Flail Mower Do I want a Flail mower or a Rotary mower?

defranks · Mar 14, 2009

Looking for a little advice here.

I have a 42 hp Branson tractor that works pretty well on my ten-acres. I've been doing a lot work trying to get the brush and small saplings out from between the bigger trees, and am thinking that a mower may be in order. But I'm not sure whether a rotary or flail mower would work best for me.

I live in NW Washington, so the brush is thick and heavy here. Huckleberry bushes, rhododendron, stuff like that. There are lots of small saplings, too, that need to come out, and the ground is uneven and has lots of stumps, some rotten, some still fairly solid.

I've been using a walk-behind rotary mower, a chainsaw, and a chipper, but that's getting to be a lot of work.

Would a rotary mower or a flail mower work best for this heavy brush environment? I'm not at all concerned how rough the final cut looks, but if the mower mulches up the debris, so much the better.

Thanks!

kebo · Mar 14, 2009

I've not used any flail mowers so my preference would naturally be to go with a rotary mower. I know how rugged the rotary mowers can be, but don't have any expereince with flail mowers to judge their reliability against rotary mowers. The stumpjumper feature found on most bush hogs should help it to "survive" longer than the flail mower would with all the stumps you have, but that's just a guess on my part. I think with 42hp, I would go with at least a 6ft rotary mower or possibly even a 7ft one.

brandoro · Mar 14, 2009

I can tell you what I did and what the results were. Last summer I rented a tracked skid steer with a rough cut (rotary) mower mounted on the front and opened up some trails with that. The trails were still barely walkable with random heights of stumps and longer pieces of brush and saplings scattered everywhere. I then bought a flail mower for the tractor and made two or three passes over the trails and was very pleased with the end result. Went from barely able to walk through the debris to no problem walking on the trails. The flail shreds everything it passes over. The solid stumps would be a problem for it unless you have room to go around those or else saw them off near flush with the ground so you can pass over them.
My flail is rated up to 1" material but the odd 1-1/4" sapling was no problem for it. You have a lot more HP so could go with a higher rated flail and shred bigger stuff

Flatheadyoungin · Mar 14, 2009

i did what you are doing last fall.....the fail mower actually did better on brush/vines/briars/small saplings (1" or less) than dense grass.....

a buddy of mine called and said this, " i hooked up my 6' bush hog the other day and cut the back behind what you cut and i really like how your flail cut it better"......he said that a week after i used the fail, he took his kubota zero turn and started cutting it like a yard......his bush hog left large, dense windrows of grass (i assume he should just raise his zero turn's deck but he didn't mention it).......i actually has my flail set so low, that it was removing the top 1/4" or so of soil, so i think that will help kill out weeds......i didn't mean to and changed that later.....the flail will absolutely pulverize all the clippings.....you'll really wonder where all of that stuff went......

here's a pic.....most of what i cut was 10-15 years of growth, briars, tall grass, smaller trees, twisted vines that were probably 30+ years old......over-all growth probably averaged 6' tall...i used my FEL about 1' off the ground to push things over.....this is one pass...

i honestly think the flail uses less power than a rotary.....i would say that a rotary cutter could take more abuse...

IslandTractor · Mar 15, 2009

I've been doing almost exactly the same type of land clearing. Started with a rotary cutter and then upgraded to a medium duty flail. Flail handles essentially the same material the Bush Hog did but it cuts much cleaner so I got rid of my finish mower too. My flail doesn't have quite as fine a cut as the finish mower but it is fine for my purposes which is mostly pasture/field mowing with a bit of mowing around the house.

Flails do require a bit more mainenance than bush hogs but I think the trade off is worth it for the flexibility and decreased storage space as well as the biggest advantage which is safety. I have a Caroni TM1900 flail on a 41hp tractor. The flail cuts 75 inches. Photos below show one pass with the flail through an area of bullbriar and 1-1.5 inch brush and also an old angle iron that the flail picked up, wrapped around and stalled the tractor. Unwrapped it and kept on going. No damage other than a few nicks in the flail knives.

I have a season and a half of mowing about 15 acres on my flail now and will not consider flipping the double sided flail knives over until at least next year so I figure you get at least three years minimum from a set of knives.