Flail Mower New member. New owner JD 25 A Flail mower. Help!

[Ribz]

Please consider this my application for Flail Mower Nation. After reading posts here and watching countless videos, I sold my 6' King Kutter brush hog and bought a used 25 A. Basing my decision largely on what I've read here, since in my area of north central Kentucky Sasquatch sightings are more common than flail mowers. For the life of me I cannot figure out why? I've either made a bold decision that is going to make me look like a genius or my neighbors are going to rag me mercilessly. I'm hoping you guys can make it the former and not the latter.

Oh, where to start? How about trying to identify year of manufacture. That could be a thread of it's own!

I've contacted several local dealers. Serial number doesn't come up. Serial P00025A637328. I contacted Deere. Not a valid serial number. I told her I was looking at the tag. She insisted there must be another number on it. I'll post photos later, but I will say that besides Hecho en Mexico, the other text on the tag appears to be in Spanish. Might it have been intended for a market south of the border and ended up here? Wouldn't that still be a valid number? It falls within the range of numbers on Deere site for a manual. The format of P00025A + six digits is the same as other's I've seen photos of. I don't get it.

Regardless, I need to get this thing to work. Overall it does not appear to have spent much time exposed to the elements. It's missing blades. If I understand this thing, it should have 3 rows of twelve. I'm missing 3+3+1 in various places across the shaft. I did see it run, but the seller knew less about them than I did. He stuck his hand up at an auction thinking he could cut hay with it. It didn't make any alarming noises once we removed a loose side plate. At this point, I don't anticipate any bearing or gear box issues. (Please Lord let me be right.)

Please take a newby with very limited mechanical knowledge by the hand and tell me where I need to begin so I may avoid the slings and arrows of my neighbors teasing.

My humble thanks in advance.

 

[leonz]

Hello Ribz,

Never mind the neighbors, once they see how well it cuts they will be spending all thier time setting up sasquatch traps rather than messing with you.

I want to welcome you as the newest State of Kentucky Member of the "Flail Mower Nations". No worries, your neighbors wont have time to rag on you when they see that you have a 2 inch cut and the invasive plants are no where to be seen after one season of mowing.

NO WORRIES Ribz honest, we can and will hold your hand and will help you quickly at the same time. Your 25A is no different than my fathers was other than being made in Mexico by John Deere.

Now you can go to the local Deere dealer with the name plate information and obtain the parts you need or have them drop shipped to you(after that you can purchase everything from Flailmaster or Clean Cutter but the Flail Master folks are closer to you.

You have a John Deere 25A 7 foot flail mower with "scoop knives"; they are also referred to as duck foot knives by some of the Flail Mower Nations resident members.

Your model is set up to mow both brush and good sod with the scoop knives but it can also be set up with the Side Slicer finish cut knives as well. That is why you see the numerous drilled holes in the 3 knife station mounting paddles on the flail mower rotor.

The flail mower with scoop knives can mow an area once or twice to get all the rooster tails it misses(on the edges) but it cannot shred the clippings-that is an easy thing to fix with a knife and knife hanger change.

What I would like to you to do if possible is take a more than few pictures of the flail mower for me.

First:
I would like to see all three rows of scoop knives under the flail mower shroud and the inner bearing hubs on both sides of the flail mower rotor.

Second: I need you to take a picture preferably several pictures of side weldment with the V belt guard cover in place and then removed.

Third: I will need you to wipe away all the grease and rubber dust if possible to expose the drive belt side weldment of the flail mower to expose the bearing hub and the belt tensioner arm and grease fitting. Plan on purchasing a new drive belt anyway and preferably a kevlar V belt for it.

NOW: you need to purchase a quart of 90 weight oil(preferably in a squirt bottle) to replace the oil that is in the gearbox now with fresh gear oil. I do not remember if this older model has a gearbox vent or the drain plug has a magnet in it but when you drain the oil you will see the magnet in the base of the plug iff it has one and any metal filings if any-not to worry.

As far as the gearbox goes the seals are probably ok but you can check them by looking at the front and side seals after a few hours of mowing to see if they are leaking-but with a flail mower with low hours I doubt you will have an issue.

You need to obtain the replacement scoop knives, knife hangers and bolts and nuts to replace the scoop knives that are gone. Please use blue loctite to secure the nuts and washers-yes you need flat washers.

Preferably ones using Allen head caps screw bolts eliminates a lot of money going in the swear jar as all you need is a long 3/8 breaker bar and a long handle allen wrench to remove them as needed as the breaker bar will make quick work of loosening stuck nuts that are passing over dented bolt threads. They cost a little more but they are very difficult to break as the allen head bolt holds the wrench securely preventing slippage and skinned knuckles and money flying into the swear jar.

Humor me and take a clean piece of paper and a good pencil like a carpenters pencil and place the paper on the name plate and rub the pencil over the numbers and then take this paper with you to the dealer that way you can show them exactly what you have and you cna purchase a 25A manual from them too.

They did make the mowers in Moline, Illinois up until a few years ago, I know my dads 25A finish flail mower was made in Moline, Illinois anyway.


NO worries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your neighbors may resort to setting out sasquatch baiting stations on your property to keep you from mowing as they will be so jealous of you as it will look so nice.


NOW we will go over how best to set up your mower when you are ready and not until the mower has been serviced, drive belt replaced and the mower properly greased-I will cover all this later for you with the 4740 as the mule you will be using.

I will fully explain to you what need to be done to get the 25A ready but not until you have the damaged/missing scoop knives and hangers replaced as well a new V belt(Kevlar V belts provide the best shock load absorption(If the rubber on the old belt flakes off in your hand do not use it as it has been damaged by the ozone and the elements.


Just so you know the PTO Shaft that you may have hanging around may not work with your 4740 mule and the JD25A so be prepared to wander down to TSC or Menards or Farm and Fleet for a new one without a slip clutch.

I need to know more from you as you may also need to cut the new PTO shaft to the proper length for your mule and we will get that right the first time.

Leonz

 

[kthompson]

I use flail mower head on my boom mower. Like it much better than a rotor cutter on a boom mower. Like it's weight better, to me safer and with the smaller size easier to see what is on the other side of the cutter head compared to a big rotor cutter head. Might cut little slower but not sure on that.

 

[Ribz]

Alrighty now. You want photos. I got photos.





Let's see how this works. More of underneath if this works. (fingers crossed)

 

[Ribz]

Groovy. We're in business.
In the bottom of each photo, you will see me holding up one two or three of my fingers.
You can probably guess that is to identify each of the three rows of hammers.



The pto connection needs a spring and whatever retaining hardware is missing. Clean and grease and I'm optimistic I'm good to go.

One more of it on the trailer.

 

[leonz]

Hello Ribz,

Thanks for uploading the photos. I would like to see under the V belt guard when you can do that.

I think you need to invest in a new shaft as that one seems to be pretty well horse whipped.

As far as the serial number for the mower there is no reason the dealer cannot find parts for the mower.

Your going to have to spend some time with a hose and hot water to wash off the flail mower rotor to clean it off to
install the replacement hangers and scoop knives.

We are off to the races now Ribz.

 

[Ribz]

I have one endplate for the right side as you look at the rear. Somebody has backed it into something stronger than the back cover, so that will have to be removed and beat out with a rubber hammer, or a block of wood and a sledge. I'll be looking for suggestions. I'm pretty sure no blades were hitting it, so it's not a major big deal.

I pushed on the main rotor shaft with the blades and could get no movement at the bearings whatsoever. The roller was solid on the left side and the right only had a hint of looseness. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

We have rain likely the next two days and where it's living in the barn, I'm not sure I'll be able to get any photos of it with the sideplate off. I'll get to it as the opportunity avails.

So what year do you suppose this was made? It has some sun fading and surface rust, but unless it's newer than I suspect, I think it's only been stored outside for a relatively short period of it's life. Decals are in fairly good shape.

Any guesses as to why my serial seems to be in Spanish? The warning decals are in English, but they could have been replaced I suppose.

I sold my mid '90s King Kutter brush hog for $650. I bought it new and I think that's what I paid for it 23 years ago. I bought the 25 A for $500 and 3/4 of a tank of gas in my truck. That gives me $150 to put into the 25 A to be an even swap. How do you think I'm sitting so far?

 

[leonz]

Hello Ribz, you are doing well $$ wise and have a forever mower.

It was assembled and painted in Mexico where they build their line of Frontier implements.

You have a forever mower Ribz as that unit today would be $7,500.00 Plus
Lots of manufacturers simply tag the implement with the order number/inventory number
to identify it so no worries there.

Who ever told you the number was not correct they were mistaken.
All the numbers and letters on the name plate are what is referred to by Deere as their "Product Identification Number" or PIN.
Please be sure to mark the number down and keep it in a safe place as the 25A flail mower would be extremely expensive to replace if it was stolen.

 

[TractorGuy]

Could it be the dealer just needs the 6 digits on the end and not the entire number? Try just giving them the numbers after they get past the model.

 

[Catoosa]

Compared to the 25A I am using yours looks like new. Mine came from a consignment auction with a bent roller and bad bearings, somewhere in the Flail thread I show how I straightened the roller, once that was taken care of local bearing supply house was able to order bearings for less than half of what JD charges. As long as the gear box and frame remain intact you can get anything you may need to keep it working aftermarket.

Once I catch up with spring mowing I am going to look into changing out my scoop knives for finish cut. Also going to look into seeing if I can't come up with something to convert the hex axles on the roller to round stock of some normal size. This would make replacing the roller bearings even less costly. The roller bearings take a beating from wet grass and dust, even sealed bearings only last me a couple seasons.

You will be more than happy with your new toy.

BTW: My pto shaft was missing the tractor end lock cylinder, I just drilled it out so I could use a bolt and lock nut.