Flail Mower Recommendation

[danisiri]

After almost a year of research and reading through the super long flail thread, I was all set to get the 88" flail mower from Woodmaxx, and they told me they sold the last one yesterday and won't get anymore of that size for this year.

So.....what would y'all recommend? I have a Kubota M7060HDC12 - 72" tire width with 64HP at the PTO. I'll mostly be maintaining grassy trails and pasture. I don't want a rotary cutter.

I think the largest Caroni may still be too small. A 72" Landpride is about $4800. I could get a 87" Phoenix/Sicma from EA for $4800. The Landpride looks okay but the Sicma seems more heavy duty.

Thanks y'all.

 

[leonz]

Depends on mow much money you want to spend. You have plenty of power for a A 7 foot JD290 finish flail can do everything you want and mow down to 2 inches with barely loading the mule up and making it grunt.

If you can get the 88 inch landpride flail mower that was made by Maschio in Italy and painted with land pride paint it will have a recutting bar and a trash door that will let you mow old growth thick tall brush by opening the trash door to eject it with no issues and also change hammer knives with out crawling under the mower.

If money is not an issue a 7 foot cut Vrisimo vineyard and orchard flail shredder mower will work well for you too.

The John Deere, SICMA, Vrisimo, Maschio, and Peruzzo imported flail mowers are all equal in build quality.

Please call Iowa Farm equipment as ask to speak to someone about flail mowers before you write a check as I want you to get the best advice from a vary large dealer that spends time with their customers and bends over backwards to deliver thier mowers to your door and answer every question.

The folks at Iowa Farm Equipment sell, assemble and ship a lot of implements and tractors and they will help you with purchasing the right flail mower for your needs.

 

[Buxus]

I have the same tractor, and I suspect I did the same research you did. Did some PM with leonz also who was very informative. I decided a flail would be best for me as I have about 15 acres (after neighbor hays x 1) kept in a combination of finish mowed and "frequently bushhogged." The bush hog leaves nasty windrows that take forever to decompose. My conclusion at the end of my research, etc. was that I want to get a 10-12 foot Virisimo orchard flail as I would cutting only grass and should have enough HP. Nothing but excellent reviews for the Vrisimo and made in USA. Hope to make purchase this spring.

 

[Rara Avis]

I have the same tractor, and I suspect I did the same research you did. Did some PM with leonz also who was very informative. I decided a flail would be best for me as I have about 15 acres (after neighbor hays x 1) kept in a combination of finish mowed and "frequently bushhogged." The bush hog leaves nasty windrows that take forever to decompose. My conclusion at the end of my research, etc. was that I want to get a 10-12 foot Virisimo orchard flail as I would cutting only grass and should have enough HP. Nothing but excellent reviews for the Vrisimo and made in USA. Hope to make purchase this spring.

Why aren't they getting the more valuable 2nd cut as well?...at least horse owners pay me more for 2nd cut bales...

 

[danisiri]

The Kubota dealer has a Landpride 88" FM3188 for $6200. Supposedly thats normally an $8K machine, but it was sent to Texas by accident, so they ar discounting it for me. Not sure if that story is true lol. Anyway, I think that particular model is actually Italian-made and rebranded.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Beware, I have had really poor post-sale service on a Landpride implement. Basically the dealer said to bring it in and the Landpride rep would look at it, then the Landpride rep looked at it and said "yup, it's broken, it shouldn't be, but I'm not doing anything about it." YMMV but that was the last time I'll ever buy a Landpride anything. Many years later it was explained to me that Landpride uses independent reps who have motivations focused only on immediate sales, not service and far-future sales.

Anyway, Leonz is a wealth of information. If you have the money for a Vrisimo, it sounds like a great option.

Vrisimo - Mighty Max Flail Mower

I have a recently purchased Woodmaxx FM-78 that so far is everything I was hoping for, so if you could wait til next year (obviously a long time) it might still be a good option.

 

[leonz]

The Kubota dealer has a Landpride 88" FM3188 for $6200. Supposedly thats normally an $8K machine, but it was sent to Texas by accident, so they are discounting it for me. Not sure if that story is true lol. Anyway, I think that particular model is actually Italian-made and rebranded.

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The FM3188 designation is the actual Maschio flailmower model designation. You can do a lot of custom mowing with that and make money.

IF you want a mower now and it has the recutting bars on the back side along with the trash door that allows you to mow with the trash ejection door open I would strongly suggest you buy it as the new land pride/kubota built flail mowers do not use the flail scoop hammers from what I remember nor do they have the trash ejection door as standard equipment.


I would buy that mower quickly before someone else walks in with cash.

 

[Buxus]

Why aren't they getting the more valuable 2nd cut as well?...at least horse owners pay me more for 2nd cut bales...

I always wondered the same thing. Perhaps he gets busy with something else when the second cutting would occur, but I am really not sure.

 

[danisiri]

=============================================================================

The FM3188 designation is the actual Maschio flailmower model designation. You can do a lot of custom mowing with that and make money.

IF you want a mower now and it has the recutting bars on the back side along with the trash door that allows you to mow with the trash ejection door open I would strongly suggest you buy it as the new land pride/kubota built flail mowers do not use the flail scoop hammers from what I remember nor do they have the trash ejection door as standard equipment.


I would buy that mower quickly before someone else walks in with cash.

It has the fine knives and no recutting bar, though it does have the hinged trash door. The 4188 has the configuration you mentioned.

Anyway, I ordered a Sicma from EA. I wasn't ready to drop over $6K for just the mower when I'm only a hobbyist. With the money saved, I ordered a tiller too.


Thankyou for the advice!

 

[TractorToolsDirect]

You may also want to consider the Del Morino 7 foot flail mower. Category 1 or 2, heavy build quality, adjustable offset, and a good price to boot: Tractor Tools Direct | TL84 Flail Mower