Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[sodamo]

Thanks for the info on the belts guys, good stuff.

 

[Alien]

I take the brunt of the weight on the skids and roller so there is not undue weight on the 3PL. The skids barely leave marks, just enough that if you look close you can see lines. to me, that is what the skids are for, not just for storage. The finish is what counts. My dad always said you should never turn with an implement on the back unless you lift it. Less chance of bending things.

 

[TerryCC]

I have the roller down one hole from where it came from the factory. You then have to move the skids down one notch to access the grease zerks. I set the 3 point hitch so the skids are 3/4 to 1 inch off the turf and it never digs in on turns and doesn't scalp with small ground humps. This set-up I think is in the 300+ page thread somewhere. I am mowing hay fields not lawns so the cut is higher but lower than a typical shredder.

 

[powerscol]

This is going to sound like a dumb question, but as I have read all the pages here over time. I see the words flail and shredder used separately and together . Some manufactures use the term shredder and some use flail. To clarify - are both the same and if not, how do you tell the deference? One thing I have noticed is shredders appear to come with the hammers, and not Y-knives.

Thanks in advance for putting me out of my confusion :confused2:

 

[IslandTractor]

This is going to sound like a dumb question, but as I have read all the pages here over time. I see the words flail and shredder used separately and together . Some manufactures use the term shredder and some use flail. To clarify - are both the same and if not, how do you tell the deference? One thing I have noticed is shredders appear to come with the hammers, and not Y-knives. Thanks in advance for putting me out of my confusion :confused2:

My understanding is that shredders and flail mowers use essentially the same mechanical parts and basic design but are optimized differently either for mowing or shredding crops. Shredders are typically larger and rough cut while mowers can be either fine or rough cut. I've never actually seen an agricultural shredder so take that with a grain or two of salt.

 

[aczlan]

Unless you are in Australia where a shredder is a bush hog type rotary mower...

 

[powerscol]

Unless you are in Australia where a shredder is a bush hog type rotary mower...

Figures, they are upside down and backwards from us, and drive on the wrong side of the road....I am allowed to say that as I have a friend in Perth. Keeps calling me a hopping cheese maggot for some reason :confused3::cool2:

They also drive utes, not trucks.

But one thing they do have that is a absolute fix all....."Vegemite"

 

[Permaculturist]

I'm still working my way through this thread (page 199 so far) but I'm going to jump ahead here and ask a question. Sorry if it has already been addressed, as I haven't come across it yet, or through my searches - What size does a rock need to be to become a problem for a heavy duty flail mower? We're talking Berti TA/S 220, Maschio GIRAFFA 210, or Seppi M SMO avs here with hammer flails.

I understand (from reading this thread) that hanging 'Y' knives from a clevis handle rocks better than cast hammers (are forged hammers any better??) but all these machines attach the Y knives directly to the rotor from what I can see. Also, the majority of the work I will be doing with this machine will be in light/medium brush, so I would like to stick with hammers.

I have a fair amount of rocks around here, though. If I have to I can follow one of Leonz ideas earlier in this thread, and mount a landscape rake to my FEL, but that's one more attachment to maintain, and I'm building quite the collection already.

But.. maybe I'm worrying about nothing here, and my inexperience with flail mowing is showing. So.. what size rock can I hit with one of the above machines without breaking a $40+ hammer?

Thanks in advance for any input. I'm heading back down to page 199 now for more wisdom. :thumbsup:

 

[Alien]

Unless you are in Australia where a shredder is a bush hog type rotary mower...

I live in the vegetable producing area in Queensland and shredders are used to mulch up the leftover cabbages, cauliflowers etc after picking. They are similar to a flail only bigger/heavier I guess.
I use a Flail mower with hammers as they not only chop up small trees and stick debris but leave a nice finish. They also deal well with annular weeds that are prolific from time to time.

 

[Alien]

I have rocks that keep surfacing after dry spells and I wander around picking the larger ones by hand and throwing them in the FEL. I don't worry about up to 2" as most of mine are sandstone, not like granite which should be avoided. The hammers can cut sandstone ok but still fling it around. I just plain try to avoid hitting any at all. I lifted my mower recently after several mows with the intention of touching up the hammers with a angle grinder but it barely required any work at all. There were no chunks out of any hammers and it was still reasonably sharp. I was pleasantly surprised.