I hadn't considered a flail mower, that would allow us to sell the rotary cutter and go to one piece of equipment for shorter or longer grasses. Does the flail give as nice of a cut as the finish? I would think that you could go a little faster with an 8 ft flail vs. a 15ft or so batwing finish. I have never seen or worked with one. We would be mowing approx every 2 week and grass gets up about 6-8", but with several days of rain can get ahead of us ocassionally. I don't see many flail mowers for re-sale, so those that have them must like them? What would be the downside of this option?
Linda
Hello Linda,
Please let me say welcome to the forum.
Now to the business of mowing,
a flail mower will give you the
quality of cut you want.
If desired you can mow down to 2
inches of cut with them.
I do not imaging you are worried
about scalping etc., and the flail mower
with the rear roller reduces scalping
unless you have a lot of "grass humps"
that invade pastures some years and
only unless the mower drops forward
into a ditch if the top link is not connected
to the mowers three point hitch.
I have always felt that there are more
advantages than disadvantages simply
because a flailmower will permit you
to mow when the grass is wet and it
also will leave very small clippings
with the side slicer flail mower knives
in either a fine cut flailmower with
4 rows of side slicer knives or a rough
cut flail mower with 2 rows of side slicers.
I would like to suggest to you that you
read through the 100 plus pages of
posts and threads here in the
attachment forum. All you need to do
is type "flailmower" in the search box and
the responses will be listed by date and
you can read them at your own pace with
no issues because you can always go back
to the search box and type in flailmower
and go back to where you left off the last time.
You have been thinking about this for a bit obviously and
you still need to do more examining the issue.
As I tell everyone I want you to be an
informed consumer of information in order
to make the decision that is right for you
simply because you are the person who
has to live with your purchase decision.
Regarding your purchase decision:
You can also purchase a used flail chopper
in good condition through a local dealer if they have them or
visit
www.tractorhouse.com and they will have several hundred
used flail shredder choppers that have been traded in on new ones.
There is very little maintenance on them other than changing the side slicers and
a flail shredder choppers side slicers are easier to change than the side slicers on a finish mower.
The finish flailmower or flail chopper also operates at a higher RPM (revolutions per minute)
and it creates small clippings the first time you mow and as I daid if the grass is long you can
shred the same clippings again to avoid dead spots in the sod.
A used 10-12 foot flail shredder chopper will also be very good in your case as it will be less costly per foot
than a new 8 foot cut finish flail mower and you can lower the height of cut to two inches on most
models as well.
Lastly a finish flail mower with four rows of side slicer knives will permit you to
go over an area a second time to shred the clippings asecond time if needed
because of the flail mowers ability to create a pressure gradient(suction)
to lift the clippings and cut them a again.
.
A rotary cutter will not do this for you unless the brush/grass is powder dry.
There are many good used flailmowers available for sale and I can personally
say the John deere 25A models are worth every penny new or used and have
a good resale value. The box frame construction of the
JD25A, The Mott flailmowers, the imported Woods Brand flailmowers,
the Caroni flailmowers and the Diamond flail mowers that Ken Sweet sells are excellent mowers.
Ken Sweet is a forum sponsor in good standing and as of yesterday he has a
seven foot Mott flailmower for sale from his shop and warehouse in Kentucky
and he ships everywhere on the east coast economically also.
Please check with Ken first when you are able to make decision as he is a
forum sponsor as he will be able to help you also.
I would like you to make the right decision the first time and that is why I want
you to be an informed consumer of information.
Parts are available, side slicer knives, paddle type shredder knives, scoop knives are always available through dealer networks, The V belts that drive the mower and bearings are metric and easily purchased locally or from
NAPA, KAMAN, Farm and Fleet, clean cutter or Flail Master and many other farm equipment dealers.
if you decide to purchase a new flail mower you can be assured that you would be able to use
the same mower to mow your lawn(ifit is large enough) if you you have fine turf grass
if you purchase a finish flail mower. Please keep us informed of your progress and give
ken sweet a call or a PM to see if he still has that Mott Flail mower for sale as well.
I hope I have not bored you to tears with the information I have provided you.
