Flail Mower Toughest Flail Mower: Gearmore?

[ttkeeler]

Ttkeeler,
What size branches do you cut with your PAK-FLAIL? I know of coffee orchardists that like the Rears machine, but use it more for mowing than chopping/shredding. Does yours have knives or does it have hammers?
Thank you for your input.

I am using more of a combination knife that does work on grass but also will easily chip or chop up 1" limbs and branches. Mine mainly gets used for briars and grass and an occasional tree limb. I know they make several different sizes of machines with different blade combinations...my brother builds the large flails and has worked there for about 30 years. The only problem I have ever had is when hitting large rocks it will sometimes throw the knives off the 'D' rings. I had mine made with a hydraulic cylinder to shift it from side to side which is handy when mowing close to objects like fences or trees. Rears isn't a huge operation but from what I can tell makes very good equipment.

 

[GinNB]

Toughest flail mower I've used is a Maschio. It's available with either a split knife or a longer cast hammer knife. Both work extremely well on rock-free reasonably flat ground mowing grass, scrub, and small trees. The knives are too heavy to survive hitting rocks though. The hammers eventually shatter and the split L-shaped knife bends out and up, causing an uneven cut. Best flail mower I've used for clearing land with standing brush up to about an inch diameter. After that I mow with a heavy rotary cutter and finish with a flail. Would probably do a very good job on cut larger brush laying down though. For mowing dead cut coffee bushes I'd seriously see if you can find a local dealer to look at one. Has enough power to mow well in a few inches of snow, too! Got pix if anybody is interested.

Berti has a good hammer knife with a shorter hammer than the Maschio. Initial response was very good, but had major structural problems (3pt A-frame kept breaking) and the bearings and bearing mounts went out of it a couple of months after buying it new. I had to have a machine shop make a circular collar to hold the bearing in place. Grrr...

I have two of the Mott Super 88s (now Alamo Super Heavy Duty 88"). Probably my favourite mower single mower. Very reliable and does a very good job on blueberries, grass, hardhacks, etc when using a heavy coarse-cut knife. Don't use their regular blade on anything heavier than grass. I haven't used their heavier blade because I've been happy with the Malleti rock knives.

I have a custom-made triple gang mower made by Maine Blueberry Equipment Company from three 36" Vrisimo flail mowers. They aren't the really heavy models that have been praised on this thread but work well for light cutting on rolling ground because the heads float (well, the middle head is 3pt mounted and the other two wing mowers float completely). "Heavy" blades (3/16") work well on this mower, but are small compared to the huge blades on the Maschio. Good for rolling ground and cutting things up to light twigs. Not the fault of Vrisimo, but maintenance is very heavy on this design. It has 10 B-series belts (two per mower, and two more per side on the pulley arrangement to drive the pair of wing mowers), three PTO driveshafts, and over 40 (yes 40!) grease nipples. Such is the price of running three PTO-shaft mowers on one tractor. Kudos to Zane for making a reasonably cheap mower that paid for itself in fuel savings over burning rough ground the first season I used it though. They came from the factory in a mulching direction (blades travel contrary to tractor travel), but we flipped the main gearbox and it now rotates in a mower direction which suits me better. Harder on the idler pulleys but it mows a bit better in rocks and doesn't throw nearly as many small rocks up against the rear window of the tractor.

Cream of the crop for triple-gang mowers for rough ground? Bragg hydraulic mower. Three heads, all floating independently, and powered from a single driveshaft. This thing sucks up horsepower and fuel like a coke-head does white powder but does a great job. Cream of the crop for following land contours. Uses a 3/16" short heavy-duty hockeystick knife similar to a Mott, Maletti, etc. Still doesn't cut the heavy stuff like a Maschio with either a hammer or dual-knife system, but hitting rocks doesn't destroy the blades either. Dulls 'em, but the blades are light and short enough to avoid death like the Maschio or Berti.

 

[allen in texas]

I just found a great deal on a Gearmore GML69. It has the "Y" blades, I want the the hammers. He said buy it as it is with the "Y"s at the price of the model with the hammers and he will ship me the hammers with it.

