Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[diesel85]

Looks like a really nice flail mower!

I really like flail mowers, they do such a great job.

 

[leonz]

Well after years of searching and losing out on auction bids and responding to ads too late, I finally found one. Can't wait to put it to use this summer once I learn more about settings and all. JDParts has some info on it but its an earlier model so not everything is on the site. 1st stop is a manual. All flails are there and look good, greased and new gear oil. Sounded good on test run. Its missing a few things like the shield in front of the gear box. This on should be round and its one thing jdparts doesn't show due to old model. I'll post up pics once I start mowing.

I need to look back through all the pages on setting this up for height. I know I saw it in there one time.

Hello nittanyjd,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the "Flail Mower Nations" from the Keystone State.


If you have good sod and want to keep it do this adjustment on asphalt or concrete PLEASE;


1. place a small torpedo level on the gearbox with the narrow edge facing the seat

2. adjust the top link to the point where the gear box is level

3. measure the "actual" height of the flail knife bottom edge above the ground

4. if it is 2 inches in cutting height YOU WILL NOT have to adjust the rear roller by raising it up

5. if the side slicer knife is higher than two inches YOU WILL NEED TO LOWER the rear roller one bolt hole on each side


Setting the rear roller at the 2 inch cutting height and adjusting the top link to "LEVEL" assures the flail mower will:

1. create enough pressure gradient/suction/vacuum to lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor and back down to the ground.

2. with the proper adjustment you will be able to recut the clippings a second time to make them dissolve even faster and avoid creating
dead spots in the lawn from grass clumps

AS long as the engine on your mule is running at the required PTO engine speed to run a rear implement flail mower rotor is spinning at 2,200+ RPM and creates enough lift to carry the clippings it will sound like a high end household vacuum cleaner and you will have a great lawn.

Did you grease the fittings under the V belt guard????

Are the belts in good shape?? If Rubber flakes off in your hand they need to be replaced with an equivalent V belt with Kevlar thread; Kevlar V belts are easy to obtain.

You should have a V belt tension gauge to adjust the V belt tension properly on your flail mower. The V belt tension gauges are available at amazon or larger automotive supply stores.



Happy mowing



"Once you go flail you never go back"

 

[nittanyjd]

Hello nittanyjd,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the "Flail Mower Nations" from the Keystone State.


If you have good sod and want to keep it do this adjustment on asphalt or concrete PLEASE;


1. place a small torpedo level on the gearbox with the narrow edge facing the seat

2. adjust the top link to the point where the gear box is level

3. measure the "actual" height of the flail knife bottom edge above the ground

4. if it is 2 inches in cutting height YOU WILL NOT have to adjust the rear roller by raising it up

5. if the side slicer knife is higher than two inches YOU WILL NEED TO LOWER the rear roller one bolt hole on each side


Setting the rear roller at the 2 inch cutting height and adjusting the top link to "LEVEL" assures the flail mower will:

1. create enough pressure gradient/suction/vacuum to lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor and back down to the ground.

2. with the proper adjustment you will be able to recut the clippings a second time to make them dissolve even faster and avoid creating
dead spots in the lawn from grass clumps

AS long as the engine on your mule is running at the required PTO engine speed to run a rear implement flail mower rotor is spinning at 2,200+ RPM and creates enough lift to carry the clippings it will sound like a high end household vacuum cleaner and you will have a great lawn.

Did you grease the fittings under the V belt guard????

Are the belts in good shape?? If Rubber flakes off in your hand they need to be replaced with an equivalent V belt with Kevlar thread; Kevlar V belts are easy to obtain.

You should have a V belt tension gauge to adjust the V belt tension properly on your flail mower. The V belt tension gauges are available at amazon or larger automotive supply stores.



Happy mowing



"Once you go flail you never go back"

Leonz - thanks for the setup information very helpful......

as far as flails they were all there and not that dull so I'll see how they do. It came with the smooth cut type not the side slicers. I only have fields with grass and weeds to mow hopefully they work well. I ordered some spares from flailmaster to have on hand if I break a few...nice people to deal with

I have a few spare belts as well (gates but not kevlar ones)..the one on there is in nice shape and no flakes...yes I found all the grease fittings...2 under the shield....a shame you have to remove it to get to them..

