacked in the barn the next morning, I passed the 500 bale mark this year, close to 600 with both cuttings. Good part it is 1/2 sold already - getting $6 a bale and $7 a bale if I store for some folks.

Again thanks for you help choosing the flail mower. Its been working well. It does max me out in 3' grass, but I just slowed down. Each time I take it out I learn something new or a better way to run it. I usually cut in the offset mode like I do cutting hay. I cut in a rectangle with mower to the right so on the second pass I am driving in the cut area. By the time I get done the grass that was mashed under the tires in the first round springs back and by reversing direction the drum rotation pickets it up and cuts. I am also getting used to the timing on the arm so I can come up to a tree and move the mower back and then out without having to slow down much. I did get into a bunch of rocks when I mowed beside my entrance road (set too low) but I was able to touch up the hammers easily with my small angle grinder by putting the mower in the 90 position.

 

[leonz]

Hello Powerscol,

I am so glad that the flail mower has been working well for you.
I am also glad the hay gods have shined on you too.


Leon

 

[zbappel]

We recently purchased the Titan Flail mower with the hammer blades. PROS: Inexpensive, creates a nice finish mowing grass, maneuverable, worked on rocky terrain, no flying rocks. CONS: Mowing is slow. Shipping issues -it came on a 4 ft pallet which was too small for the unit (600 lbs +), they had no way to get it off the truck. The unit came in a metal cage, but the cage was bent by the UPS shippers. Biggest issue is in the design. The zerts for greasing the roller bar are ON THE BOTTOM. Because of how they project down, they are easy to shear off. And they were sheared off when we received it. So we are still waiting on getting those shipped to us. Also, when putting in the oil, its impossible to see/access the train plug unless you take the unit off the tractor. Titan does try and make things right, so I give them credit for that, but the wait time to access technical support is pretty long.

 

[Al 2]

Do a search on this site for a discussion on these mowers. I think there was a thread with numerous posts.
Al

 

[kthompson]

A few years back I bought flail mower from agri supply for my lawn cutting and was disappointed greatly. Maybe I did some things wrong but fround with the roller on the ground the way I thought it was designed to operate it was hard to make sharp turns without lifting the mower which meant having to allow for that and the "Y" blades did not cut the grass level. It left well a "Y top to the grass. No idea why I would have thought the "Y" blades would cut level other than that was the blades suggested to cut grass. Now I think it would cut grass fine, but not fora lawn. Well at least my wife and I did not.
Did not turn me off of flail mower for I used one on boom mower but not a yard mower for me. Oh what do I think of Agri Supply, they told me try it and if you are not happy with it bring it back. I did and they did refund the full price. Could not have been better.

 

[Z-Michigan]

A few years back I bought flail mower from agri supply for my lawn cutting and was disappointed greatly. Maybe I did some things wrong but fround with the roller on the ground the way I thought it was designed to operate it was hard to make sharp turns without lifting the mower which meant having to allow for that and the "Y" blades did not cut the grass level. It left well a "Y top to the grass. No idea why I would have thought the "Y" blades would cut level other than that was the blades suggested to cut grass. Now I think it would cut grass fine, but not fora lawn. Well at least my wife and I did not.

Sounds like you had a Caroni similar to what I had. Yes, it cuts with a Y top, since I was using mine for weeds and brush this didn't bother me.

As for turning, I found that the side skids would dig in on turns, and I simply adapt my mowing so that either I make gradual turns of 90 degrees or less, or I lift the mower for sharper turns. This has been true with both the Caroni I used to have and the Woodmaxx I have now. The roller is there as part of the containment system for clippings and debris, and is more like the rear housing of a mower than like a tailwheel. I imagine much cheaper tailwheels (probably free-swiveling too) would have been used if they could have been.

 

[Ricn]

The way I understand it, digging in on turns happens because the mower is not set correctly? I too had this issue until someone explained it all. First, the mower must be level when picked up slightly and on a concrete floor. I used a 4ft level for this adjusting the lower link arm and top link arm. Then, the top link is set out beyond vertical just enough so the mowers front on the skids is just up off the ground when mowing. The mower is supposed to mostly ride on the large roller, not on the skids. When doing this adjustment my digging issues were very minimal to none..

Ricn

 

[lostcreekranch]

Maybe Leonz could give us a quick tutorial on proper blade type selection for cutting grass vs. weeds and brush. I’m in the market for a flail and I’m confused on blade types myself.

 

[Al 2]

If anyone has time to learn more about flail mowers, check out this discussion from TBN . 4815 posts and 482 pages. Read on. Lets Talk Flail Mowers http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/118882-lets-talk-flail-mowers-482.html
Al