For Nova 1 to 2 weeks. Im in VA, they are shipping from TX
Flail Mowers -- Nova Tractor Experience?
- Thread starter Matt VA
- Start date
DieselBound
Elite Member
I've been waiting on a MXZ220. Expecting delivery next week. I ordered a while back to make sure I had the flail ready when I actually needed it. Timing is going to work out perfectly.
I spent a lot of time trying to decide which flail. I was set on a Woodmax but that was for a smaller unit (for my Kubota). Further introspection of my needs caused me to conclude that I'd be better off with a larger flail for my Kioti (which I have a 6' RC for, and that works good, but I'm reclaiming more and more grass and the grass work is now more of what I need to do than brush). The MXZ220 specs out a lot better than the comparable Woodmax: don't ask what the particulars were/are as I'd have to go through the comparative analysis again, stuff that anyone else could do on their own.
To-date Nova Tractor has been very good to work with: I've dealt with one individual (tolerating all my questions for a couple years now!).
I spent a lot of time trying to decide which flail. I was set on a Woodmax but that was for a smaller unit (for my Kubota). Further introspection of my needs caused me to conclude that I'd be better off with a larger flail for my Kioti (which I have a 6' RC for, and that works good, but I'm reclaiming more and more grass and the grass work is now more of what I need to do than brush). The MXZ220 specs out a lot better than the comparable Woodmax: don't ask what the particulars were/are as I'd have to go through the comparative analysis again, stuff that anyone else could do on their own.
To-date Nova Tractor has been very good to work with: I've dealt with one individual (tolerating all my questions for a couple years now!).
I just picked up a BCRM175 today. Jack was extremely responsive with communicating. A+ on customer service so far. Delivery took about 1 week through UPS Freight. The crate got a little beat up, a few spots where the paint was scuffed off, but there doesn't appear to be any damage to the mower. Have yet to assemble it, but so far everything looks well built with pretty decent welds.
DieselBound
Elite Member
NOTE: Some of my ramblings are generalities of flails (compared to RCs, which are the only thing I've been thus familiar with). Some are more specific notes on this particular flail. As I am not all that familiar with flails (outside of researching them) my comments here are somewhat a scramble of both.
Look at what my Kioti caught (a 1,200 pounder)!
MXZ220 arrived. I made the [bad] assumption that the lifting hook was a balance point with the carrier centered. In fairness to the manufacturer, there's no mention of using this hook for extracting out of the crate (or of the hook at all; but, I know a lifting hook when I see one!
): there's also no documentation on how to un-pack from the crate. Anyway...
Other than cutting the PTO shaft and installing the front bumper/guard* there was nothing else to be done in order to get it hooked up and running. I probably spent less than 2 minutes setting the operating position and then it was all good (I've read of people struggling to get flails to cut well; I was expecting to have to mess around, but that didn't turn out to be the case).
* I managed to bend it after catching in on my fence (going backwards)! Promptly bent it back (and intentionally so) by going forward and brushing against a fence post.
It's a total beast, in every sense of the word. Nothing here would support any notion of this as being a [cheap] toy!
Less than a couple hours run time so far (hoping/expecting to get a bunch more time in the next few days). It is totally meeting my expectations so far. The hammers are doing a great job of leaving a decent cut on the grass (better than my RC, which I'd always thought did a good enough job). The woody debris, however, is what I was mostly interested in dealing with. The RC would chop stuff up in big pieces and hurl it all over the place. This flail, with the hammers, does a really great job at chopping up such material. I feel that going with hammers rather than grass blades was, for me, the right choice.
Initial run. Grass less than a foot tall. Plenty enough small branches around to evaluate its performance for dealing with woody debris. I was totally surprised at/impressed with the grass cutting.
With the RC I'd have the typical tire tracks of smooshed grass. With this flail there's scant traces of dandelions left after passing. NOTE: this is the "homestead" side of the property; on the other side of the fence is the "wild" side, the side that I'll be moving to to really put this thing into it's more typical operating environment (more trees to dodge/mow around; more wood debris; taller grass and some larger open grass areas etc.).
