Offset Flail Ditch Bank Mower

[TerryR]

Thanks for the tips, Keith.

I'll try what you describe when I get on it in the spring.

I found the colored caps here:
JOHN DEERE Parts Search | FREE

But my local dealer only wanted half as much for them.

These are for the 440 loader, which I gather uses a connector that's common for JD, but I think there are some other connectors used for other models of JD as well. These are 3/4" diameter on the nose of the connector. I'd think these would work for any connectors that are the same diameter.

 

[Jack Yuan]

It finally got warm enough to put the mower together and test it a little. Figuring out which outlet was supposed to go to which hose was "interesting," but I lucked out and got it right the first time. I bought a set of JD color coded dust covers so it will be easy to connect them correctly again.

The tractor seems to handle the weight quiet well, though I've not yet tried it on the steep parts. I did extend the mower all the way and tried to see how much I could bounce it by putting my weight on the end of the mower. It seemed very solid even without the suitcase weights on the front.

Here's a couple of shots of it doing a bank:
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It handles it nicely, even with my wide-set wheels. I'm sure I won't have any difficulty doing the rest from below. This bank has always been a pain - I have run the rotary cutter as close to the edge as I dare, then back up many times from below. I think I can now do it with two easy passes.

Here's a shot of doing the far side of a shallow ditch:
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I'd given up mowing that with the rotary cutter since the trees have gotten to big to get the tractor up in there. I think I can get most of the rest of it with a second pass with the tractor straddling the ditch.

I think it's going to do well for this sort of thing. We'll see how it does with open field work once I have something to cut in the spring.

Nice photos.

 

[TerryR]

The calendar may say "spring" but it's still winter here, so nothing to mow yet. But it did get warm enough to work in the shop so I built a dollie for the new mower. It's a bear to hook up sitting on the ground, but very easy with these wheels under it. Here's a couple of shots, front and rear:

 

[Peter 315]

The calendar may say "spring" but it's still winter here, so nothing to mow yet. But it did get warm enough to work in the shop so I built a dollie for the new mower. It's a bear to hook up sitting on the ground, but very easy with these wheels under it. Here's a couple of shots, front and rear:

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HI Terry how do you like your mower I was thinking of getting one any problems or set backs , would you buy it again if you had to or a different brand

 

[RoyJackson]

The calendar may say "spring" but it's still winter here, so nothing to mow yet. But it did get warm enough to work in the shop so I built a dollie for the new mower. It's a bear to hook up sitting on the ground, but very easy with these wheels under it. Here's a couple of shots, front and rear:

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Nicely done!

 

[TerryR]

HI Terry how do you like your mower I was thinking of getting one any problems or set backs , would you buy it again if you had to or a different brand

Peter,

All I can tell you at this point is it's a pretty color green, sits nicely on the dolly, and seems very well made and well finished.

As for setbacks, the big one is it was delivered in December and we've had winter ever since.

I made a brief trial on some spots I'd missed last fall, so I know it does deal with my banks. My real question is how well does it deal with open field mowing, and how does my tractor handle it on my hills.

The dealer installed extension hoses to reach the outlets for my FEL and the connections leaked initially, but we worked that out. Other than that little issue I'm very satisfied with the dealer, and impressed with the machine so far. I'll know more when I actually get to try it for real.

Nicely done!

Thanks, Roy. I don't have welding equipment nor a stash of steel, so wood is my material of choice. On this one I started with the dolly from the tiller I sold this winter and extended it front-to-back to fit the body of the mower. Then I added the front part to support the front frame of the mower.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Very nice dolly! I wish everything was as easy to hook up as my 84” rear finish Mower with big gauge wheels.

 

[Fallon]

Peter,

All I can tell you at this point is it's a pretty color green, sits nicely on the dollie, and seems very well made and well finished.

As for setbacks, the big one is it was delivered in December and we've had winter ever since.

I made a brief trial on some spots I'd missed last fall, so I know it does deal with my banks. My real question is how well does it deal with open field mowing, and how does my tractor handle it on my hills.

The dealer installed extension hoses to reach the outlets for my FEL and the connections leaked initially, but we worked that out. Other than that little issue I'm very satisfied with the dealer, and impressed with the machine so far. I'll know more when I actually get to try it for real.

Same exact situation here only mine doesnt articulate as much. 10 minutes of winter testing. I may have bought to big but it's beefy as I wanted.

 

[TerryR]

We finally got enough growth to test the ditch and bank function. The field is still not ready for mowing but I did get it out and mowed some driveways and along the public road.

I set the roller and top link so the skids are level and cutting height was about 2". I cut some modest banks, along some ditches, and a near-vertical bank.

Some other observations:

- It does a very nice job with ditches and modest banks along the side of the driveway and road. I easily cut off to the side of the roadway that was difficult with my old rotary cutter.

- Even with the hammer knives the cut looked very nice to me. Clearly better than a rotary cutter.

- Learning to manage the adjustments in three dimensions -- height of 3pt, amount of offset, and angle of cutting head -- will take some practice.

- Cutting steep banks is "interesting." You have to be careful to keep the lower end off the ground with the 3-point lift, while controlling the closeness to the bank with the steering wheel and offset adjustment, and the cut at the top with angle adjustment.

- I'm running the offset and angle controls off the FEL outlets. Even with orifices to reduce the flow they are a bit jumpy when running at full PTO engine speed. Good news is I found I got good cutting at lower engine speeds when I needed more control in tight places.

- They claim the hammer cutters will take 3" material. Maybe so, but will create quite a racket. But it did in 1" stuff on a near-vertical bank easily.

- The front of my JD 870 is clearly light with the mower is lifted, even with nearly 500lb of suitcase weights on the front. I clearly needed to use the turning brakes when I needed to turn up hill with the unit lifted.

- The manual says not to cut in reverse, but doesn't say why. Not that I would actually want to cut in reverse, but backing in to tight spaces with the unit on the ground seems desirable. I don't understand if that's really an issue.

In short, it does the ditch and bank stuff that is it's forte very nicely. Yet to see how it does as a field mower. I expect it will do well as a conventional behind-the-tractor positioned flail mower, and for mowing around trees and the like. I'm anxious to learn whether my tractor can handle it in the offset position on my hills as I'd like to be able to mow the field without the tractor wheels driving over the un-cut growth.

 

[leonz]

Hello Terry,

They are most likely concerned that the mower and boom will be pushed into the tractor damaging both units.

 

[Fallon]

Flails dont cut for crap in reverse. My old Ford 917 with Ys cut less than half the material in reverse as it did going twice the ground speed forward. Haven't done much comparison on my new Peruzzo with hammers, but it doesnt do super well when I back it over things. Think it does a bit better than the 917 though.

May be other issues with the boom too or something.

 

[TerryR]

I posted earlier in this thread about my results with my new Peruzzo Fox Cross 1600 Ditch and Bank mower ... in short, it does a great job with that after one gets over the challenge of learning to move the three different controls in the right direction.

I finally got a chance to use it as a field mower and here's my observations.

- It's a handful for my JD 870 on our hilly and still pretty damp field. The 870 handles it, but not with an abundance of margin, and it clearly burns more fuel than my old rotary.

- The offset is really handy cutting under trees, and I have a lot of them both around the edges and some in the middle of the field.

- I think I finally got the height set for best results. I started at max and it left a lot of skips. I set it down two holes and it wanted to dig in the dirt and found several football-size pieces of quartz that I had not found in 20 years mowing with the rotary. The hammer blades do not like carving quartz. I went back up one hole and it runs cleaner and so far hasn't found any more quartz.

- I find the cutting quality disappointing. See photo:

The actual cut quality seems to me worse than my tired old rotary. However the fact that it's running to the side of the tractor means I'm not running over the stuff first, which with the rotary causes a lot of "pop-up" an hour or two later. Even when I have to swing the flail behind the tractor it seems to do a lot better job cutting what the tires run over. So while the cut is pretty ragged the pop-ups and windrows are not there.

- I find the "safety link" to be a total waste, and an inconvenience. Peruzzo claims it will let the mower swing back if you hit an obstruction. But it only lets the right connection to the 3-point drop back 4 or 5 inches, so the mower, if extended will drop back a foot or so. But that's only if the link is in it's normal fully down position. In use it never is - there is no latching function so it's at least on a 45 degree angle most of the time when driving forward, and when going up hill it's fully back. See photo:


That changes the angle of the frame, as shown in the photo, and if you pull up to a tree or whatever with the mower offset and stop and lift the mower to back up it wants to swing forward as the link resets. A really bad design.

I think on balance it's going to work out, but I'm certainly not ready to sell my rotary yet.

 

[3Lfarms]

My Berti offset ditch bank mower has a very similar swing shackle. What I found is that if that shackle is running horizontal like in your picture, the three point is too low.
Try removing your top link while the mower is in the full extended position. Then drive forward and raise the three point arms up until that shackle is leaning forward only about 20 degrees while moving at your preferred mowing speed. You may also have to adjust the tilt a little to get it to track right. Then without moving anything, put the top link back on and if the top hole is a slot, adjust the link so it’s riding in the middle of that slot. Set the down stop on your three point lever so you can return to the same setting every time.

 

[TerryR]

Thanks, 3Lfarms,

I had initially put the 3-point in float and the top link in a round hole thinking that would stabilize the cutting angle of the mower. I finally realized that won't work with the link, so I put the top link in the slotted hole and set the height so the mower is level on the shop floor. That caused the link to mainly set at a 45 degree angle when mowing.

When it drys out enough to mow again (we had heavy rains yesterday and the remnants of Alberto are due here the first of the week) I'll try your suggestion to see if I can get it to stay a bit more upright.