Greetings,
I am glad to see you found a flail mower in good condition to own and use.
you have an excellent investment in a quality appliance that cuts efficiently
and will not throw objects and injure pedestrians or animals.
What you should do is buy a spring slip clutch PTO shaft the length of the
one that is on the mower now to avoid stalling issues and destroying belts
which are the normal B sized V belts because of that.
Please be sure to check the condition of the drive belts if it is not chain
driven as the belts will rot inside or outside because of age and ozone.
If you find that the belts are checked or cracked they need to be replaced.
The best belts in my opinion are the Gates green brand belts which are
heavier in construction and weaving the fabric most belts are made of is made
from man made thread used to make a conveyor conveyor belts inner
webbing.
Do not worry about the mowers age as you can buy parts from many sources,
There is a flail mower parts supply site here on the web that offers a huge
selection of parts.
The flaill mower will chop the living daylights out of the grass already cut
and it will degrade quickly and have very little dead brown brush on top.
Mowing wet grass with the little monster is no issue either:laughing:
If you have not done it already- be sure to buy fine thread nylock nuts and new fine thread bolts for
the knife hangers- or use blue Loc tite
If you have not replaced the bolts already; socket head cap screws-allen head bolts are
the easiest to work with when you are laying on your back trying to remove or install them
as the allen wrench will not slip as easily off the bolt head. cleaning the wrench hole is easy with a
scribe or very small thin flat blade screw driver.
Buying one or more ratchet wrenches for the size bolt head nut you have will help a lot if you do not want to change
the original bolts to the allen bolts.
You will save on scraped knuckles and filling the swear word jar with 10 dollar bills with the fine thread allen head bolts though as they should be a 3/8 bolt with allen head lock washers-2 per bolt, fine thread nuts with blue loc tite or nylock nuts-changed at every removal and if you can buy the spring lock knife hangers for the knives all the better
You should check the flail mower knife site or take one of the knife hangers to a farm
equipment dealer that handles Matthews Company flail shredders/mower/grain driers
as you can buy knife hangers that are spring anchored which simply slide over against
a spring and washer arm to change the knive blades-takes a few minutes to remove them all and
change to the other hangers but having theses knife hangers are a blessing to change knives or
flip the 2 sided grass knife edges or flip the overseeder thatcher knives.
One more flail mower convert, many more to go, in the creation of the flail
mower nation.:thumbsup:
leon