Due to the flail's width (7') there will be places that I won't be able to go, places that my RC (6') WOULD go [such as at the top of the picture- between evergreen and fence]. My B7800 and it's 5' RC will catch such spots. On the "other" side of the fence (majority of the property) I have no such places that I am concerned about, so no need to deploy the B7800 outside the homestead area.
Side-shift, a mandatory requirement for me, is great. Working around trees and along ditches is a lot easier now. So far there appears to be next to ZERO scalping or digging up of the turf, unlike with the RC (my B7800 and its 5' RC is bad in this department; my Kioti with the 6' RC is much better than the B7800, but it still will scalp and gouge).
The flail rides along the ground really well. I suspect the width helps a bit here as it is less susceptible to all the depressions/uneveness in the ground. The rear roller is huge (diameter; specs out better than a comparable WoodMaxx): the very high-end flails all tended to have larger diameter rollers (and I believe that I'm seeing the value/importance in actual performance).
The short period of time I ran the flail I was operating with my cab windows open so that I could hear what things sounded like in "normal" operation. When operating the RC I'd always look to have the windows closed. Most of the noise seems to be from the cutting bars ratting around (they just sit in slots) and from debris hitting the metal guard plates ("ting," "ting" - chain guards on my 6' RC makes similar noises, though a little bit lower in tone due to greater mass of the chain material). Will soon see how things sound with the windows closed while operating the flail: I'm expecting it to be much quieter, more like what I was expecting/envisioning; quieter than the RC.
I have a couple things that I'll be looking to evaluate for feedback to the vendor/manufacturer: have already given feedback on a delivery issue- need to provide better guidance to small delivery truck drivers on how to handle (shipping weight is over 1,600 lbs- it's fairly unwieldy; delivery driver's pallet jack couldn't jack it up!). Nothing very significant. The hydraulic lines don't want to route and ride in the [apparent] routing bracket: I'd like to make them tidier; mostly an aesthetic issue. There should be guidance on lubing: some greased items can be damaged by over-greasing- no idea if there's any such concern on this equipment. The documentation also doesn't mention how to check and when to add gear oil: there's mention of changing, and how much total oil, but how to know when to add? (as seems typical, there's a lot of extra info ["document padding"] that's technical that is of little use to 99.9% of anyone that would be operating such equipment [like equations for computing the balancing weights of tractor and implement]).
Transactionally and functionally I'd have to give this flail an "A" rating. It'll now be up to "time" to provide the final grade!
Although this is about flail mowers, and Nova Tractor specifically, I have to note that my Bush Hog BH26 is a great piece of equipment. I bought it massively abused and had to invest about $400 bucks into it to get it to fully functional condition. Comparing it and a flail isn't necessarily fair; and comparing the costs also not fair as out-of-pocket on the flail was about 3x that of what I have into the BH26. The BH26 is awesome for initial clearing. My clearing activities are waning and am now shifting toward maintenance (a role the flail will now fill).
Look at what my Kioti caught (a 1,200 pounder)!
Attachments
MXZ220 arrived. I made the [bad] assumption that the lifting hook was a balance point with the carrier centered. In fairness to the manufacturer, there's no mention of using this hook for extracting out of the crate (or of the hook at all; but, I know a lifting hook when I see one!
): there's also no documentation on how to un-pack from the crate. Anyway...Other than cutting the PTO shaft and installing the front bumper/guard* there was nothing else to be done in order to get it hooked up and running. I probably spent less than 2 minutes setting the operating position and then it was all good (I've read of people struggling to get flails to cut well; I was expecting to have to mess around, but that didn't turn out to be the case).
* I managed to bend it after catching in on my fence (going backwards)! Promptly bent it back (and intentionally so) by going forward and brushing against a fence post.
It's a total beast, in every sense of the word. Nothing here would support any notion of this as being a [cheap] toy!
Less than a couple hours run time so far (hoping/expecting to get a bunch more time in the next few days). It is totally meeting my expectations so far. The hammers are doing a great job of leaving a decent cut on the grass (better than my RC, which I'd always thought did a good enough job). The woody debris, however, is what I was mostly interested in dealing with. The RC would chop stuff up in big pieces and hurl it all over the place. This flail, with the hammers, does a really great job at chopping up such material. I feel that going with hammers rather than grass blades was, for me, the right choice.
Initial run. Grass less than a foot tall. Plenty enough small branches around to evaluate its performance for dealing with woody debris. I was totally surprised at/impressed with the grass cutting.
With the RC I'd have the typical tire tracks of smooshed grass. With this flail there's scant traces of dandelions left after passing. NOTE: this is the "homestead" side of the property; on the other side of the fence is the "wild" side, the side that I'll be moving to to really put this thing into it's more typical operating environment (more trees to dodge/mow around; more wood debris; taller grass and some larger open grass areas etc.).
Due to the flail's width (7') there will be places that I won't be able to go, places that my RC (6') WOULD go [such as at the top of the picture- between evergreen and fence]. My B7800 and it's 5' RC will catch such spots. On the "other" side of the fence (majority of the property) I have no such places that I am concerned about, so no need to deploy the B7800 outside the homestead area.
Side-shift, a mandatory requirement for me, is great. Working around trees and along ditches is a lot easier now. So far there appears to be next to ZERO scalping or digging up of the turf, unlike with the RC (my B7800 and its 5' RC is bad in this department; my Kioti with the 6' RC is much better than the B7800, but it still will scalp and gouge).
The flail rides along the ground really well. I suspect the width helps a bit here as it is less susceptible to all the depressions/uneveness in the ground. The rear roller is huge (diameter; specs out better than a comparable WoodMaxx): the very high-end flails all tended to have larger diameter rollers (and I believe that I'm seeing the value/importance in actual performance).
The short period of time I ran the flail I was operating with my cab windows open so that I could hear what things sounded like in "normal" operation. When operating the RC I'd always look to have the windows closed. Most of the noise seems to be from the cutting bars ratting around (they just sit in slots) and from debris hitting the metal guard plates ("ting," "ting" - chain guards on my 6' RC makes similar noises, though a little bit lower in tone due to greater mass of the chain material). Will soon see how things sound with the windows closed while operating the flail: I'm expecting it to be much quieter, more like what I was expecting/envisioning; quieter than the RC.
I have a couple things that I'll be looking to evaluate for feedback to the vendor/manufacturer: have already given feedback on a delivery issue- need to provide better guidance to small delivery truck drivers on how to handle (shipping weight is over 1,600 lbs- it's fairly unwieldy; delivery driver's pallet jack couldn't jack it up!). Nothing very significant. The hydraulic lines don't want to route and ride in the [apparent] routing bracket: I'd like to make them tidier; mostly an aesthetic issue. There should be guidance on lubing: some greased items can be damaged by over-greasing- no idea if there's any such concern on this equipment. The documentation also doesn't mention how to check and when to add gear oil: there's mention of changing, and how much total oil, but how to know when to add? (as seems typical, there's a lot of extra info ["document padding"] that's technical that is of little use to 99.9% of anyone that would be operating such equipment [like equations for computing the balancing weights of tractor and implement]).
Transactionally and functionally I'd have to give this flail an "A" rating. It'll now be up to "time" to provide the final grade!
Although this is about flail mowers, and Nova Tractor specifically, I have to note that my Bush Hog BH26 is a great piece of equipment. I bought it massively abused and had to invest about $400 bucks into it to get it to fully functional condition. Comparing it and a flail isn't necessarily fair; and comparing the costs also not fair as out-of-pocket on the flail was about 3x that of what I have into the BH26. The BH26 is awesome for initial clearing. My clearing activities are waning and am now shifting toward maintenance (a role the flail will now fill).
I can now give a report on the BCRM175 I recently bought. I agree with DieselBound on how much of a beast this mower is. With the ditch bank mower, I recommend finding a helper for assembly since things are so heavy and a bit award to handle. The tolerances for the swing arm linkage are pretty tight and require some wiggling to get things lined up. There is a pipe on the turn cylinder that got bent during shipment and leaked. I contacted Jack and he sent the pipe and new fittings right away. They were here in less than a week after I called. I did put an o-ring in on one side of the valve as it still leaked.
