Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Nuru]

Here's my new to me flail. It's a Ford 917H and I got it on Craigslist for $550. Can you say tail wagging the dog?

I'm gonna modify the lower attachment points on the mower by lowering them. With my shorter-than-an-R4 bar/turf tires I can only raise this thing 1" off the ground. Cuts great though, has the coarse cut blades and only 27 pairs of them so it won't be expensive when I have to replace all of them. It's a 62" cut, by the way.

Not sure what it weighs, but the loader had a heck of a time lifting it out of the back of the truck. If I were to guess, I would probably say in the range of 650 pounds.

Looks pretty good and it was a good price.

 

[tutorbell]

It may be easier to buy a quick hitch with the lower mounts to adapt it . I would suggest you also fill in the ROPS with some mesh to catch missiles from the front of the mower .

Great idea on the quick hitch...I'll have to look into it. As far as the missiles, this mower is forward rotation (same direction as the tractor tires) so anything in the front gets thrown rearward. It is missing the rubber shielding on the back of it, so it would probably be a good idea to pick that up to keep missiles from coming out the back.

 

[IslandTractor]

I couldn't find it on the website so I sent them your photo. They responded with this link: Item # 300908 on British Metrics, Inc.. No price is listed, but I requested a quote which they gave at $9.66. I ordered it, of course. Thanks for sharing the info.

Sounds right. I am not certain on the height but the thread and width I recognize as correct.

Mine works pretty well. I still need to be careful not to add oil beyond the lower middle level of the acceptable range on the dipstick (without the extension installed) or there will be a little oil yorking even with the extension with heavy mowing. I initially thought I could just measure oil level using the dipstick with the extension installed but have found that it is best to periodically remove the extension and use the dipstick to check oil level. Otherwise I tend to add too much oil and it spews out again. The extension works but I think the real issue is the combination of too high an oil level specified on their normal dipstick and also the fact that the gears throw the oil right at the dipstick cap.

 

[Eagleview]

Great idea on the quick hitch...I'll have to look into it. As far as the missiles, this mower is forward rotation (same direction as the tractor tires) so anything in the front gets thrown rearward. It is missing the rubber shielding on the back of it, so it would probably be a good idea to pick that up to keep missiles from coming out the back.

Well , Ive learnt something new . I have never heard of a forward rotation flail mower . The pulleys are on the left side so they must have reversed the gears in the box . Why on Earth would they do that ?

 

[tutorbell]

Well , Ive learnt something new . I have never heard of a forward rotation flail mower . The pulleys are on the left side so they must have reversed the gears in the box . Why on Earth would they do that ?

Tis true...in fact, the current heavy duty flail from New Holland (model 918H) is field reversable for different tasks. This is what they say about it on their site:

Rotor direction can be reversed for mulching. Forward rotation of the rotor knives (same direction as the tractor tires) lifts the grass for even cutting. Reversing the rotors allows for thorough mulching of the clippings and throws them to the rear where they are evenly distributed.
​

Supposedly, forward rotation works better for grass and weeds as it tends to pull the grass rearward and upward after it has been laid down by the tractor tires.

 

[Eagleview]

I'll pay that .

 

[J_J]

About the direction of flail mowers. What is the normal rotation for a flail? As you look at the flail, if the blades are turning toward you from the top, is that considered forward rotation, then the cut material would be thrown to the back. So now, if the rotation of the blades are reversed, and the Y type blades are sharp on front and back. The shaft is now turning in reverse, with the tip of the blades turning toward the back of the flail. all material is thrown forward to be cut over and over, What percentage of the time is reversed rotation is used? Yes, I can see that it would keep cutting the material, but I also see the long grasses and vines wrapping around the shaft, but maybe not.. I have a hydraulic driven flail, and can reverse direction at any time. When I first got my mower, it had slicing blades on it, perhaps used to renovate lawns. So the question is, to someone that has used the flail in forward and reverse rotation, what is the advantage of each direction. How do you reverse rotation on a PTO type flail, other than driving the tractor in reverse. With the Power-Trac, I am pushing my 72 in flail mower.

A flail mower like this will coat about $4700.

Here is a picture.

 

[IslandTractor]

About the direction of flail mowers. What is the normal rotation for a flail?

The Caroni flail rotates "backwards" so that the knife hits the grass then moves towards the back of the tractor then up over the top and down again towards the grass. I can confirm this by posting a photo of a log that I ran over and was picked up by the flail and jammed (stalled the tractor). You can see that such a log could never have come over the top and that one of the flaps that prevents debris from being thrown back at the tractor is jammed with the log.

By the way, while it was a PITA to get the log out (crowbar to lever the drum in a counter rotating direction), there was no damage to the mower and I just kept going afterwards.

 

[J_J]

The Caroni flail rotates "backwards" so that the knife hits the grass then moves towards the back of the tractor then up over the top and down again towards the grass. I can confirm this by posting a photo of a log that I ran over and was picked up by the flail and jammed (stalled the tractor). You can see that such a log could never have come over the top and that one of the flaps that prevents debris from being thrown back at the tractor is jammed with the log.

By the way, while it was a PITA to get the log out (crowbar to lever the drum in a counter rotating direction), there was no damage to the mower and I just kept going afterwards.

IslandTractor,

What you described, says that is a forward cutting flail, in that the shaft is turning the same way as the wheels on the tractor, and grabbed the log and pulled it under. I call that forward, when the top of the grass is cut first.

Reverse to me is when the shaft is turning opposite the directions of the wheels. Have I got this backward?

 

[IslandTractor]

With the Power-Trac, I am pushing my 72 in flail mower.

That is the ideal set up as far as I'm concerned. Love those Power Tracs for mowing. I saw a photo of a big Deutz cab tractor with a front mounted flail that has me quite jealous too.