I'll look into the tension guage and update you with some pics on the mowing in the next month or 2 when I do it. Appreciate the help!!

 

[Craig_GA]

I received a 53" NOVA MFZ-135 back in May and used it for a couple of hours on the property. So far I'm very happy with the results. While it would be nice having a wider mower for grass cutting, the width of this unit is great for getting through the woods and in tight spaces, the side shift is also helpful to get close to fences and other areas. The people at Nova Tractor in Texas were very nice to deal with. I also purchased a couple of the extra hammers just incase There are some rocks on the property and we are collecting them the best that we can to minimize issues. It does chew through branches, saplings and brush very well but I'm not looking forward to finding any rocks with it.

Since it is the heaviest rear attachment that I have (840 lbs.), it has also been great as a counter-weight for moving/loading some logs...

 

[leonz]

I received a 53" NOVA MFZ-135 back in May and used it for a couple of hours on the property. So far I'm very happy with the results. While it would be nice having a wider mower for grass cutting, the width of this unit is great for getting through the woods and in tight spaces, the side shift is also helpful to get close to fences and other areas. The people at Nova Tractor in Texas were very nice to deal with. I also purchased a couple of the extra hammers just incase There are some rocks on the property and we are collecting them the best that we can to minimize issues. It does chew through branches, saplings and brush very well but I'm not looking forward to finding any rocks with it.

Since it is the heaviest rear attachment that I have (840 lbs.), it has also been great as a counter-weight for moving/loading some logs...
View attachment 753098

Hello and good morning Craig_GA,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the Flail Mower Nations" from the great state of Georgia.

You should know that the recutting bars of your flail mower can fall off from vibration and you should either remove them or remove the spring pins and drill them out a tiny amount to allow a piece of rod stock to pass through the holes so they do not vibrate out and fall into the brush.

It would be simpler to remove them and only put them back when you have eliminated the rocks and can feel confident that you can recut the clippings on the first pass without hitting any rocks.

Leonz - thanks for the setup information very helpful......

as far as flails they were all there and not that dull so I'll see how they do. It came with the smooth cut type not the side slicers. I only have fields with grass and weeds to mow hopefully they work well. I ordered some spares from flailmaster to have on hand if I break a few...nice people to deal with

I have a few spare belts as well (gates but not kevlar ones)..the one on there is in nice shape and no flakes...yes I found all the grease fittings...2 under the shield....a shame you have to remove it to get to them..

I'll look into the tension guage and update you with some pics on the mowing in the next month or 2 when I do it. Appreciate the help!!

Hello nittanyjd and Craig_GA,


You may want to invest in a wet well grinder from www.micromark.com to sharpen your flail mower knives as it will save the temper and not damage them any heat damage. The wet well grinders are on sale and they are multi-purpose grinders






"Once You Go Flail You Never Go Back"

 

[Craig_GA]

Hello and good morning Craig_GA,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the Flail Mower Nations" from the great state of Georgia.

You should know that the recutting bars of your flail mower can fall off from vibration and you should either remove them or remove the spring pins and drill them out a tiny amount to allow a piece of rod stock to pass through the holes so they do not vibrate out and fall into the brush.

It would be simpler to remove them and only put them back when you have eliminated the rocks and can feel confident that you can recut the clippings on the first pass without hitting any rocks.




Hello nittanyjd and Craig_GA,


You may want to invest in a wet well grinder from www.micromark.com to sharpen your flail mower knives as it will save the temper and not damage them any heat damage. The wet well grinders are on sale and they are multi-purpose grinders






"Once You Go Flail You Never Go Back"

Hello Leonz,

Thank you for all of the information

It is great having a resource like this for learning more about these mowers.

 

[arto98607]

Hello nittanyjd,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the "Flail Mower Nations" from the Keystone State.


If you have good sod and want to keep it do this adjustment on asphalt or concrete PLEASE;


1. place a small torpedo level on the gearbox with the narrow edge facing the seat

2. adjust the top link to the point where the gear box is level

3. measure the "actual" height of the flail knife bottom edge above the ground

4. if it is 2 inches in cutting height YOU WILL NOT have to adjust the rear roller by raising it up

5. if the side slicer knife is higher than two inches YOU WILL NEED TO LOWER the rear roller one bolt hole on each side


Setting the rear roller at the 2 inch cutting height and adjusting the top link to "LEVEL" assures the flail mower will:

1. create enough pressure gradient/suction/vacuum to lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor and back down to the ground.

2. with the proper adjustment you will be able to recut the clippings a second time to make them dissolve even faster and avoid creating
dead spots in the lawn from grass clumps

AS long as the engine on your mule is running at the required PTO engine speed to run a rear implement flail mower rotor is spinning at 2,200+ RPM and creates enough lift to carry the clippings it will sound like a high end household vacuum cleaner and you will have a great lawn.

Did you grease the fittings under the V belt guard????

Are the belts in good shape?? If Rubber flakes off in your hand they need to be replaced with an equivalent V belt with Kevlar thread; Kevlar V belts are easy to obtain.

You should have a V belt tension gauge to adjust the V belt tension properly on your flail mower. The V belt tension gauges are available at amazon or larger automotive supply stores.



Happy mowing



"Once you go flail you never go back"

Thank you for good information!

Based on your comments, I lowered my Ford 917L Special cutting height from just over 3" to about 2.5" and it is clearly cutting better, not just shorter (side slicer flails).

Question about belts:
I noticed the low cost Thermoid B52V-belts have deteriorated noticeably in less thane 2 years and am wondering if Kevlar belts would really be worth the double cost?
There has not been noticeable belt slipping, the belts are just starting to de-laminate.

At today's eBay price it's a difference of about $20 VS. $40 per set of two - I would gladly pay double if Kevlar belts could last twice as long or more.

 

[Kwehme09]

Well, ugh. I bought my flail mower new last fall. Had some initial belt breaking issues, and problems with untorqued bolts. Got it figured out this spring, but things got way out balance this afternoon. Mower only has about 30 hours on it, and I think it is pretty much toast. Manual emphasized to NOT grease the bearings yet, but here we are. I am hoping for a warranty refund, since it appears as though a replacement us not available.

I will likely be hunting a new 6'-7' hammer, hydraulic offset model. Mowing fields edges, fence lines, and thick/wet/weedy areas. Any make/model suggestions? Hopefully something without a long lead time either.

 

[leonz]

Thank you for good information!

Based on your comments, I lowered my Ford 917L Special cutting height from just over 3" to about 2.5" and it is clearly cutting better, not just shorter (side slicer flails).

Question about belts:
I noticed the low cost Thermoid B52V-belts have deteriorated noticeably in less thane 2 years and am wondering if Kevlar belts would really be worth the double cost?
There has not been noticeable belt slipping, the belts are just starting to de-laminate.

At today's eBay price it's a difference of about $20 VS. $40 per set of two - I would gladly pay double if Kevlar belts could last twice as long or more.

The green kevlar belts are worth every penny, MY single Green threaded kevlar belt was not that wallet threatening when I bought it 10 years ago

 

[leonz]

Well, ugh. I bought my flail mower new last fall. Had some initial belt breaking issues, and problems with untorqued bolts. Got it figured out this spring, but things got way out balance this afternoon. Mower only has about 30 hours on it, and I think it is pretty much toast. Manual emphasized to NOT grease the bearings yet, but here we are. I am hoping for a warranty refund, since it appears as though a replacement us not available.

I will likely be hunting a new 6'-7' hammer, hydraulic offset model. Mowing fields edges, fence lines, and thick/wet/weedy areas. Any make/model suggestions? Hopefully something without a long lead time either.

View attachment 753628

Double ouch, not greasing it; no way in HEdouble hockey sticks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The two flail mower brands I would recommend you look at are Maschio and Dell Morino.

Sent you a PM.