I did use the mower without the tilt cylinder, you can lock the mower so it doesn't tilt. My 5075e hydraulics are a bit touchy so I have to really be careful side shifting so the mower didn't slam. If you can't adjust your flow on your remotes, I recommend installing some flow control valves on all the mower hydraulic lines if you have fast hydraulics. The tilt cylinder has 1 flow control valve on the retraction hose. I adjusted the skids and drum to the middle hole, out of 3 positions. As DieselBound said, this thing rides along the ground really well without scalping. Side shift is a luxury I didn't want to live without.
The hammers chew things up really well. The field I mowed was all the winter killed growth from last summer, so nothing too heavy. It was matted down but the mower did a decent job, but it really sucked it up if you went against the way it was laying. I did mow quite a bit of stuff that was up to about 1.5" without any bogging down. I went slow to allow the hammers time to do their thing. I had to go over the thick brush a few time from different directions as the front guard would just bend things over the first time and not chop it up completely. Rocks were found and a few destroyed without any noticeable damage to the hammers or roller.
I have used a few different flail mowers over the years, notably a John Deere 25A and a Land Pride 4188. The 25A was a good grass machine, but went through belts if you were mowing tall thick stuff. The bearings on the roller were also a weak point and needed replaced almost yearly and weren't the easiest to replace. The 4188 was a beast and would only slow down in wet thick grass, but didn't follow the ground quite as well as the Nova seems to.
So far, I'm impressed. Time is the ultimate test as with all things. For the price and customer service, I'm not sure if there's a better buy right now with flail mowers.
I did use the mower without the tilt cylinder, you can lock the mower so it doesn't tilt. My 5075e hydraulics are a bit touchy so I have to really be careful side shifting so the mower didn't slam. If you can't adjust your flow on your remotes, I recommend installing some flow control valves on all the mower hydraulic lines if you have fast hydraulics. The tilt cylinder has 1 flow control valve on the retraction hose. I adjusted the skids and drum to the middle hole, out of 3 positions. As DieselBound said, this thing rides along the ground really well without scalping. Side shift is a luxury I didn't want to live without.
The hammers chew things up really well. The field I mowed was all the winter killed growth from last summer, so nothing too heavy. It was matted down but the mower did a decent job, but it really sucked it up if you went against the way it was laying. I did mow quite a bit of stuff that was up to about 1.5" without any bogging down. I went slow to allow the hammers time to do their thing. I had to go over the thick brush a few time from different directions as the front guard would just bend things over the first time and not chop it up completely. Rocks were found and a few destroyed without any noticeable damage to the hammers or roller.
I have used a few different flail mowers over the years, notably a John Deere 25A and a Land Pride 4188. The 25A was a good grass machine, but went through belts if you were mowing tall thick stuff. The bearings on the roller were also a weak point and needed replaced almost yearly and weren't the easiest to replace. The 4188 was a beast and would only slow down in wet thick grass, but didn't follow the ground quite as well as the Nova seems to.
So far, I'm impressed. Time is the ultimate test as with all things. For the price and customer service, I'm not sure if there's a better buy right now with flail mowers.
Attachments
Good post. I went with the middle duty mower thinking the smaller hammers would be cleaner on the grass than the mammoth 3 pounders. But it looks like the bigger hammers do quite a fine job. What height did you set the mower. There are three settings. I went with the highest because the land is new to me and I was still looking out for rocks. It looks like you went lower.NOTE: Some of my ramblings are generalities of flails (compared to RCs, which are the only thing I've been thus familiar with). Some are more specific notes on this particular flail. As I am not all that familiar with flails (outside of researching them) my comments here are somewhat a scramble of both.
Look at what my Kioti caught (a 1,200 pounder)!
Attachments
MXZ220 arrived. I made the [bad] assumption that the lifting hook was a balance point with the carrier centered. In fairness to the manufacturer, there's no mention of using this hook for extracting out of the crate (or of the hook at all; but, I know a lifting hook when I see one!
