Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[KennyV]

The legs that adjust and hold the mower up tear the lawn apart as you mow.

I have to believe you are NOT referring to the landing leg that is used for parking the unattached mower... right?
What legs are on a flail mower... ???

also like Reg said, properly set up a flail mower (with finish knives) will give a perfect cut. KennyV

 

[Eagleview]

If the desired finish is to be the same as a lawnmower with a catcher , you will need to fit an add on catcher to the flail mower . Cut grass and clippings don't just magically disappear .

 

[dawzie]

Wow, what a thread. It's taken me about a week to read every reply. Great info and has convinced me to get a flail.

I have been mowing with a "hog" and a sicklebar behind a Ford 2000 gas job that only has a streight 4-speed tranny and non-live PTO.

I think a six foot flail should be fine. Any thoughts on this??

 

[Reg]

Wow, what a thread. It's taken me about a week to read every reply. Great info and has convinced me to get a flail.

I have been mowing with a "hog" and a sicklebar behind a Ford 2000 gas job that only has a streight 4-speed tranny and non-live PTO.

I think a six foot flail should be fine. Any thoughts on this??

I think 6ft is GREAT (for me, for MY uses, etc.)
Bigger might be better for BIG acreages, but if you need to trailer it big gets heavy.

BTW, I assumed that the earlier poster was complaining that it was the skid shoes that were digging/scraping.

The biggest thing to get in your head is that you don't just DROP IT when you start mowing.
The cutting height is very much a matter of adjusting the roller height at the rear and, and, and, and, AND...... holding the front UP with the 3pt.
AGAIN, do NOT just "Drop it", lower it.
Set a stop if you have one, at least learn where to LOWER it to.

 

[johnbast3]

Just unloaded a McConnel Magnum 170 Flail mower, and so far very impressed. It is made in England and sold by Tiger Corp. in Sioux Falls, via ebay..I also bought a tooth bar for my fel and they strapped it to the mower with no additional freight. Speaking of which, freight was only 75 bucks..I'll fire this puppy up this weekend and will post results..Also, the toothbar is very well built for only 170..

 

[slate mike]

What a thread. Took me 4 nights to read thru. And even with all the great info here, I still can't decide whether to buy a flail or brush hog to get the 2 acres I need done(3' weeds) and should I get rid of the 6' finish mower(JD Frontier - Woods) I have but don't use because of the side hill slopes. I can do the 2.5 acres of lawn with my Cub in about 1 1/2 hours, so no big deal. I would love to be able to clear the other 2 acres and keep it mowed. Would be nice to clear the rest of the 10 acres, but that would require a "bull hog" and then some.Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[sunspot]

slate mike
2 acres is not a lot to spend close to 2k. See if you can buy a used rotory cutter.

I cut 7 acres of pasture every other week, when it rains.

 

[jab-law]

I need to mow several acres of very rough land -- bricks, logs, stones, weeds, wood, whatever, with lots of bumps (former industrial site, now reclaimed by mother nature).
Is a flail mower or a bush hog type mower the best for this situation -- lots of rocks, bricks, etc??????
thanks in advance.

 

[KennyV]

From your description a dozer or excavator sounds like the best tool.
Short of going through by hand and cleaning up all the junk.

If you must choose between a flail and a rotary the flail with heavy hammer knives will be the safest.
BUT I still think there is no substitute for taking the necessary time to walk around picking up the place... eventually it will need to be done.

 

[jab-law]

thanks for the suggestion. I already burned out a Betst flair mower bearing mowing this property. The manual only called for two or three pumps of grease every 8 hours of use. From reading this thread, it looks like it should have been loaded up from the start. I have emailed Keith on it, to see if it still covered under warranty (only 10 to 15 hours total on the flail mower; bought last year; two year warranty. Emailed him some time ago, still waiting for reply)

The Betst mower cut well and was easy to control on a Ford-new Holland 1920 (32 HP, 29 HP at PTO). I really liked it until the bearing blew out.

I have been looking at getting a Land Pride or Bush Hog rotary cutter, but after reading this thread, I think I will stick with a flail mower (I am waiting for response from Keith on the bearing for the Betst mower).

Perhaps a heavier duty flail mower would be better ( except for the money -- but spending a lot of time fixing a flail mower is not exactly what I planned).

I'll get on picking up this property (it was recently purchased by a non-profit group, and I have just been helping them out, as it is located in a very beautiful area next to the river, with lots of wildlife, etc.).

Would a heavy duty flail mower do better with the rocks, bricks, etc?

 

[jab-law]

Any suggestions for a good heavy duty flail mower for a Ford 1920 tractor (32 HP, 29 PH at PTO)? Price is important, but durability is more important.

 

[jmfox]

I really like the Bobcat Flail. I has robust hammers that throw the rocks forward with a counterclockwise rotation.

jmf

 

[Reg]

I need to mow several acres of very rough land -- bricks, logs, stones, weeds, wood, whatever, with lots of bumps (former industrial site, now reclaimed by mother nature).
Is a flail mower or a bush hog type mower the best for this situation -- lots of rocks, bricks, etc??????
thanks in advance.

Depends who is going to be standing how close (-:
I view rocks, bricks, etc as missiles for bush hog launching, or (minor) knife chipping annoyances for a flail.

I would ;
a) Go through it with a box blade, just the scarifiers down.
b) A LOT of hand picking.
c) Rake
d) Probably more hand picking.

Maybe - only MAYBE a very light cut first to get the weeds down from 4ft to less than a foot, but I would go very slow and careful if there is general trash.

BTW, it ain't MAGIC when a tarp disappears under a flail mower, but it comes out a lot slower than it went in.

 

[Uncle Doug]

Well I was all set to buy a ZTR to cut my 11 acres instead of the brush hog I had been using on my Kubota L3000. Now I am not so sure if a flail mower might be better suited. With the brush hog I tend to cut the back part twice a year but would cut more often if it was not such a chore. With the brush hog it is a full 7 hour job when high. Here on the gulf coast we get plenty of rain (most years but not now) so it can get 4 foot high in 3 months between cutting.

It took me all day to read the entire thread. Slow day at work. As the thread goes back to early last year what kind of feed back do the 2008 or2009 flair owners have on the ones they bought now that they have a cutting season or two behind them.

Did the ebay China special hold up well to heavy use? Any regreats?

Is the Caroni TM1900 a better choise for 10 acres or more. I am sure prices have gone up over those quoted early on in this thread. Any idea what the Caroni TM1900 is going for now?

 

[LBrown59]

I cut 7 acres of pasture every other week, when it rains.

I mow my lawn on 10 20 & 30 of the month.

 

[jab-law]

I bought the Chinese flail mower from Betst last year. It was a nice unit while it lasted -- which wasn't long. As you can see from the above posts, I've been trying (or trying to mow) some pretty rough ground.
the Chinese mower is now on blocks, the drum is out and the bearings shot. I only used it for 10 to 15 hours; however, it is NOT a heavy duty machine. I am chalking it up as a learning experience. In the future, I would LOAD the bearing up with grease and keep them that way -- Thanks to IronHorse and IslandTractor and all you others who have shared on this post.

I think I will take the suggestion to go over this land with the box blade and try to collect and get rid of as much stuff as possible before keeping going with trying to mow. However, I also think I will look for a good used 5 or 6 foot Alamo Super Heavy Duty flail mower or something similar.

Tahks for all the comments/ warnings about the bush hog throwing rocks. I was going t get a bush hog, but am tending to think no. Also, the ground I am mowing is so uneven that the longer tail of a 3 point bush hog will defiinitiely get hung up more than the shorter flail mower.

BTW -- this is a great thread. Thanks to all.

Jim

 

[IslandTractor]

...... With the brush hog it is a full 7 hour job when high. Here on the gulf coast we get plenty of rain (most years but not now) so it can get 4 foot high in 3 months between cutting.

