Flail mower angle

[Jack Yuan]

What angle do you set your mower at? I usually keep mine where the roller in back is on the ground but the front is up 5-6 inches. Am I doing that right? I have a hydraulic top and tilt.

Definitely this is wrong and dangerous. If so, the flail mower rotor will blow everything on the ground out forwards, small stone will fly out like a bullet.

All the flail mowers are designed to blow out the mowed material backwards and towards the ground.

Please speard this information to people has flail mower.

Not all the manufacturer and seller knows what they make and sell.

 

[workinonit]

Definitely this is wrong and dangerous. If so, the flail mower rotor will blow everything on the ground out forwards, small stone will fly out like a bullet.

All the flail mowers are designed to blow out the mowed material backwards and towards the ground.

Please speard this information to people has flail mower.

Not all the manufacturer and seller knows what they make and sell.

This is actually wrong. Flails can be purchased with forward or reverse rotation. Mine is reverse and tends to throw material forward so that it can be picked up again until it is completely mulched and eventually discarded out the back. Mine has a set of metal gates on the front that prevent material from being thrown forward. They will hinge back to allow material in but won't hinge forward.

 

[Jack Yuan]

This is actually wrong. Flails can be purchased with forward or reverse rotation. Mine is reverse and tends to throw material forward so that it can be picked up again until it is completely mulched and eventually discarded out the back. Mine has a set of metal gates on the front that prevent material from being thrown forward. They will hinge back to allow material in but won't hinge forward.

There are front flaps on his mower, to protect things fly out forward. If he lift up his mower as he said, things will be blow out forward, and no protection there.
According to the safety standard for flail mower, the mowed materials should not be blowed out like that, also this is the function of the front metal gates on your mower.

 

[workinonit]

Yes. I doubt he is lifting it up high enough to keep it from guarding flying objects. And the higher you lift the front the less chance there is of picking something up and throwing it. Regardless, what everyone is describing in this thread is the way to setup a flail.

 

[Jack Yuan]

Yes. I doubt he is lifting it up high enough to keep it from guarding flying objects. And the higher you lift the front the less chance there is of picking something up and throwing it. Regardless, what everyone is describing in this thread is the way to setup a flail.

I guess he lift up the mower for higher mowing height. If he didn't lift it up, then his mower has nearly 3" mowing height at most, this is what his mower is designed.

 

[DieselBound]

Flails want to run low in order to create the up-lift to snag stuff. If setting too high they cannot create a vacuum force to lift up what you are looking to cut and will basically just run over and flatten stuff rather than cut.

Flails follow the terrain pretty well as they're riding (in total) closer to the tractor than other mowers (which will stick farther out and have tail wheels). Setting them low doesn't present the scalping issues that are more commonly found with other mowers.

I run my 7' flail such that the skids are right on the ground, but not digging in: the fronts curve up. It took me a while before I felt comfortable running like this (after hundreds of hours running rotary cutters).

I'm still adjusting to using a flail, this being my first year/season running one. Am finding that it is a good idea to raise the flail when making any significant turns: with RCs you can just whip around because the tail wheel will rotate and change direction whereas the flail's roller is fixed and will scrub along when turning.

 

[diesel85]

I run my flail mower level. On my FM62 it has a solid and also float position on the hitch. I use the float position as it gives the best cut on curvy ground.

I slightly pick it up when turning not to tear up the ground.

I do occasionally use mine to mow my regular lawn. Does a fantastic job.

 

[bill9068]

After looking at my flail on
my tractor, it’s only at a small angle in front lifted up. Maybe 1-2 inches. What you would want is to keep your PTO shaft as level and straight as possible. Thanks for all the suggestions and tips.

 

[Sportsman762]

From the manuals:
Alamo SHD: "Side Skid Shoes should always be parallel to ground"
Betsco FH-EFGC: "The Mower should be run with the back 15 degrees lower than the front" Please note the skid plates are angled upwards compared to the top of the mower.
The Alamo can be normal or counter rotating, the betsco is counter rotating.

The answer to Op's question is that it depends on what the manual says, however running it nose down is not acceptable.