Other than cutting the PTO shaft and installing the front bumper/guard* there was nothing else to be done in order to get it hooked up and running. I probably spent less than 2 minutes setting the operating position and then it was all good (I've read of people struggling to get flails to cut well; I was expecting to have to mess around, but that didn't turn out to be the case).
* I managed to bend it after catching in on my fence (going backwards)! Promptly bent it back (and intentionally so) by going forward and brushing against a fence post.
It's a total beast, in every sense of the word. Nothing here would support any notion of this as being a [cheap] toy!
Less than a couple hours run time so far (hoping/expecting to get a bunch more time in the next few days). It is totally meeting my expectations so far. The hammers are doing a great job of leaving a decent cut on the grass (better than my RC, which I'd always thought did a good enough job). The woody debris, however, is what I was mostly interested in dealing with. The RC would chop stuff up in big pieces and hurl it all over the place. This flail, with the hammers, does a really great job at chopping up such material. I feel that going with hammers rather than grass blades was, for me, the right choice.
Initial run. Grass less than a foot tall. Plenty enough small branches around to evaluate its performance for dealing with woody debris. I was totally surprised at/impressed with the grass cutting.
View attachment 695359
With the RC I'd have the typical tire tracks of smooshed grass. With this flail there's scant traces of dandelions left after passing. NOTE: this is the "homestead" side of the property; on the other side of the fence is the "wild" side, the side that I'll be moving to to really put this thing into it's more typical operating environment (more trees to dodge/mow around; more wood debris; taller grass and some larger open grass areas etc.).
Due to the flail's width (7') there will be places that I won't be able to go, places that my RC (6') WOULD go [such as at the top of the picture- between evergreen and fence]. My B7800 and it's 5' RC will catch such spots. On the "other" side of the fence (majority of the property) I have no such places that I am concerned about, so no need to deploy the B7800 outside the homestead area.
Side-shift, a mandatory requirement for me, is great. Working around trees and along ditches is a lot easier now. So far there appears to be next to ZERO scalping or digging up of the turf, unlike with the RC (my B7800 and its 5' RC is bad in this department; my Kioti with the 6' RC is much better than the B7800, but it still will scalp and gouge).
The flail rides along the ground really well. I suspect the width helps a bit here as it is less susceptible to all the depressions/uneveness in the ground. The rear roller is huge (diameter; specs out better than a comparable WoodMaxx): the very high-end flails all tended to have larger diameter rollers (and I believe that I'm seeing the value/importance in actual performance).
The short period of time I ran the flail I was operating with my cab windows open so that I could hear what things sounded like in "normal" operation. When operating the RC I'd always look to have the windows closed. Most of the noise seems to be from the cutting bars ratting around (they just sit in slots) and from debris hitting the metal guard plates ("ting," "ting" - chain guards on my 6' RC makes similar noises, though a little bit lower in tone due to greater mass of the chain material). Will soon see how things sound with the windows closed while operating the flail: I'm expecting it to be much quieter, more like what I was expecting/envisioning; quieter than the RC.
I have a couple things that I'll be looking to evaluate for feedback to the vendor/manufacturer: have already given feedback on a delivery issue- need to provide better guidance to small delivery truck drivers on how to handle (shipping weight is over 1,600 lbs- it's fairly unwieldy; delivery driver's pallet jack couldn't jack it up!). Nothing very significant. The hydraulic lines don't want to route and ride in the [apparent] routing bracket: I'd like to make them tidier; mostly an aesthetic issue. There should be guidance on lubing: some greased items can be damaged by over-greasing- no idea if there's any such concern on this equipment. The documentation also doesn't mention how to check and when to add gear oil: there's mention of changing, and how much total oil, but how to know when to add? (as seems typical, there's a lot of extra info ["document padding"] that's technical that is of little use to 99.9% of anyone that would be operating such equipment [like equations for computing the balancing weights of tractor and implement]).
Transactionally and functionally I'd have to give this flail an "A" rating. It'll now be up to "time" to provide the final grade!
Although this is about flail mowers, and Nova Tractor specifically, I have to note that my Bush Hog BH26 is a great piece of equipment. I bought it massively abused and had to invest about $400 bucks into it to get it to fully functional condition. Comparing it and a flail isn't necessarily fair; and comparing the costs also not fair as out-of-pocket on the flail was about 3x that of what I have into the BH26. The BH26 is awesome for initial clearing. My clearing activities are waning and am now shifting toward maintenance (a role the flail will now fill).
DieselBound
Elite Member
Matt, I'm just running as-is from the factory. It's probably a little on the low side, but it's working well enough: wanted to see how it worked before making any changes- might look to set it up a bit. Good approach to minimize risk when you're unsure of what lies beneath. I've been running on my property for 10 years now and have pretty good knowledge of it. I don't have much in the way of rocks (smaller stuff, and, so far, I'm not finding that I'm churning up any rocks); but, I DO have tree roots, which I have to be careful of (the rear roller seems to help minimize damage vs the rotary, but you can really feel that roller hitting up, on and over the roots).
DieselBound
Elite Member
Quick update on my flail...
1. I lost four out of five bolts from one side of the rotor shaft support. That resulted in a slight puckering of the metal at the top edge of the lower access door area; cosmetic only (a war wound that'll always remind me of this incident). I replaced all the bolts on the one side and then made sure everything was torqued as it should be. In the manual they say to check bolts after every 8hrs of use. I hadn't had 8hrs by the time those bolts had let loose. I'd did a quick sampling of bolts (though, head-slap, not the rotor ones) after the flail was delivered and since the ones I checked all seemed good I decided to forgo a complete check. Apparently the factory was a little, pardon the pun, loose on things. I'd recommend CHECKING ALL BOLTS first thing (and then doing so as specified in the manual).
2. Bent up half the tines. I suspect that this likely happened when the rotor shaft support bolts went missing. I've read of people just pulling the tines (from various flails): I did this, but am wondering if I want to go back to using them in order to ensure that woody debris is amply shredded. Vendor was notified and is going to send me some new tines.
3. They ship these silly cat1/cat2 lower link pins that use lynch pins out on the cat1 end of the pin and hair pins on the inside to hold for the cat2 attachment. I lost one of these hair pins (they are, IMO, too small and fragile- I suspect the one ground up against the flail's frame and that caused it to jettison): the link pin stayed in, the lynch pin doing what it's supposed to do, but it was sloppy as it was walking off the cat2 part and on to the cat1 part. I used a cotter pin with a washer behind to keep things for now (and it's been holding up fine). I've found that their top link cat2 pin works great in the lower link arms: since my top link is cat1 I can't use that pin in the top link. I'm trying to get another one these pins from the vendor as well as encouraging them to ship ONLY these pins as their hp rating for this flail is ONLY for cat2 (ditch the hokey cat1/cat1 pins!).
4. This flail pushes my 55hp machine. They say minimum 60hp. I figured it was going to be a close call and decided to risk it. It's exactly as figured, it does push my Kioti, but when there's any strain I just slow down a bit (much is in grass that's really taller than I should be mowing anyway- I'd have been mowing with my rotary; but this is mostly only in patches, so not continuous operation). If one has other-than-level-ground I wouldn't recommend going less than 60hp (I'd recommend going higher). I'm also tending to run in low speed; some of the reason is that my ground tends to be quite bumpy and I don't want to be bouncing around the 1,200 lb flail.
Hydraulic shift is, without a doubt, the way to go. I run right up along my fence lines and then retract the flail as I near posts, then push it back out to get closer to the fence: I'm training myself on resisting the urge to go faster; slow and steady (remind myself that it takes a LOT longer to mow with a weed-whacker!). Going around trees and such, as well as going through a tight spot (and needing the flail centered), couldn't be done without the side shift. I think I've already noted that it works well for mowing along ditch edges.
I'm being honest about everything here. Things could have been bad: I was one bolt away from catastrophe. BUT, once I replaced the rotor shaft support bolts I put on a several hours without incident. I managed to mow upwards of 3' tall grass: big win as I wasn't expecting to get in a first mowing of the season with the flail- grass growing like crazy before the ground is hard enough to travel over. I ran over lots of wood, some larger than I'd have wanted to, but what could be chewed up got chewed up; AND, something I was always expecting might happen, didn't happen- NO BROKEN FLAILS (vendor provided some spares). I expect all to sail smoothly from here on out.
1. I lost four out of five bolts from one side of the rotor shaft support. That resulted in a slight puckering of the metal at the top edge of the lower access door area; cosmetic only (a war wound that'll always remind me of this incident). I replaced all the bolts on the one side and then made sure everything was torqued as it should be. In the manual they say to check bolts after every 8hrs of use. I hadn't had 8hrs by the time those bolts had let loose. I'd did a quick sampling of bolts (though, head-slap, not the rotor ones) after the flail was delivered and since the ones I checked all seemed good I decided to forgo a complete check. Apparently the factory was a little, pardon the pun, loose on things. I'd recommend CHECKING ALL BOLTS first thing (and then doing so as specified in the manual).
2. Bent up half the tines. I suspect that this likely happened when the rotor shaft support bolts went missing. I've read of people just pulling the tines (from various flails): I did this, but am wondering if I want to go back to using them in order to ensure that woody debris is amply shredded. Vendor was notified and is going to send me some new tines.
3. They ship these silly cat1/cat2 lower link pins that use lynch pins out on the cat1 end of the pin and hair pins on the inside to hold for the cat2 attachment. I lost one of these hair pins (they are, IMO, too small and fragile- I suspect the one ground up against the flail's frame and that caused it to jettison): the link pin stayed in, the lynch pin doing what it's supposed to do, but it was sloppy as it was walking off the cat2 part and on to the cat1 part. I used a cotter pin with a washer behind to keep things for now (and it's been holding up fine). I've found that their top link cat2 pin works great in the lower link arms: since my top link is cat1 I can't use that pin in the top link. I'm trying to get another one these pins from the vendor as well as encouraging them to ship ONLY these pins as their hp rating for this flail is ONLY for cat2 (ditch the hokey cat1/cat1 pins!).
4. This flail pushes my 55hp machine. They say minimum 60hp. I figured it was going to be a close call and decided to risk it. It's exactly as figured, it does push my Kioti, but when there's any strain I just slow down a bit (much is in grass that's really taller than I should be mowing anyway- I'd have been mowing with my rotary; but this is mostly only in patches, so not continuous operation). If one has other-than-level-ground I wouldn't recommend going less than 60hp (I'd recommend going higher). I'm also tending to run in low speed; some of the reason is that my ground tends to be quite bumpy and I don't want to be bouncing around the 1,200 lb flail.
Hydraulic shift is, without a doubt, the way to go. I run right up along my fence lines and then retract the flail as I near posts, then push it back out to get closer to the fence: I'm training myself on resisting the urge to go faster; slow and steady (remind myself that it takes a LOT longer to mow with a weed-whacker!). Going around trees and such, as well as going through a tight spot (and needing the flail centered), couldn't be done without the side shift. I think I've already noted that it works well for mowing along ditch edges.
I'm being honest about everything here. Things could have been bad: I was one bolt away from catastrophe. BUT, once I replaced the rotor shaft support bolts I put on a several hours without incident. I managed to mow upwards of 3' tall grass: big win as I wasn't expecting to get in a first mowing of the season with the flail- grass growing like crazy before the ground is hard enough to travel over. I ran over lots of wood, some larger than I'd have wanted to, but what could be chewed up got chewed up; AND, something I was always expecting might happen, didn't happen- NO BROKEN FLAILS (vendor provided some spares). I expect all to sail smoothly from here on out.
bill9068
Silver Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2019
- Messages
- 112
- Location
- Evansville Indiana
- Tractor
- Kioti DK5510, Kubota BX25D, Bobcat S130, Bobcat 742.
I have a kioti dk5510. I bought flail mower in 2019 and used it extensively for my property mowing and trimming paths in the woods. I bought the cheap Chinese bestco brand and the 78” commercial grade flail. Gave $1500 shipped. I can say I’ve had no issues with this flail. I have the hammers and they will take anything 3” or smaller down. Sold my bushhog, don’t need it anymore.