Well there you go. A spare set of knives. and his shipping is reasonable. "if any shipping is reasonable these day. Total, shipping and all is less than the asking price of a lot of other places.

I guess I'll fore go the two bottom plow I want and order the shredder Monday.


But Mama (wifey) I need/want them both.

 

[DirtHauler]

I just found a great deal on a Gearmore GML69. It has the "Y" blades, I want the the hammers. He said buy it as it is with the "Y"s at the price of the model with the hammers and he will ship me the hammers with it.

Well there you go. A spare set of knives. and his shipping is reasonable. "if any shipping is reasonable these day. Total, shipping and all is less than the asking price of a lot of other places.

I guess I'll fore go the two bottom plow I want and order the shredder Monday.


But Mama (wifey) I need/want them both.

As a lesson learned, DO NOT buy a flail mower equipped with "Y" blades and expect to just change them out with "hammers" or "scoop" blades no matter what the salesman tells you! You will end up with such a bad vibration that it's possible to cause severe damage to the bearings etc.

The rotors are balanced to the type blades being used and that is not covered under warranty! Just a word to the wise.

 

[IslandTractor]

As a lesson learned, DO NOT buy a flail mower equipped with "Y" blades and expect to just change them out with "hammers" or "scoop" blades no matter what the salesman tells you! You will end up with such a bad vibration that it's possible to cause severe damage to the bearings etc.

The rotors are balanced to the type blades being used and that is not covered under warranty! Just a word to the wise.

I think I saw one companies literature that talked about "double balanced" for different types of knives/hammers. I suppose it is possible that could be done so long as the hammers were precision made at least regarding to weight.

 

[Superduper]

..........You will end up with such a bad vibration that it's possible to cause severe damage to the bearings etc..........The rotors are balanced to the type blades being used ..............

Could the manner of manufacture have an effect? In other words, if the rotor was balanced seperately BEFORE the blades, and the blades manufactured within a very small tolerance, presuming that the mounts are spaced properly and equal-distance from each other, shouldn't it remain in balance if you replace a complete set?

I only say this because the Vrisimo mower manual does mention the blade upgrade kit for certain mowers and DO specifically mention that blades should always be replaced in complete sets.

 

[allen in texas]

My brain hurts, but...

This mower is available with either.
Are you saying that the mower is balanced after the blades are put on?
What do you do when you have to replace blades.

I think it's time for a phone call to Gearmore.

I'll report back.

 

[allen in texas]

Just got off the phone with Gearmore.

Here is what I was told...


The mowers are balanced at the factory with the selected knives in place, be it hammers or "Y" blades, to get the smoothest run possible out of a new machine.

However, when it is time to replace the blades, there are no more balance/ vibration issues changing types of blades than there is changing to a new set of the same blades.

The major cause of vibration problems is when, after a few years of use and wear on the blades, a person damages just one or two and tries to replace only those with new blades.

The blades should be replaced as an entire set, which could be a costly maintenance issue.

And of course, just the normal wear on the blades over time will not be exactly the same for each blade , so things will tend to get out of balance.

Now for what I've found personally.
When replacing blades on a flail, each blade should be weighed and paired with as close a weight match as possible with one other blade. When replacing the blades, the matched pairs would go on the rotor directly opposite one another, starting at the center of the rotor with the lightest pair and working to the ends of the rotor for the heaviest.

I'm not sure if I read that here, I may have, but I know that I have seen it on several websites that publish maintenance information on flail mowers.

I'm not worried about changing from "y" blades to hammers on the GML69 mower.

Edit to add this...
I may regret not being worried about it

 

[Superduper]

We may be overthinking here. Install new blades in sets and everything should be fine. Want a finer vibration free mower? Weigh the knives/hammers and identify the lightest among them. Sharpen/grind the remaining to the same weight as the lightest one. Then it shouldn't matter where you install them. Done.

 

[GinNB]

Depends on the cuttershaft design. Some (early Mott flails at least) are only balanced with a specific blade weight/type. Seems dumb, but that's what my Super88 manual says...