Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[leonz]

Hello all I have just purchased a Kubota Grand L3560-LE cab tractor. The L3560 is still in the shipping crate at the dealer waiting to be assembled. My Location is Eastern Shore Maryland.

I have been reading this site for the last three months to help determine the L3560 tractor as the size that would work for my uses. I have had a John Deere 790 gear transmission, which quickly was traded for a John Deere 3320 hydro unit 8 months later. I do not have either tractor currently sold them off during the great downturn back in 08. I used the 3320 to keep the growth down after a Takeuchi t-130 Track loader had been through with a brush hog to do the initial clearing. I have tried to hire out the first cut, but no one is willing to go into the woods as it is in a low lying area and everyone in town knows it is not a matter of if you will get stuck, but how many times, will you be stuck?nd how bad will one be stuck.

It痴 true you will get stuck. I hogged it many times. I only got stuck twice, used a com-along to get unstuck, because there痴 no getting a tow truck to you and no one else near me has a tractor to help out.

My usage will be maintaining 11 acres of woods that was last bushhogged 12 years ago, 3 acres woods that was bushogged 12 years ago and my new home site of six acres that has not seen a tractor in over 30 years also wooded at the current time. I will also be maintaining the ditches that are around the 13 acres, both sides of the ditches, filled with water year round?early a miles worth when added together and my current cleared 1 acre around my home..

Which bring us to why the thread, I need a flail mower, using a rotary cutter was very hard to do between the trees, I managed to do it but it took way too long to do. Also I would like to have enough side overhang so I can mow the ditches, which have near zero banks, they are level with the ground, and the ground is soft-ish. I do not want a boom set up.

The Land pride Flail from Kubota is far too expensive. My budget is three thousand-ish.

I want a new mower; not used. I have narrowed down the players to be Bestco, Woodmax, Del morino (learned that was what land-pride painted, I mean imported, for their previous models here on this site.)
I want to do the first cut in all areas with this flail mower and then maintain all the acreage as well for the next five years when I will be selling all but the six acres for my new home. After that who knows. So I am looking for the best bang for the buck flail mower for my usage. Thoughts and recommendations appreciated within the constraints of budget and tractor.

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Hello and good evening dturco,

The landPride flails were actually Maschio units under the tan paint but that is in the past now sadly.

The orchard and vineyard shredders are nothing at all like the boom mounted highway mowers.

The smallest orchard and vineyard flail shredders with cast hammers would seem to give you the most usable mower for your current
and future needs as they are small in size and with your new mule they will not cause a balance problem as long as you have the rears loaded.


You will have to call for prices and find the nearest dealers for Del Morino, Maschio and Peruzzo-which is Iowa Farm Equipment.

With your price limits you may have difficulty finding a used JD 25A, 290 or 390 but its worth looking for a used unit as they are built very well.

Its also a good idea to check the auction sites as dealers have sales on excess inventory and there are also many dispersal sales and auctions to look at.

Paying a finders fee to an auction house would also be a good idea if at all possible.

Short of renting a small dozer for a couple of weeks to clear the land or hiring a forestry mower to do the work you are limited with your options.

 

[dturco]

Leonz Thank you for the reply. I noticed you did not mention woodmax or bestco in your response. They fit the budget, do Mascio Peruzzo or Delmorino come in around 3K-ish?

I bought the Kubota because the prices I was quote for a forestry machine to go in were close to two years worth of payments on the L3560!

 

[geblackwell]

Mr leonz

I visited a Woodcraft store. I presented them with photos of flail mower knives. They said there was no way that a micromark utility sharpener would hold up to sharpening these knives. They indicated that these sharpeners were to be used on fine wood working tools such as a plane iron, knife edge, chisel, or lathe tools. Because the wheel turns so slow and is uses a fine grit, it would take for ever to sharpen any quantity of cutters. They said it would be a complete waist of money to purchase this if this is what I was going to use it on.

Why couldn't you use a side arm grinder with a flapper wheel like I uses on my lawn mower and bush hog?

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Thank you

 

[Boxman]

Mr leonz

I visited a Woodcraft store. I presented them with photos of flail mower knives. They said there was no way that a micromark utility sharpener would hold up to sharpening these knives. They indicated that these sharpeners were to be used on fine wood working tools such as a plane iron, knife edge, chisel, or lathe tools. Because the wheel turns so slow and is uses a fine grit, it would take for ever to sharpen any quantity of cutters. They said it would be a complete waist of money to purchase this if this is what I was going to use it on.

Why couldn't you use a side arm grinder with a flapper wheel like I uses on my lawn mower and bush hog?

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Thank you

Yes you can. An angle grinder with a flap disk is way faster, way easier and much preferred over a tiny, slow, fine grit water wheel made for sharpening chisels and plane irons.

 

[hunt4570]

Yes you can. An angle grinder with a flap disk is way faster, way easier and much preferred over a tiny, slow, fine grit water wheel made for sharpening chisels and plane irons.

