Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[jmfox]

jab-law , An old heavy duty flail with cast hammers is what you need

Here's a photo of the hammers on the Bobcat Flail.

jmf

 

[powergod]

that is quite formitable looking

 

[swampvol]

IronHorse, didn't you suggest using the hammer blades over the y blades for cutting grass when using a flail with only 28-30 stations?

The cut with the y blades, to me, is worse than with my hog.

 

[J_J]

I believe the flail mowers are made for certain situations. For finish cut, I believe the Y type blades are mad for just that, where as, the hammer type flails have a different number stations on the drum, and the blades are wider. My flail has 88 sets of blades, and is designed for finish mowing. You can put a heavy duty blade on the finish mower to cut heaver and trash type stuff. On the hammer flails, you can not reverse them also. Some of the blades have three categories. reg, harden blades, and cast. I have also used a slicing blade on mine for lawn regeneration/dethatching. Cuts little slits in the sod. Supposed to help the root system to expand.

 

[J_J]

IronHorse, didn't you suggest using the hammer blades over the y blades for cutting grass when using a flail with only 28-30 stations?

The cut with the y blades, to me, is worse than with my hog.

How about a picture of your blade setup, and tell us how you are using the flail. Flails use a thinner blade, and should give a better cut than a bush hog. You should not be trying to cut to much, and going to fast. Some flails are designed to cut in the forward direction, mostly heavy duty stuff. I believe most finish flails turn in reverse of tractor wheel direction. With my hydraulic driven flail mower, I can reverse direction if needed, since the blades are sharp on, front and backside.

 

[Eagleview]

These are the normal duties of my flail mower , I first pluck all the trees out with the excavator and lay them in rows . Then I scoop them up with the stick rake grapple on the tractor and put them into burn piles . Then I mow the area with the flail , hidden rocks and farm rubbish are a constant threat . I missed a short stump sticking out of the ground while i was on the excavator and caught the flails rear roller on it , you can probably see the Banana shape it now has . The flail pulverises the rocks and sticks and turns the area into usable land .

As can be seen , a scruffy paddock covered in regrowth turns to lawn when I'm done . With this method , the grass cover is not even disturbed unlike the mess a dozer would make .

Flails are very versatile , one day I'm using it in rough country like this , the next day I'll be using the same flail in town on housing estates .

 

[IslandTractor]

I missed a short stump sticking out of the ground while i was on the excavator and caught the flails rear roller on it , you can probably see the Banana shape it now has . .

Doesn't that banana affect the evenness of your grass cutting? I can see it doesn't affect brush cutting generally but for fine lawn work I'd think it would matter by raising the cutters an inch or two every foot or so. Can't you take it off, then do something like wedge it in a V shaped trough, drive over it and straighten it?

 

[Eagleview]

It didn't stay like that , I made a new one out of a piece of steam pipe that evening , it only happened that morning .

 

[Believer]

On a flail, is the rear roller at risk of being damaged or bent in pasture mowing? One of my areas has some rocks.

 

[IslandTractor]

On a flail, is the rear roller at risk of being damaged or bent in pasture mowing? One of my areas has some rocks.

Yes and no. Real damage like what happened to Iron Horse's roller is pretty unusual but rear rollers definitely get dinged up when they hit rocks. Mine has about six or eight well defined dings. It makes no difference to function, just cosmetics. These types of dings occur when you bounce the roller over rocks. The type of damage that Iron Horse had happens when you hang the roller on an immovable object (stump/rock) with the tractors momentum being enough to bend the roller into a banana (to use Iron Horses terminology). That requires repair/replacement. These "banana" incidents are unusual and may occur only with larger heavier tractors traveling at relatively fast speed(greater mass/momentum).

 

[dawzie]

Well , I read this whole thread and now need input. I can buy a ford 917-H offset mower for $1500 plus it needs a little TLC plus all new blades*************or do I buy the Caroni TM1900 ???

Its been over a year since this thread was started and Im sure the Caroni units have been put to the test.

I like all the grease fittings I see on the Ford plus parts are still available. But is it any tougher than the Caroni? I'm just keeping the former orchards, trees removed, mowed. Rocks are everywheres.

 

[IslandTractor]

I've never seen much less used a Ford 917H but do have three seasons of experience using a Caroni TM1900 for pasture mowing and bush hogging. The Caroni has been a very good unit and if I needed another flail I'd buy another Caroni without question. The Italians make very good mowers that I think are on par with (non flail) mowers I've owned from Bush Hog and Rhino.

Parts have not been an issue. AgriSupply is the importer and they run a pretty efficient website and series of stores in the southeast. I've only had to order extra flails and a few spare shackles but that has been easy. I note on the website that you can order the whole gearbox, flail rotor and rollers.

