I'm a little confused... I'm looking at flail mowers now, and I noticed the upside down "Y" blade that many of them use.
How in the heck can they cut level using that "Y". Logic tells me that you'd end up with a sawtooth profile on your field!
But as I've seen in some other posts, most guys swear by their flail mowers.
so... how does that work?
The "upside down Y" individual cutting swath is overlapped on both sides by cutters on the other two rows.
//greg//
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What you are referring to is what is called a side slicer knive or a Y blade pair.
If you have the flailmower cutting height too low to the ground you will create the sawtooth pattern.
THIS ONLY OCCURS if you are using the dethatching blades and the side slicers at the same time.
As far as quality of cut is concerned the use of the
side slicers is better for good or poor turf.
NOW then;
Some types of flailmowers have a solid mounting where the knives remain in one
place as the flail mower rotates.
Some types of flail mower rotors use a side slicer that has a slot punched in it where the
hole would be.
This allows the side slicer to become airborne on the knive hanger becoming flat and
creating a airfoil wing to aid in slicing the grass and brush and in doing so lifting the
clippings over the flail mower rotor and back to the ground.
This is the type of flailmower rotor I have on my Mathews Company lawn Genie.
Having a flailmower rotor with four rows of side slicers mounted with a pin hole mouted blade
means that it that stays in one place remaining locked in position which is at a right angle
to the flail mower rotor.
This requires many more mounting stations and many knives to overlap during the cut as the side slicers cannot create an air foil surface.
This also permits the mower builders to provide a product that is economical to build but requires many more
knives to cover the same width of cut.
Hope this helps you decide that the flailmower is a better choice in my opinion anyway.