And why a flap disc as opposed to a grinding disc?

 

[aczlan]

And why a flap disc as opposed to a grinding disc?

Less heat and a little slower at taking material off. Easier to control and avoid overheating the knives.

Aaron Z

 

[bruceha2000]

Sorry, didn't get the joke. I am guy with accent, too deep for me.

If you are referring to:
"As for Betstco no longer offering flail mower knives that hoovers as "Bucky Cat" from the "Get Fuzzy" comic strip would say."
Hoover is a brand of vacuum cleaner. In fact in England they generically call all brands of vacuum cleaners Hoover. Hoover is also a verb, as in "I'm going to hoover the rug". Now what does a vacuum cleaner do? It sucks up dirt. So when Bucky says something "hoovers", he means, in this case the fact that Betstco no longer sells knives, sucks.

If that is not what you were referring to then ... NEVERMIND!

Sodamo Thank you for the response, tractor is 60" wide I was contemplating using 68" or 72" hydraulic shift so I could keep the Tires further away from the ditches. I am mildly concerned abut HP but not too much I think the tractor can turn the larger implements with out much trouble.

Your tractor is on the low side of PTO HP for a Woodmaxx 78H, they spec 30-65 and your tractor is 29.5 if gear, 28 if HST. I was going to get that one but called the sales people to ask about knives vs hammers and was talked down to the FM-62H at 20-45 PTO HP. My tractor has only 24.7 PTO HP. I figured I could just run slower and get one more foot per pass but he thought otherwise. Given the 78H is $500 more than the 62H, clearly he wasn't trying to get more money out of me, wanted me to be happy with what I bought.

I haven't used it yet (got it in March) because though it is supposed to be Cat I quick hitch compliant, the vertical distance between upper and lower pins (F1) is Cat III, they don't even make a Cat III flail so I have no idea how they screwed this up. The F1 distance for Cat II is the same as Cat I (15"). They are looking into it. I'm sure I could run it directly attached to the 3 PT but at 700 pounds, I don't want to try to wrestle it into position. I'd have to get more than "close enough", my 3 point's lower link arms are not extendable.

I visited a Woodcraft store. I presented them with photos of flail mower knives. They said there was no way that a micromark utility sharpener would hold up to sharpening these knives. They indicated that these sharpeners were to be used on fine wood working tools such as a plane iron, knife edge, chisel, or lathe tools. Because the wheel turns so slow and is uses a fine grit, it would take for ever to sharpen any quantity of cutters. They said it would be a complete waist of money to purchase this if this is what I was going to use it on.

Why couldn't you use a side arm grinder with a flapper wheel like I uses on my lawn mower and bush hog?

I was made aware of Knife Sharpeners and Tool Sharpeners - Work Sharp Outdoor while watching some YouTube videos recently. Their sales people say the "Ken Onion Edition Knife & Tool Sharpener" can be used to sharpen lawn mower blades so I would expect it would work for flail knives. I've not bought one yet, having just heard about it but I thought I'd put it out in case anyone has used them and can pass on any info. I've been sharpening the 3 blades on my garden tractor's deck with hand files, it is getting old.

 

[hunt4570]

I was made aware of Knife Sharpeners and Tool Sharpeners - Work Sharp Outdoor while watching some YouTube videos recently. Their sales people say the "Ken Onion Edition Knife & Tool Sharpener" can be used to sharpen lawn mower blades so I would expect it would work for flail knives. I've not bought one yet, having just heard about it but I thought I'd put it out in case anyone has used them and can pass on any info. I've been sharpening the 3 blades on my garden tractor's deck with hand files, it is getting old.

I have the work sharp sharpener, not the Ken Onion one, but there is not much difference. I will say they work great for pocket knives , kitchen knives and the like, even done my machete with it. I think it would be to light duty for lawnmower blades, and too hard to hold it and a flail blade at the same time (I have the Y blades). I suppose if you took the time to put the flail blades in a vice to hold them it would work ok, just take forever. And I do my mower blades with my angle grinder.. easiest way I've found..

 

[John0829]

Well the rain they were calling for did not develop so I got started late this afternoon on flipping the slicer pairs, seems they had been flipped before but many (not done yet) had significantly less wear on the trailing side. Also several were bent, so I used a rosebud to heat and straighten them out then retempered. I setup the belt sander next to the mower and started taking one set off at a time, sharpen the best side and put them back.

Looks like I need to invest in a new set of slicers but before doing that I want to see if the cut improves with the sharpened slicers at least a little. Also it does not appear there are vary many sources for them, at least not like the 917 models. And I did figure out the 918H 72" is a rebadged Maletti, model FM180.

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Hello and good morning John0829,


The cutting edges are pretty dull john, I would flip the side slicer pairs and see how
well they look. you may just luck out and have a good set of edges on the opposite side.

 

[CADplans]

WOOT!!,, Flail Season has started,,, :thumbsup: