Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[ovrszd]

Arc weld, I'm wondering if the biggest issue my Ford 917 has is the "rough cut" blades I'm using?? Maybe I'd have been better served buying the "fine cut", upside down Y looking blades?? I went for the rough cut thinking they would last longer hitting rocks, etc., cutting roadside banks??

Great story concerning your Dad's history. Wish he were here to join this discussion.

 

[leonz]

Hello Arcweld,

As I am coming back to this late I want to thank you for
your clarification about flail mowers once more.

Collectively all of the members of the "Flail Mower Nations"
want everyone-especially new owners to be happy with their
flail mower workhorses and the Mules that they use them with.


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Hello Scott,

I want to welcome you as the newest member of the Flail Mower Nations
(No passport required). You need not worry about whether your new to you
flail mower workhorse can handle the job IT WILL.

Just be sure to check the V belts and if the rubber crumbles in your hand
they need to be replaced. The Kevlar V belts are the best ones for flail mowers
as they are highly resistant to shock damage due to the Kevlar threads in the V belts.

When you check the gearbox oil level it will not hurt to drain it and pour new 90 weight in
the gearbox if the old oil looks milky from moisture.

After you remove the V belt cover you need to be sure to scrape away all the rubber and grass
dust away from the side weldment to expose any hidden grease fittings and to be sure that the
snubber pulley and spring can move freely. About the snubber pulley-you may have a grease fitting on the pulley arm that needs to be greased as well.

When greasing your flail mower please do not pump anymore than 5-6 pumps of grease into each rotor bearing and no more than 5-6 pumps into the rear roller bearing.The rotor bearings have a seal on one side and you have to be careful not to pump too much grease intot he bearing as the seal will be blown out.

As Arcweld has so eleoquently stated your flail mower will be more than
adequate for your jungle. Once you have the brush taken back to the sod
you will have zero issues keeping it mowed in a very very short time each
time you mow.This aids in beating back invasives like poison ivy also.

My father used his Ford Jubilee and a seven foot JD25A Finish Flail Mower to take down 12-15 foot Goldenrod and other brush to reclaim pasture to keep it mowed down. He cleaned the chaff screen on the radiator alot but that is to be expected.

Your leaving your flail mower/workhorse in the van until you remove it with a boom pole
will not affect your permanent citizenship in the Flail Mower Nations.

If you have a long enough strap you can cradle the mower and then lift it out
of the van and set it on the ground. The straps at Tractor Supply are very
reasonably priced.

If you suspect that you have a lot of junk in the field you want to mow I would make the first pass on the edges of the field and then take half cuts to finish the work. You will be able to go over it again the same day and recut the clippings and then they will degrade to mulch and melt back into the ground. If you are sure the field is clear take a full width cut and then keep mowing and then if you have time you can go over it again or do it the next day.

Just be sure to leave the mowing height on the rear roller adjustment low-most likely it is at 2 inches of cutting height. You can always lower it in most cases.

The reason you want to leave the mowing height low is because the flail mower rotor and the flailmower shroud that covers the mower creates a pressure gradient like a vacuum cleaner to cut and lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor and back to the ground.

 

[leonz]

Arc weld, I'm wondering if the biggest issue my Ford 917 has is the "rough cut" blades I'm using?? Maybe I'd have been better served buying the "fine cut", upside down Y looking blades?? I went for the rough cut thinking they would last longer hitting rocks, etc., cutting roadside banks??

Great story concerning your Dad's history. Wish he were here to join this discussion.

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Hello Ovrszd,

In order to be sure you could take advantage of the side slicers the issue is overlap of knife pairs on the mounting stations typically the flail mower rotors with scoop knives have fewer knife mounting stations whch overlap in coverage.

Each knife station will have three inches of mowing width generally with the knife pair. The heavy flail shredders are wider in cutting width generally in most cases as they use the cast and forged cup knife which can be very wide allowing them to overlap and also spiral around the flail mower rotors circumference. INO is one european brand that has this design if my memory is correct.

 

[hunt4570]

The reason you want to leave the mowing height low is because the flail mower rotor and the flailmower shroud that covers the mower creates a pressure gradient like a vacuum cleaner to cut and lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor and back to the ground.

WAIT.... You mean it creates a suction???

Sorry Leons, I just couldn't resist!

 

[leonz]

WAIT.... You mean it creates a suction???

Sorry Leons, I just couldn't resist!

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WEEEELLLLLLLL,

Some days my life just sucks when it comes to flail mowers hunt 4570 :^0.

 

[Fallon]

Arc weld, I'm wondering if the biggest issue my Ford 917 has is the "rough cut" blades I'm using?? Maybe I'd have been better served buying the "fine cut", upside down Y looking blades?? I went for the rough cut thinking they would last longer hitting rocks, etc., cutting roadside banks??

Great story concerning your Dad's history. Wish he were here to join this discussion.

I can only speak to my experiences.

I paid $100 for my old beatup 7' 917 flail. I dumped about $400 into it for a new PTO shaft that was long enough, most of a new set of knives & mounting hardware, belts & some heavy sheet metal to patch the hood. It still has a huge crack in the hood where it meets the support spar between gearbox & belts & I should probably replace the bearings this winter or in a year or 2. This old beatup flail in need of repairs has caused me to park my 5' Landpride rotary cutter I bought brand new with my tractor 2 years ago. The rotary is in excelent shape, but with the flail, the cut is better & its a lot safer. Having the offset, the roller & not hanging way back means it much more manuverable & never scalps.

I pull the flail slower than the rotary cutter with my 32hp L3200 , but it's also 7' compared to 5'. All in all my mow times are equal or faster with the flail. The hood on the flail is only half the height of my field grass lots of the time, but that doesn't slow it down. I have the inverted Y side slicers & they rotate forward with the tires when going forward.

The main drawback I've run into so far is when mowing my well head in heavy grass. The rotary is right behing the tractor & has a low deck, so wouldn't be a problem. The 1.5' tall opening on the flail & offset meant It went right over the well head. Lost a handfull of knives, the mounting hardware & the well head cap.

If your hammers were backwards, I'm sure you'd have a crap cut. With the inverted Y knives, there really isn't any way to install them backwards. Worst case scenario, you have a dull edge cutting moderately well instead of a sharp edge cutting really well. If you could mount em I'd suggest trying a set of inverted Y knives, which would cost you $200-300 if I recall. My inverted Y's bounce off landscape timbers easily with no damage. Landscape timbers are chewed up a bit. The well head destroyed a handfull, but I doubt any other knive style short of a forrestry flail would have done any better.

As others have noted, it doesn't suck, it won't vacuum stuff off the ground, but it does give a good even cut. When mowing high grass I end up with tire tracks that are uncut as the tires bend the grass over & it takes hours or days to spring back up. Not an issue with greener shorter grass though, mostly a brown high grass problem.

 

[IslandTractor]

Arc weld, I'm wondering if the biggest issue my Ford 917 has is the "rough cut" blades I'm using?? Maybe I'd have been better served buying the "fine cut", upside down Y looking blades?? I went for the rough cut thinking they would last longer hitting rocks, etc., cutting roadside banks??

Great story concerning your Dad's history. Wish he were here to join this discussion.

Are you using the Flailmaster FM7 or FM7501732 blades. I had the impression you had the finer cut blades (FM7501732) as you never mentioned hangers. I also think/suspect that ArcWeld was referring to the fine cut blades when he was talking about them getting clogged up with long grass. I REALLY don't understand how the FM7 could get so clogged up in your 917 mower as that is essentially the same blade arrangement as my Caroni has and I've never seen more than an occasional blade of grass stuck to those even after mowing waist high grasses. If they did become clogged the hanger should swivel back and that should unload the grass by sliding it off.

 

[xtn]

I think we can safely conclude that ovrszd's problem is the inability to only go 1/4 a mile per hour while maintaining 540-rpm pto speed. Sometimes the density of growth you want to cut will require that.

 

[IslandTractor]

I think we can safely conclude that ovrszd's problem is the inability to only go 1/4 a mile per hour while maintaining 540-rpm pto speed. Sometimes the density of growth you want to cut will require that.

Agree that is at least part of his problem but I'd think there would be many others with similar complaints if it was just the lack of crawl speed. He has a tractor that puts out about 10 more HP than mine does and I don't need to "crawl".

 

[Arc weld]

Blades plugging was referring to one piece 1 piece Ford blades/knives. You could always put course cut Alamo Y knives on your Ford and they'd give a wider cut than the Ford knives. On a Ford you can also add more hangers but you'd have to do it evenly to keep the rotor balanced. I wouldn't recommend fine cut knives for heavy growth or where there might be obstacles. In heavy growth you should walk the field first to check for large rocks or other big obstacles that could seriously damage the mower. Flails can take some obstacles but not all obstacles. Barbed wire and baler twine/rope are a hazard as well.