Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[saxtonhill]

For what you say, I would look at Agrisupply and the Caroni flails built in Italy. They work really well in conditions like what you describe with similar tractors.

I use a Caroni TM1900 (74" wide) behind my Kubota L4600 for the last 3 years now. I've retired my bush hog at this point. I often mow 5' tall grass which it mulches to 4 inches in a single pass driving in low 3rd gear. The Caroni is not heavy duty supposedly but I have had no issues with it no matter what I throw at it. The only thing I don't like about it is the roller which is a bit sloppy left to right.

 

[dieselscout80]

I use a Caroni TM1900 (74" wide) behind my Kubota L4600 for the last 3 years now. I've retired my bush hog at this point. I often mow 5' tall grass which it mulches to 4 inches in a single pass driving in low 3rd gear. The Caroni is not heavy duty supposedly but I have had no issues with it no matter what I throw at it. The only thing I don't like about it is the roller which is a bit sloppy left to right.

What kind of knives are you using?

 

[saxtonhill]

What kind of knives are you using?

I use Y grass knives

 

[leonz]

The 5 horsepower per foot rule is simple hearsay and a marketing gimmick and not a useable
means to determine the needed PTO horsepower for a flail mower or rototiller.

 

[Sid Post]

5hp per foot is a general rule of thumb. Some areas don't need that much hp and others need more.

For me and really heavy mowing, 7hp is where I'm at but, on short stuff my 20hp tractor pulls a 6' mower just fine and rarely bogs down.

 

[diesel85]

I run a Woodmaxx 62" flail mower with Y-knives on a Kubota BX2200. I've cut 2-3' tall grasses with it no problem in L gear going 2-3 mph.

Mulches it up perfectly.

I also use it to mow my lawn occasionally and it does a fantastic job with how much air it pulls to lift and cut the grasses with the Y-knives.

The efficiency of a properly maintained flail mower is second to none if you have a smaller machine.

The flail mower does such a great job, I get excited and can't wait to use it. It's my favorite implement.

 

[Mousehog]

We have small acreage and are clearing a 20 acre section of fallen timber. We use a tow behind flail mower with our Kawasaki 600 mule. It does a brilliant job of cutting through thick tussock grass, weeds and crap. It also handles the odd hidden log, big tree root or rock. We just go at a walking pace with the Kawasaki in low gear.
It has transformed our lightly wooded center section.
We can't get the tractor on a wet property but the Kawasaki will.
It is early days yet, but we love the UTV/Flail mower combination at the moment.
Future mows should be easier than current churn through thick long grass, weeds and vines.

 

[nova3930]

Hit a hidden rock in the weeds last weekend and monkeyed up a whole section of blades on the drum. For now plan on just beating them back into shape on the old anvil.

Come winter though I was thinking about maybe putting a heavier duty blade on since I'm mostly doing bushhog type work with it. It's a fine cut 88" Alamo that uses the long thin blades like #1 in the picture. I'd like to use the parts in the box to swap to one of the blades with a 1x1/2 hole in it, like a heavy duty side slicer or a duck foot. The ring is 3/8 instead of 1/2 but that's only 1/16 on either side and when it's spinning it shouldn't matter anyway. Is that reasonable?

 

[leonz]

If you do this the flail mower rotor will become unbalanced. The best thing to do is simply
remove the opposite knife mounting station if you do not have the identical knife to replace it
and raise the cutting height of your beautiful flail mower.

 

[JethroB]

For what you say, I would look at Agrisupply and the Caroni flails built in Italy. They work really well in conditions like what you describe with similar tractors.

I have a 10 YO 6’ Caroni from Agri Supply with the Y blades. I use it mostly for clipping old Bahai grass pastures frequently. With 45 PTO HP the tractor doesn’t know it’s back there. I don’t believe considerably less HP would be an issue for my use. My favorite implement and tractoring past-time.