It took me all day to read the entire thread. Slow day at work. As the thread goes back to early last year what kind of feed back do the 2008 or2009 flair owners have on the ones they bought now that they have a cutting season or two behind them......

. Any idea what the Caroni TM1900 is going for now?

I am into the third season with my Caroni TM1900. I've used it on about 15 acres of land that I sometimes cut regularly (once/month) and sometimes (like yesterday, cut only once per season). It has held up pretty well without any serious issues though I have knocked a couple of knives off (rocks), gotten a log stuck in it (removed with crowbar) and just a couple of weeks ago I burned up the original set of belts after being a bit too aggressive with brush clearing after a long day of field mowing(dramatic smoke and gooy mess but easy to replace with new Gates B43 belts). I've mangled the skids (rocks) but have just bent them back into shape (not sure they do anything anyway). The rear roller also has it's share of dents (rocks) but works fine. I grease at least every 8hrs of mowing usually more. Still on the first set of knives and I haven't flipped them yet. I'm very happy with it and would buy again but sometimes I do wish I had an old bush hog to use for the really nasty stuff so I didn't have to risk repairs on the flail.

Yesterday I mowed about 4 acres of knee to waist high mixed grasses and invasive bull briar down to 3 inches (first mowing this year and we have had a very wet year). There were places were the grass was thick enough that I stalled my 41hp tractor running at 2200rpm (2500 is PTO speed) in medium range at about 3-4MPH (est). The mower did a fine job though even with the mulching effect you get with a flail the field still looks like a newly mown hayfield there is so much cut material. The grass was so high that I hit a few well known rocks I generally avoid and I lost one shackle and pair of knives (replaced in the field in ten minutes). That 4 acres took me about three hours but I mowed about half of it twice in an attempt to remulch the "hay" to get it finer and I also stopped in a couple of places to dig out rocks and once to replace the shackle/knives.

I think the delivered cost of the TM1900 now is a tad over $2K from AgriSupply. I have had no issues at all getting parts from them (knives etc) but I bought my replacement belts from a local Gates distributor.

I don't know that the flail would necessarily be faster than a bush hog. I'd be surprised if it was because guys like FarmsWithJunk who mow professionally would probably only use flails if they were really faster and he (and many others) continue to use bush hogs. I do think from my own experience that the cut is much better with the flail compared to the bush hog however. And, compared to my old bush hog (on a different tractor), I really like the compact form of the flail. Those are both secondary benefits though as the main reason I went with a flail to begin with is the safety issue as I mow too near homes, roads and playing kids to be comfortable with a bush hog.

 

[Eagleview]

jab-law , An old heavy duty flail with cast hammers is what you need , you also need some horsepower to drive it . This sandstone boulder was poking out of the ground about 3 inches , i mowed it a couple of times before i put my new hammers on and now it just needs a bit of top soil raked over it for the grass to grow on . Stones and bricks just turn to dust with cast hammers . Tame your paddock with an old heavy unit first , then it's an easy job for the lighter flail later .

 

[IslandTractor]

jab-law , An old heavy duty flail with cast hammers is what you need , you also need some horsepower to drive it . This sandstone boulder was poking out of the ground about 3 inches , i mowed it a couple of times before i put my new hammers on and now it just needs a bit of top soil raked over it for the grass to grow on . Stones and bricks just turn to dust with cast hammers . Tame your paddock with an old heavy unit first , then it's an easy job for the lighter flail later .

IronHorse, how many hours did you get from your old set of cast hammers? Is the cut noticably different with the new ones?

 

[Eagleview]

I get 600 hours if they are only mowing grass , but only 200 if the area is a mess . I charge $165 per hour in rough country mowing sapplings , rocks , pushbikes , fence posts , water troughs etc laying in the grass (famous words "no theres nothing laying in the grass"). $110 per hour if the area is clean .

Even with the hammers worn out , the grass is a bit straggly but still on par with a slasher/hog .