Maintenance for me has been mostly greasing it (3 zerks about every 4 hrs of mowing). After two and a half seasons I did finally burn up a set of belts (about $30-35 for a new set of 3 Gates B43). There is one other zerk behind the belt cover that gets annual greasing. I modified the gearbox oil dipstick hole by adding an extension (the Caroni's love to spit oil but it is a cosmetic issue only as best I can tell). You can either manually (would take half an hour) or hydraulically (extra kit) shift the mower further to the right by about another 18 inches or so. The mower is normally offset about that much so with the shift you can get the offset to about three feet (from memory).

Again, I cannot compare to the Ford and I don't know what type of flail the Ford is. What is important is to realize that the Caroni is what I would call a medium duty flail for pasture, lawn, agricultural use, it is not a DPW type heavy duty flail that is designed to chew up cinder blocks along side highways. It does fine "bush hogging" into brush up to about an inch or inch and a half and does a much cleaner job than my real Bush Hog on such material.

 

[Farmall45b]

I picked up a McConnell Magnum 130 flail mower off e-bay a few weeks back. I have had the mower for about a week now and have to say, I am very pleased with it. It will really go through some heavy material, and stumps and boulders have not damaged to mower. This is a nice sized mower for my B2320, I would not want any thing wider or that sticks out the back farther.

 

[BJN644]

Well , I read this whole thread and now need input. I can buy a ford 917-H offset mower for $1500 plus it needs a little TLC plus all new blades*************or do I buy the Caroni TM1900 ???

Its been over a year since this thread was started and Im sure the Caroni units have been put to the test.

I like all the grease fittings I see on the Ford plus parts are still available. But is it any tougher than the Caroni? I'm just keeping the former orchards, trees removed, mowed. Rocks are everywheres.

No brainer, go with the Caroni. If the blades on the Ford are all shot, more than likely the roller bearings are shot too. And if they ran it with bad bearings the roller may need replacement at big dollers.

I used to work on this stuff years ago, blades were a disposable item, roller bearings were next and if you didn't catch them in time they would tear up the the short stub shaft on each end of the roller.

 

[Eagleview]

Some info and pics you guys with hammer type flails may find useful .

I keep all my old flails for use when I'm mowing Forest fire trails . When the fires are around , dozers are called in to scrape the vegetation off of the trails . As they are in a hurry , all the rocks brought to the surface are spilled out the side of the blades and left to form hazardous winrows . Then the grass grows over the rocks and conceals them . Then I'm called upon to mow the trails sides . It's no point in smashing up good flails so i use the old ones .

First you must weigh them all on an accurate set of kitchen scales , mark them all and lay them out . Group all the ones that are within a few grams/ounces . Then decide if a sharpen of the heavier ones will bring them back to specs and if a bit of bar stock tacked on the lighter ones is a quicker option .

Put similar sized ones on the rotor on opposite sides so they counter themselves .

When done , lift the mower and run it at working speed . If it has a vibration , it is usually a simple matter of installing another nut on one of the bolts to balance the rotor . There are usually only 4 rows of flails , so the nut only needs to be moved 4 times until the mower runs quiet .

Most of you will never see the conditions I encounter but it will be usefull to know how to re-use your old flails . I did this proceedure this morning and took about two hours from start too finish .

 

[IslandTractor]

Some info and pics you guys with hammer type flails may find useful .

Great tip. I'm impressed you can do it in 2hrs. I thought I was pretty efficient in changing out one set of knifes in about 10 minutes in the field. It would probably take me about twice as long to do all 52 some blades (26 shackles). Do you flip the mower to work on it?

 

[Eagleview]

The mower has a huge door on the rear for servicing . A 1/2" rattle gun and 10 minutes later their off .

I used it today on a property , owner said hook in , nothing in the grass . He now has a neat little pile of gravel where a concrete fence post was laying .

I used to walk a property first , not any more . I travel with the rake down which finds most things but not all , "T" posts laying in the grass turn to modern art . I can replace or repair a mower , but if a Brown snake gets me Ive got 20 minutes to get to a hospital and I'm never within 20 minutes of a hospital so no more walking trough waist high grass for me .

A guy got bit on the bum once , he said to his mate , quick you have to suck the poison out or I wont make it . His mate looked at him and said , you ain't gonna make it then .........

 

[Eagleview]

You wouldn't believe it , after I made that statement yesterday , I nearly step on this Eastern Brown in my yard today . One this size can kill a stadium full of people with it's venom supply . I don't like killing anything , but I draw the line at these things in the yard . He got relocated to Heaven .

 

[Scooby074]

You wouldn't believe it , after I made that statement yesterday , I nearly step on this Eastern Brown in my yard today . One this size can kill a stadium full of people with it's venom supply . I don't like killing anything , but I draw the line at these things in the yard . He got relocated to Heaven .

Nice climate and country you have there in OZ, but theres just too many things waitin to kill me Think ill take my chances with the snow, rain and occasional hurricane up here in NS. Stay safe down there.