Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[LarJea]

RutiBuck: I am on my 2nd year with a Chinese ditch mower and have had no problems. I bought mine direct from China but the ones that ValueLeader sells appear to be the same thing and are listed as heavy duty, mine was advertised as light duty, I believe because it has the side slicer cutters instead of the hammer cutters, by the way I see they now sell commercial duty ditch mowers. I spend most of the time with it mowing banked road sides but also use it to mow my trails through the woods.

 

[dalola]

Been digging through this thread for days....very educational & enlightening!

So, for me, it's come down to this: Caroni 47" flail, Woodmaxx 53" flail, or 48" rear finish (no brand yet). Talk me into something!

Tractor will be either JD1023E, 1025R, or Kubota BX2380, (Need to decide that too, but that's another matter...) all would have FEL and no MMM.

Mower duties will include supplemental finish mowing 4 acres (for my son, me on the 61" ZTR), and rough cut duties on a couple more acres of wooded hills & trails. To be fair, nothing on the rough cut side is extremely knarly.....Some of the weeds/grass may be several feet tall, but very thin, not thick & bushy, due to the heavy tree canopy. I'm certain a rear finish could handle it. The flail is appealing for the ability to open up some new trails that the rear finish may not be so suited for. I like the compact size also. Rear finish advantage I see as a better yard finish cut? Maybe not so? Also, maneuverability off the tractor, more mfg'r choices, and cheaper prices.

Really stuck on this one. I like the idea of a flail, but maybe over-kill for what I'm doing?

Thoughts?

 

[IslandTractor]

Been digging through this thread for days....very educational & enlightening!

So, for me, it's come down to this: Caroni 47" flail, Woodmaxx 53" flail, or 48" rear finish (no brand yet). Talk me into something!

Tractor will be either JD1023E, 1025R, or Kubota BX2380, (Need to decide that too, but that's another matter...) all would have FEL and no MMM.

Mower duties will include supplemental finish mowing 4 acres (for my son, me on the 61" ZTR), and rough cut duties on a couple more acres of wooded hills & trails. To be fair, nothing on the rough cut side is extremely knarly.....Some of the weeds/grass may be several feet tall, but very thin, not thick & bushy, due to the heavy tree canopy. I'm certain a rear finish could handle it. The flail is appealing for the ability to open up some new trails that the rear finish may not be so suited for. I like the compact size also. Rear finish advantage I see as a better yard finish cut? Maybe not so? Also, maneuverability off the tractor, more mfg'r choices, and cheaper prices.

Really stuck on this one. I like the idea of a flail, but maybe over-kill for what I'm doing?

Thoughts?

The Caroni would be my choice just because I am comfortable with the brand. The 1500 (47") carried by AgriSupply as I recall is a finish cut flail so will cut every bit as well as the ZTR on lawn. As your "rough cut" is not too bad I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to use it on that area too. Just slow down if necessary. I would bet that the Woodmaxx would also be fine but I don't have any experience with it. I've owned a rear finish mower on a 20hp tractor and all I can say is "meh!". Nothing awful but no real advantage over a Sears Craftsman riding mower.

 

[PRCWI]

I live in the US and I don't see flails on lawn mowers other than some tow behind options but I came across this while looking at ditch mowing flails on tractorhouse. I did some preliminary digging online and didn't see anyone selling these or other front mounted flail mowers in the US. Is anyone aware of flails for putting on front mount style lawn mowers?
TractorHouse.com | 217 TRIMAX FLAILDEK FXU185 For Sale

I did check Trimax Commercial Tractor Lawn Mowers | Rotary and Flail Mowers too but they don't seem to have a way to see dealers. They do indicate having products sold in the US however. Mainly out california way.

 

[powerscol]

POWERSCOL . . . Thank you for the suggestion. I did call them and talked about both the Maschio and the Perruzo. The Maschio was about $1300 more than the similar Perruzo . Don't know what makes it more but the price difference made it easy to rule out.

The key issue is measure the distance from your PTO to the outside of the rear tire. You want the pivot point of the mower head to be beyond that, at least 3 inches or so. That way you do not need to drive on the bank down slope to mow. You can get some of that by offsetting your 3PT to to the side.

 

[dalola]

The Caroni would be my choice just because I am comfortable with the brand. The 1500 (47") carried by AgriSupply as I recall is a finish cut flail so will cut every bit as well as the ZTR on lawn. As your "rough cut" is not too bad I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to use it on that area too. Just slow down if necessary. I would bet that the Woodmaxx would also be fine but I don't have any experience with it. I've owned a rear finish mower on a 20hp tractor and all I can say is "meh!". Nothing awful but no real advantage over a Sears Craftsman riding mower.

Thanks IslandTractor, appreciate the insight! Good to hear the Caroni flail would cut as well as my ZTR, which cuts better than anything I've ever used before. It's a Yazoo/Keys Max2, been bullet-proof, haven't even had to replace a belt yet, and approaching 700 hours. Built like a tank, too.

I live in the US and I don't see flails on lawn mowers other than some tow behind options but I came across this while looking at ditch mowing flails on tractorhouse. I did some preliminary digging online and didn't see anyone selling these or other front mounted flail mowers in the US. Is anyone aware of flails for putting on front mount style lawn mowers?
TractorHouse.com | 217 TRIMAX FLAILDEK FXU185 For Sale

I did check Trimax Commercial Tractor Lawn Mowers | Rotary and Flail Mowers too but they don't seem to have a way to see dealers. They do indicate having products sold in the US however. Mainly out california way.

I researched this brand, and they are ungodly expensive! The little 48" 3PT flail was over $7K! Yikes! Talked with a sales rep out of Canada, nice fella, but these are waaaaay out of my league.

 

[PRCWI]

I researched this brand, and they are ungodly expensive! The little 48" 3PT flail was over $7K! Yikes! Talked with a sales rep out of Canada, nice fella, but these are waaaaay out of my league.

Holy crap! That is expensive! Wow that would put them out of my league. Maybe I need to start making flails for lawn mowers. :laughing:

 

[leonz]

Thanks IslandTractor, appreciate the insight! Good to hear the Caroni flail would cut as well as my ZTR, which cuts better than anything I've ever used before. It's a Yazoo/Keys Max2, been bullet-proof, haven't even had to replace a belt yet, and approaching 700 hours. Built like a tank, too.
I researched this brand, and they are ungodly expensive! The little 48" 3PT flail was over $7K! Yikes! Talked with a sales rep out of Canada, nice fella, but these are waaaaay out of my league.

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Don't forget part of that is freight cost too. They make a good multi position flail mower for the European Market that can be configured to run three mowers off the rear as well and that is why they are expensive.

 

[leonz]

ONLY KUBOTA with their quick attach system for the B series.

 

[madpuma13]

Thanks to everyone that helped with my adjustment of the flail mower. I am now very pleased with the cut.

Managed to do a number of acres of severely overgrown land and the alamo handled it like a champ.

Went over and through some things I probably shouldn't have and had no issues.