Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[leonz]

Leonz, look at these pictures please.
View attachment 469163
View attachment 469164

So, I got home last night and promptly started messing with the new toy. The gearbox would only turn about a 1/4 turn by hand so I was a little worried. Checked the oil, greased everything I could find a zerk on and stuck a pipe wrench on the shaft from the gearbox to the side drive pulley. No effort at all it started turning and freed up in a few turns to being able to spin by hand.
Hooked it up. Had to wirebrush the PTO end a little to get a shaft on it. Looked one last time underneath and noticed that there are two different kinda knives on it. View attachment 469165

So about 9 pm, climbed on tractor, ducked my head, said 57 Hail Marys, and engaged it at low rpm. And the idler pulley wasn't moving. The pivot bracket was frozen up. Some penetrating oil, wire
Brush and pry bar got
It loose and the old screen door spring was able to now apply tension. View attachment 469167View attachment 469168
And the **** thing still wasn't turning when power was applied. Idler pulley bearing was stiff. Worked it by hand a few rounds and it freed up.
Back on tractor. Light it up at lower rpm and it sets there quietly running. All Right!
Advance the throttle slightly a little at a time while crouching fearfully behind the tractor seat back spins it faster & faster.
Then about 1500 rpm on the tractor, THE WORLD STARTS COMING TO AN END right behind the quick hitch of my tractor. This thing vibrating! Bad! So shut down. Look at all and open a beer and ponder situation.
Scientifically conclude that the proper way to examine said problem and interpret data would be to finish beer, and restart test. Put hard hat on, crouch behind seat deeper and run her on up to 540 rpm. And she got eerily quiet once more. Just sat there whirring.

So at midnight. I gotta back out the shop and test it. This is one pass through briars over my typical rocks. The brush hog does this with explosions and missiles throughout.
The flail mower... Just sat back there whirring. Except for the cool spark or two that came out from under when a rock announced its presence.View attachment 469170

Gotta figure out the model exactly. Get a fresh set of knives and start cleaning up the old girl. ( & finish catching up on this thread. I'm up to post 1112)

Thanks for all the info. Never even knew what one of these was until I saw this thread.

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I can tell your already addicted; you may need a flail mower intervention :drink:

 

[Ozarks Landowner]

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1. If its a pull behind John Deere Flail Mower, it is a Towed Flail Crop Shredder.
a. what is the exact width of cut from the interior left side of the mower shroud
to the right side???
b. look for the serial number on the front tubular weldment, on the mower shroud itself and under the V Belt
guard.

2. Until I know more I am going to assume it has the scoop knives due to the number of mounting stations-
fewer mounting stations generally means the flail mower has the heavy wide scoop knives, some folks call them duck foot knives.

3. Wait on the purchase of new knives until I hear more of the description of the flail shredder from you.

4. The previous owner did not install the proper repair parts-the welded parts on the knife hangers are an absolute NO NO and you need to go through it completely or take it to a John Deere dealer to be sure its OK to use.
(this does not mean you need to spend a small fortune to get your flail shredder up to snuff, just time and patience for detail to make sure all your work is right and you find problems and fix them before they start.


5. 2 inch mowing height with NO exceptions to maintain your plots and keep back the invasive plants like poison ivy and ant hills.

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You have purchased a good flail shredder that needs a bit of work:

1. new scoop knives
2. knife hangers
3. new belts(The Kevlar belts are best for shock loads)
4. check the tires for side wall cracks. if the side walls are cracked you will want new ones. if the wheels are loose you need new bearings.
5. change the oil in the gearbox and check the shaft seals on the gearbox for leaking.
a. if you have solid tires just check the wheels to see if the bearing bores are loose/shot.

I am not trying to spend your money, I want you to have a safe well maintained mower to work with.
you will have to mow slowly to get a good finish and you will not regret taking the extra time to mow
with it. The only bad thing is the scoop knives will not recut the clippings until they are bone dry.
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I want to welcome you as the newest member of the Flail Mower Nation.

Going to check it out now.

Every knife thats on it now are Y knives. The ones hanging on the two links of chain appear to be bought that way as the links have not been modified. I couldn't make anything out on the one serial number tag on the front but I will try again.

 

[Ozarks Landowner]

Here is what I've found.
80'' from the inside of shroud to shroud.
The only tag I see is on the front right side and on it has 80T-c on the lower left and 657 on the lower right. If there was anything else on it it is not visible.
As far as the knife hangers it seems that most of the ones on it that are on d-loop and hanger the hangers have broken. Every one with the flat bar and two links of chain appear to be ok and the knives are very worn.
All bearings are good. Everything spins freely and the two belts seem to be in good shape.
I only gave $150 for this thing so i'm in it pretty cheap. He did call it a stalk cutter I just thought it was a flail mower after looking online a little. I actually bought it for the gear box and pulley for another project but kind of like what I've been reading about them as a mower.
I've got a few pics I will post when I figure out how.

Thanks for your help so far.

 

[leonz]

Going to check it out now.

Every knife thats on it now are Y knives. The ones hanging on the two links of chain appear to be bought that way as the links have not been modified. I couldn't make anything out on the one serial number tag on the front but I will try again.

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The two links on a piece of chain are not stock equipment, they must to be replaced.

If you take a picture of it to a Deere dealer that can identify it and after that
you can order an operators manual and a parts manual.

I want you to succeed my friend not fail.

 

[Ozarks Landowner]

Here are a few of the pics I took this morning.

 

[leonz]

View attachment 469203View attachment 469204View attachment 469205View attachment 469206

Here are a few of the pics I took this morning.

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That is definitely a JD flail shredder, I would take the pictures over to a JD dealer to find the model.

I have never seen a flail shredder with chain mounted knives connected to a weldment in that manner, it has to be home made.

Flail manure spreaders have chains attached to the rotor in the tank, Hawk built for one brand from what I remember and I believe NH had them too. I remember one advert where they drove a loaded spreader full of semi liquid manure and solids over a roll of carpet to show it did not leak.

 

[Fallon]

Some Ag equipment runs at 1000. 1000pto on a big tractor allows running some implements like a generator at lower engine rpm.

HP = torque * RPM. So if you double the RPM, you can make a much lighter & cheaper PTO shaft to transmit the same power. Big ag machines at a certain HP start using 1,000rpm PTOs for this reason.

Small foreign tractors like older grey market Kubota's use a 1,000rpm (often 540, 750, 1,000 depending on gear). Not sure why, but I assume that is or was a standard RPM over there.

Some bigger ag machines have an economy PTO option that gets you 540 (or 1,000) at half to 3/4 throttle if you don't need the power. May also be the reason on the 750 on the Asian tractors.

American tractors have pretty much been standardized on 540rpm for a very long time. 1,000rpm for the high HP stuff is a bit newer. Never run stuff faster than 540rpm unless you have a manual for it telling you otherwise. Except for PHDs you shouldn't really run most slower either.

 

[Ozarks Landowner]

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That is definitely a JD flail shredder, I would take the pictures over to a JD dealer to find the model.

I have never seen a flail shredder with chain mounted knives connected to a weldment in that manner, it has to be home made.

Flail manure spreaders have chains attached to the rotor in the tank, Hawk built for one brand from what I remember and I believe NH had them too. I remember one advert where they drove a loaded spreader full of semi liquid manure and solids over a roll of carpet to show it did not leak.

Interesting on the chain mounts. They sure look like they were forged on the knives and the piece that connects to the drum. I can't tell where the links were welded. I am a boilermaker by trade and see welds all the time.

Would the chain set up not work as well or is there another issue? The man I bought it from said it cuts very well as is even with the wore out knives.

 

[IslandTractor]

The chain set up should work about the same as knives mounted on a clevis. Same principle and useful for rough cutting in brush or with unseen obstacles. Worn blades can work fine for rough cutting. I would worry more about imbalance issues when you start to change blades as some blades are worn and new blades will be different weight.

 

[whirly]

Interesting on the chain mounts. They sure look like they were forged on the knives and the piece that connects to the drum. I can't tell where the links were welded. I am a boilermaker by trade and see welds all the time.

Would the chain set up not work as well or is there another issue? The man I bought it from said it cuts very well as is even with the wore out knives.

"Cuts very well as is" is subjective and depends on the persons point of view.

You may be able to replace those chain link sets with two longer knives like this: