Flail Mower Titan Flail mower

[troverman]

Another update to my Titan story. The Titan rep asked me to check back with him after the 4th of July to make sure he had all the parts. He did not, and instead chose to ship me another brand new 72" flail mower. I received it last week. I couldn't be happier with Titan's service. In some ways, I now know exactly what I have and will be more cautious on some things, and less cautious on others. For example, I find the flail knives that come on these mowers to be extremely durable. So I'm less concerned about those. However, I now know heavy rock impacts (with large rocks) *can* bend the drum enough to cause shaking, which is catastrophic for the rest of the mower.

Now that I have the new mower, I plan to remove the rear roller and turn the bearing mounts 90 degrees so that the grease zerks point out backwards instead of straight down where they have virtually no clearance and get easily destroyed. I will also find a way to better secure the front chain guard rod so it doesn't back out and lose the chain. Lastly, I've debated removing the scraper bar on the roller. I'd like to have it gone, but suspect it may help maintain structural integrity between both roller mounts which are not heavily reinforced.

Here's a pic of unloading the new replacement mower:

 

[ddbackhoe]

Another update to my Titan story. The Titan rep asked me to check back with him after the 4th of July to make sure he had all the parts. He did not, and instead chose to ship me another brand new 72" flail mower. I received it last week. I couldn't be happier with Titan's service. In some ways, I now know exactly what I have and will be more cautious on some things, and less cautious on others. For example, I find the flail knives that come on these mowers to be extremely durable. So I'm less concerned about those. However, I now know heavy rock impacts (with large rocks) *can* bend the drum enough to cause shaking, which is catastrophic for the rest of the mower.

Now that I have the new mower, I plan to remove the rear roller and turn the bearing mounts 90 degrees so that the grease zerks point out backwards instead of straight down where they have virtually no clearance and get easily destroyed. I will also find a way to better secure the front chain guard rod so it doesn't back out and lose the chain. Lastly, I've debated removing the scraper bar on the roller. I'd like to have it gone, but suspect it may help maintain structural integrity between both roller mounts which are not heavily reinforced.

Here's a pic of unloading the new replacement mower:
View attachment 562924

Well, it certainly looks like they stepped up and took care of you. Are you sending the old one back or ....? I'm still interested in what was causing the shaking with the old unit, but a parts one is nice too.

 

[troverman]

Well, it certainly looks like they stepped up and took care of you. Are you sending the old one back or ....? I'm still interested in what was causing the shaking with the old unit, but a parts one is nice too.

They told me to keep the old one for parts. I believe the drum is bent. I thought about trying to somehow repair it, but I think I'm going to strip some parts off and scrap it. I'll keep whatever flails are still in good condition, the bolts, the four belts, the driveshaft, and probably that's it. Thought about the gearbox, but I don't think it is going to fail.

 

[leonz]

Save the gearbox troverman, if you ever invest in one of their tillers it would be a very expensive part to replace as I believe that they are using COMER gear boxes from Italy.

You should also Save the cross shaft and pulleys,open bearings, V belt cover guard and the skids as well as they will come in handy and they would be very expensive to replace.

Raise the mower cutting height up one position and have fun.

 

[Guidshir]

Great service, very surprising and maybe overkill.

I got my parts as well and put them on last week. The chains and spacers were easy. On the end instead of a hitch pin I used two ~2" long sections of very stiff wire that I use for hanging vines. Both are through the hole and bent over on both sides. They won't come out, but I will watch them just in case. I am also going to have to rotate the roller bearings 90 degrees as well, but I need an hour free on a weekend soon to get that done. Each bearing it attached with 4 bolts with hex/allen wrench holes. Based on troverman's tale I wonder if the roller itself isn't just made out of something to weak. Once it spans that 72" distance it should sag as I can see that my 60" roller is sagging for sure.

 

[troverman]

So I've got 12 hours mowing on the new Titan 72" mower. Well, all the plastic deck plugs came out; the front mower "jack" foot broke off, and the chain guard that hangs down has partially come off and disappeared. Lol, no different than the first. But I really don't care. It cut pretty well; I hit some big rocks and it did shake briefly but seems to be fine. I *love* how you only have to grease the main drum bearings from the outside now...the inside zerks are gone. However the roller scraper is loose again and when it flips into the "up" position the grass clogs up and bogs the mower down. And finally, the roller bearing zerks are still in a bad position and grass easily wraps up and gets into the bearing.

 

[Fallon]

So I've got 12 hours mowing on the new Titan 72" mower. Well, all the plastic deck plugs came out; the front mower "jack" foot broke off, and the chain guard that hangs down has partially come off and disappeared. Lol, no different than the first. But I really don't care. It cut pretty well; I hit some big rocks and it did shake briefly but seems to be fine. I *love* how you only have to grease the main drum bearings from the outside now...the inside zerks are gone. However the roller scraper is loose again and when it flips into the "up" position the grass clogs up and bogs the mower down. And finally, the roller bearing zerks are still in a bad position and grass easily wraps up and gets into the bearing.

Dont feel too bad about the scraper. The one on my $8,000 Peruzzo flail probably wasnt any better. Keep jamming with material between it & the roller. 2 tabs finally broke off & it pivoted up. After that (probably before to some degree) material would pack in over the roller completely blocking the proper flow over the roller. Finally removed the scraper entirely & havent missed it, even if it had functioned perfectly.

My ancient Ford 917 flail either never had a scraper either, or lost it years before I got it. Only needed it once & that was because I was testing something when there was still patches of snow on the ground & it was WAY to muddy to be mowing

 

[Guidshir]

I rotated the roller bears on mine yesterday and it looks like it's going to be solid.
Fixing the roller bearing position a Titan Flail mower - YouTube

I do need to retighten the roller scraper as well.

 

[troverman]

Final update on my Titan Flail #2. These things are junk.

I took the scraper bar off. It's pretty heavy, but the mower worked better without it being there. The roller is too small and uses a poor bearing design...it frequently clogs up with grass that winds itself into the bearing. Eventually, the roller simply stops rolling and you have to spend time cutting and digging the grass out. I could live with this problem if that's all there was.

BUT...the upright supports where the top link attaches to broke again. They shear at the bottom where the bend is. The steel is too thin and weak.

AND...the entire mower housing has bent and tweaked. Mine is in the offset position, and it is like the steel housing is simply not strong enough to maintain it's shape when lifted on the three point hitch. My first mower didn't experience this problem.

I also hit a hidden rock and it busted one knife and it's mount off the drum completely. I had to have a weld shop fabricate new mounts and weld it back on. I guess that's OK too.

SO, I can weld up the sheared uprights, I guess...but there is no way to fix the bent housing. I doubt Titan will support me on a second mower, and I don't blame them. These things are very cheap compared to quality mowers, but you get what you pay for.

On the positive side, amazingly the original grease zerks for the roller are still intact and take grease. Probably because the grass winds itself around so quickly that it protects them, lol.

I'm done with Chinese stuff. In the spring, I'll be buying a brand new Alamo or Vrismo flail mower. Both cost in the vicinity of $8k but I'm willing to pay. My old Vrismo was new in 1990 and continues to cut just fine. I put nearly as many hours on it as I do this Titan; it has *original* bearings. The only parts I've ever changed are flail knives and one belt. The knives are much easier to change on a Vrismo of Alamo mower; no welding required.

 

[TitanSkidsteer]

Thank you for being a loyal Titan customer. We apologize for any issues you have experienced with our product. We wanted to take this opportunity to help you resolve your issue. Please reach out to our customer service team at info@palletforks.com so that we can assist you.