Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[leonz]

Leon, just to be sure, you know I was asking about the rear trash deflector, even though my pic was of the front. I made that one too, not sure how wide it should be. It's around 6" too. Thanks.
Jim

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Hello Jimmy,


You can allow yourself about 2 inches of rubber above the rear roller +- to allow the clippings to pass freely over the rear roller so you would want a 4 - 6 inch wide piece of belting across the rear discharge. The idea is to control all the flow coming off the knives in a regulated stream as it passes the deflector rubber. it also helps prevent anything from bouncing very far if a knife set kits something that is at the cutting height level.


I hope that we see more flail mowers with trash doors like the landpride flail mowerswith the cast hammer knives(Maschio brand) I hope Kubota does not kill them off from being sold by their Landpride implement division.

Hope this helps.

 

[Zerker]

Congratulations. Great mower. I have one. Blades are simple to change once you learn how. Thin metal piece rotates on the "passenger" side and the bars slide out causing the hangers to fall out. There is a good YouTube video in it.

Thanks to leonz from the get go, I've ordered my knew scoop knives from flail master. (I seem to have ordered a lot of verifies parts from them and they are always very knowledgeable ...

Great mower...

I watched that video even before I bought this mower as i was trying to find out all the info i could on flail mowers. I was going to buy a brand new Woodmaxx flail mower, and would have but i checked Craigslist one more time and found the Ford 907 for $950 with an extra set of flails/hangers. From the brief research I did, that seemed to be a fair price.

Whats the best way to drain the old oil? Tip the mower back? Unless theres a drain plug somewhere I didnt look. It was getting a bit dark when I was looking at it last night.

Is there anything else I should inspect before going to town with it? There was zero vibration when i had it up to speed. I have it all greased up with a heavy duty grease as well.

 

[Hoochy]

Just my 2 cents on the deflectors. My Alamo mower can be changed to cut either with the rotatation of the tractor tires or opposite. When the mower is set up to cut opposite rotation it creates a higher possibility of something getting thrown forward towards the tractor or the operator, so the front deflector is made out of steel and it is pretty heavy duty. When the mower is set up to cut with the same rotation as the tractor tires the debri flies out the back of the mower and they only use a piece of heavy rubber like you see in truck mud deflectors.

I prefer to have it cut with the rotation of the tractor tires so nothing can fly out the fron and it has performed extremely well for me

Hoochy.

 

[leonz]

I watched that video even before I bought this mower as i was trying to find out all the info i could on flail mowers. I was going to buy a brand new Woodmaxx flail mower, and would have but i checked Craigslist one more time and found the Ford 907 for $950 with an extra set of flails/hangers. From the brief research I did, that seemed to be a fair price.

Whats the best way to drain the old oil? Tip the mower back? Unless theres a drain plug somewhere I didnt look. It was getting a bit dark when I was looking at it last night.

Is there anything else I should inspect before going to town with it? There was zero vibration when i had it up to speed. I have it all greased up with a heavy duty grease as well.

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Hello Zerker,


Welcome to the Flail Mower Nation. IF you have not done it already check the V belts and if frayed give them a decent burial and replace them with new Kevlar V belts of the same lot number.

You may have a bottom drain plug. You need to check it in the daylight hours otherwise you have to roll it over.

Did you check under the V belt guard and dig out all the grease fittings that may be buried with rubber and grass dust?

Make sure that there is no wire or twine wrapped around the shaft and rubbing against the "Flail Mower Rotor" bearings.

Is your PTO shaft the proper length? Remember that when you raise the mower up the PTO shaft collapses like an radio antennae. There are instructions on You tube and here on the forum to correctly size to length a new PTO shaft.

 

[Ozarks Landowner]

I've got all the knives and attachments off the drum.

I could turn the drum easily by hand with the belts removed but there was a severe wobble to the entire machine. The drum itself is straight and runs true. The bearings all seem to be tight.There was a very large weight welded on one end of the drum with smaller ones elsewhere on either end that obviously has it out of balance.

Shouldn't the drum be balanced with all attachments off of it or does the blades balance it out when attached?

 

[IslandTractor]

I've got all the knives and attachments off the drum.

I could turn the drum easily by hand with the belts removed but there was a severe wobble to the entire machine. The drum itself is straight and runs true. The bearings all seem to be tight.There was a very large weight welded on one end of the drum with smaller ones elsewhere on either end that obviously has it out of balance.

Shouldn't the drum be balanced with all attachments off of it or does the blades balance it out when attached?

I'd think it would clearly be balanced without knives. The factory balances the rotors before putting knives on. They typically use just small weights to get balance so I don't know where the big weight came from. Knives and mounting hardware is uniform and equally distributed so shouldn't affect dynamic balance when spinning.

Sounds to me like someone did something odd in adding the big weight. You might consider removing the big weight and testing again.

 

[leonz]

I've got all the knives and attachments off the drum.

I could turn the drum easily by hand with the belts removed but there was a severe wobble to the entire machine. The drum itself is straight and runs true. The bearings all seem to be tight.There was a very large weight welded on one end of the drum with smaller ones elsewhere on either end that obviously has it out of balance.

Shouldn't the drum be balanced with all attachments off of it or does the blades balance it out when attached?

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Hello Ozarks Landowner,


In a properly designed, built, and constructed flail mower the Flail Mower Rotors are first balanced without the knive sets and then re balanced with the knife pairs before the machine is finished.

If there is a wobble without the knife sets and mounting parts with the mower operating or while the PTO is running at the 540 rpm engine speed there is a huge problem.

Unless you take the time to remove the flail mower rotor and take it to a machine shop with high speed balancer
for drive shafts and use a dial indicator along the mounts and the flats of the flail mower rotor to check the flail mower rotor for "true" your going to have problems.

I have to go now.

 

[CTWright]

Hindsight from each used flail mower I've owned. Replace both drum bearings and both the height roller bearings before you start using it seriously. Keep any good bearings for spares

 

[CADplans]

I was riding past the local JD dealer one day,,, and I made an impulse purchase!!

I think it was my first ever AG impulse purchase,,, it is way better than the old 6 1/2 foot bush hog!!

 

[Code54]

Nice!! - I am guessing that one was brand new!