Mowing JD 390 Flail on my L3000DT?

[Dirk Lately]

I found a 90" John Deere flail used. Online specs look like they require a 40hp tractor, other places say 30hp. My L3000DT is 32hp, and I think 28hp at the PTO.

I have heard (likely here) the rule of thumb is that you get 1ft of width for every 5hp of tractor.

So what will happen to me if I try to run this 7.5ft flail with my poor little tractor? Will it make my tractor hate me?

 

[TripleR]

Check with Leonz, he knows a lot about flail mowers as does Bird and some others; only names that come to mind. You might check the "attachments" section as there was a thread on there about flail mowers.

 

[Dirk Lately]

Will do, thanks.

 

[Dirk Lately]

Many thanks to Leonz, who has been very helpful! :thumbsup:

 

[leonz]

Greetings and to catch up,


Did I ask you if you have ballast in the rear tires
of your tractor?

Candidly I have been a tad too busy and dont remember if I did ask

leonz

 

[IslandTractor]

A 90 inch flail is pretty big. I'd roughly equate flails and rotary mowers (bush hogs) for size/hp requirements. If you think you could run a seven and a half foot rotary mower then you could run the 90" flail. I'd worry it is too much mower for anything but lawn type cutting and it would bog down the tractor in anything more than a foot or so high. I'd be pretty comfortable recommending a 6ft flail for a 30hp tractor but not much more.

I run a 75 inch flail on a 41hp tractor which has more power than needed for all but the thickest grass/brush when running at 2100 rpm (less than PTO speed) in medium range HST. For the thickest stuff I need to drop to low range and bump to PTO range RPM.