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

[docsfarm]

Ribz, if it makes you feel any better.... No one here uses flails. But, After having mine for a while and seeing what I can do with it.... I'm left wondering why. I love it. It does everything I could want and more. Everyone that has come out and sees it in action is impressed. I really love it and know it was the right thing for me.

 

[Ribz]

Doc, that's good to hear. I appreciate it. What are you mowing with and how long have you been using it?

Out of curiosity, if anyone would like to share how you ended up buying one I'd be interested in hearing it.

I think I had my first exposure through YouTube last year about the time I sold the MF 135. My first reaction was that it looked very interesting. I began to keep my eye out for one locally. I asked around. Nobody around Kentucky uses them. Eventually I got curious enough to do some research on the internet. The more I read, the better they sounded. Price of new units were higher than a bush hog and kept me at bay. Then last week I ran into the guy that I sold the Massey to. He said he was still looking for a bush hog. I had already sold him my woods finish mower with the tractor, but wouldn't sell the bush hog. Well that opened the door of possibility to a flail mower. So while the iron was hot I sold him the hog. I saw this JD 25A within a reasonable distance. Did some research. Made the deal. Here I am.

Now I'm hoping I'll share the positive experiences of the members here after bringing her back to specs. I never liked the job the bush hog did. A lot of gouging left in it's wake. It would knock stuff down, but left long clumps behind. 6' was awkward behind the 135 and better with the Kubota, but still to big and awkward for our property.

 

[shaeff]

I got mine from one of my father's coworkers. It's likely an older model, as stated earlier it's truly beat to snot, the hood is tweaked, if I lift it while spinning one of the knives will contact the housing and make a terrible racket, but the rotor bearings were good and he gave me a bucket of new duckfoot/scoop knives and hangers with it and a new belt.

I picked it up for just $300, checked gearbox oil, replaced missing knives, greased it, and have been running it ever since.

Here are a couple pics of my field done in a single pass. Mind you, most of my knives are dull, I only replaced five of them! You can see to the sides how high the field was to start. Some of the tall stuff just layed down, but most was mulched up nicely.

Those tall weeds were well over my head while I sat on my MF35 Utility!

 

[Ribz]

Nice shaeff. I see Germantown. In Tennessee?

 

[docsfarm]

I bought it new lye in the season last year. I was on the fence but found out a family member worked for a dealer and could get me a reasonable deal so I jumped. I'm really happy with it.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/118882-lets-talk-flail-mowers-449.html
On that page you'll find a couple videos I posted of me mowing grass and briars over the hood of my tractor. I have a mahindra 5035 that I use the land pride fm-4188 on. Great fun.

 

[shaeff]

Nice shaeff. I see Germantown. In Tennessee?

Thanks! And I'm in eastern NY. (Some would say "upstate," but I'd say some people are wrong)

 

[Ribz]

Ok I got caught up, (now that's funny). Ok, maybe not caught up, but I got a chance to pull that cover off and take some pics of the belts and pulleys. It's stored in a tight place in the barn, so I was limited on my camera angles.



Admittedly, I don't know what problems to look for, but things looked better than I had a right to expect. Paint looks nice under there. Belt isn't new, but looks decent to me.



Pulleys have light rust on the contact surface with the belts, the rest has bright green paint.




So what's the panel's judgement?

 

[leonz]

You need a new belt and you need to back off the tensioner to assure you can remove the old one and install the new one as the belt on it is original.

Be sure to dig moat around barn borrow moat monsters from the King of Id and the wizard of Ids pet dragon "Henry"
to protect your new to you toy er beast of burden for mowing/flail mower/forever mower.


Have fun and welcome to the "Flail Mower Nations".

 

[Ribz]

Leonz, I was hoping to use this belt to test it out cutting once I install the new hardware on the main shaft. Blades, shackles, bolts and nuts, as per your suggestion. I'd really like to evaluate it for my applications before putting any more money in it than is necessary. I saw it run, but it wasn't adjusted to cut properly, and it wasn't my property. Is there a risk of damaging anything if it breaks?

You suggested to use the kevlar belts to better handle shock loads, but don't think you mentioned any sellers. How the heck could you tell the belt was original? What are the clues to look for?

Blades. I remember several sources listed in various posts. What type should I go with? Are duck foot blades the only style Deere recommends for this unit, or was that just OEM and other styles may be considered. I bought it to replace the bush hog. I wondered if heavier blades might be a better choice for me? I have plenty of small volunteer trees that I'll push over with the Kubota 4740, but I anticipate roots being left and possibly sticking up. I always have small branches after a storm that I'd love to be able to just mulch in place.

Does anybody have experience with these?
GE709-P without HardoniteTM * - $1.68 : Hard Hitter, Wear Parts With Muscle

 

[Catoosa]

Run that belt till it brakes or starts disintegrating, won't hurt anything. If you just want to see what it will do buy enough cutters to replace any that are missing, grease everything and get the PTO shaft free and working. Then run it and see what you have.