Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[John0829]

Since lawn is what you are cutting, you probably should get scoop knives. Side slicer are decent enough for both rough and grass, but not great at either. They also don't move much air. Scoop knives have a flat face, and cause a lot more turbulence under the mower, which helps to stand the grass up to be cut. What time of day did you mow? Looks like a nice flat piece of land. Must not be near me.

I am in Western KY about 2 hours east of Louisville near Owensboro. Flat? If only you knew, stub your toe outside the house and pick yourself up at the bottom of a long hill. Myself and my neighbor have some places so steep you have to prop your feet on the dash to stay in the seat. I would kill for a level piece of ground.

I attempted to cut this at around 4 pm. but after seeing there was no improvement I became so disgusted I just quit. I really want to figure this out, others have talked about how nice a cut they got from the 918 what is it I am doing wrong? It can't be rocket science or maybe it is and I am to dumb to recognise it as such.

Where can scoop knives be found for the 918H? Flailmasters is the only place I have found any blades/parts listed for the 918 and they only have the side slicers. Is there some other brand/model flail blade that can be substituted? Or should I figure this mower was a mistake and find it a new home?

Probably will put the finish mower on today to finish up this weeks mowing.

 

[leonz]

Hello and good morning John0829,

Please refresh my memory; is your flail mower set up with knife mounting stations that are narrow in width or is it using a D or V ring knife hanger?

You can find the ford 917 scoop knife blades on page 23 of the flail master catalog.

The scoop knives for the ford 917 in the clean cutter catalog are FN220398
As long as the mounting dimensions are identical they will fit the 918 models as long as the scoop knives can be mounted in each row with out them touching from side to side in each row AND the following rows overlap the open sections of the preceding row that do not have a cutting edge.

Please do not get discouraged we want to help you. Do your current knives have elongated mounting holes using D ring hanger loops or the narrow V type hanger loops?

If the side slicer knives cannot become air foils/airplane wings they will not cut level. A nearby ford New Holland tractor dealer, Clean Cutter or Flail Master will have the model 917 scoop knives if that is what you wish to change them to.

I see in your uploaded images that you have a rooster tail of unmown grass you apparently have a knife pair that is jammed up and unable to swivel.

If you cannot slice notebook paper with the sharpened knife edge they are not sharp -yes I am fussy that is why I like wet well grinders as they keep the edge cool and as a result sharp just like the grinding stones that are foot driven with water wells that pull the water up and over the stone as it grinds the cutting edge.

Please do not get discouraged my friend we are here to help you. you have a beautiful piece of American high quality workmanship. A very small unnoticed thing for the new owner/new user is the rooster tail/mohawk can make things not mow right and it is easily corrected by checking the knife hangers and a slower mowing speed.

Mowing in a spiral pattern is also a big help if it is safely possible to do so with your terrain

No worries, we are here to help you as many "Flail Mower Nation" resident members have the 917 and 918 flail mowers.

 

[vlcakc]

The Flailmaster catalog has illustrations of the 917 and 918H blades. Flailmaster part number for the 917 one piece blade (scoop blade) is FM-220398 and the part number for the 918H standard (Y-blade or side slicer as leonz prefers) is FM-620080. The blade and hangar designs are quite different and do not directly interchange. Can other type blades be adapted for the 918H? I don't know. I did some internet searching and never came up with a direct replacement. Since I was getting satisfactory results with the standard 918H blades not a lot more time was spent researching.

Will a scoop type blade give a smoother cut? Possibly. I recently changed the Y-blades on the Land Pride FM2584 flail I now own to hammer blades for a pasture brush clearing project. Even though Land Pride doesn't specifically recommend hammer blades for finish mowing, I was pleasantly surprised at the smooth test cut on a lawn area. I can personally attest that the Land Pride FM2584 with Y-blades does not have enough pairs of blades to give a satisfactory cut on residential lawn areas. Vic

 

[Lnk]

I am in Western KY about 2 hours east of Louisville near Owensboro. Flat? If only you knew, stub your toe outside the house and pick yourself up at the bottom of a long hill. Myself and my neighbor have some places so steep you have to prop your feet on the dash to stay in the seat. I would kill for a level piece of ground.

I attempted to cut this at around 4 pm. but after seeing there was no improvement I became so disgusted I just quit. I really want to figure this out, others have talked about how nice a cut they got from the 918 what is it I am doing wrong? It can't be rocket science or maybe it is and I am to dumb to recognise it as such.

Where can scoop knives be found for the 918H? Flailmasters is the only place I have found any blades/parts listed for the 918 and they only have the side slicers. Is there some other brand/model flail blade that can be substituted? Or should I figure this mower was a mistake and find it a new home?

Probably will put the finish mower on today to finish up this weeks mowing.

Can you take a picture of your rotor? That would give us all the info we need to help you.

 

[Xfaxman]

Can you take a picture of your rotor? That would give us all the info we need to help you.

He did, #5873: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/118882-lets-talk-flail-mowers-147.html#post5428677

 

[Lnk]

He did, #5873: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/118882-lets-talk-flail-mowers-147.html#post5428677

Thanks Xffaxman, missed it. I am not sure scoops will work on that. Looks like spacers keep side slicer hanging straight down. If you were to catch a corner of a scoop on something it would twist or damage the mount. I am sorry, but you might be able to sell it and purchase a different mower that could accept scoops.

 

[vlcakc]

The challenge to adapting a scoop blade to the NH 918H is to find one that has the correct length and has or can be altered to have a 9/16" diameter round mounting hole for the through bolt. The original Y-blades were about 4-5/8" long. I no longer have any 918H blades so cannot furnish the "Center of mounting hole To Blade tip" dimension. The "U" shaped blade mounting bracket that is welded to the rotor is pretty robust and uses IIRC a 1/2" diameter Gr 5 or 8 hex bolt to mount the blades. Depending on the thickness of the scoop blade mounting surface, spacer washers may or may not be required. Vic

 

[John0829]

The challenge to adapting a scoop blade to the NH 918H is to find one that has the correct length and has or can be altered to have a 9/16" diameter round mounting hole for the through bolt. The original Y-blades were about 4-5/8" long. I no longer have any 918H blades so cannot furnish the "Center of mounting hole To Blade tip" dimension. The "U" shaped blade mounting bracket that is welded to the rotor is pretty robust and uses IIRC a 1/2" diameter Gr 5 or 8 hex bolt to mount the blades. Depending on the thickness of the scoop blade mounting surface, spacer washers may or may not be required. Vic

You are correct the blades are 4-9/16" or 4-5/8" long and are held on by 12MM Gr 10.8 bolts (close enough to 1/2" to call it that for those who don't do metric). I have searched for blades using the dimensions of the OEM blades to see if I could find something I could adapt with the same results as you gents have had. All the blades are SHARP and free swinging none are in anyway snug or binding, turning the rotor by hand all fall vertical as they get near the bottom of the rotation. As for mowing speed the manual calls for a max of 5 mph and the cut made in the pics was at 3 mph and of course at 540 PTO rpm. For whatever reason it just refuses to cut the tire track no matter how slow the speed of travel.

I really do appreciate all the suggestions and ideas, bound to stumble upon the answer at some point.

 

[D2Cat]

Maybe the cut problem could be as simple as the grass is too wet.

 

[Fallon]

My old 917 with Ys & the new Peruzzo with hammers (basically 5lbs scoops) both leave tire tracks. Usually most of the tracks get mowed, but it's still visible. I generally mow with the Peruzzo offset most of the way to the right & keep the left tires on the previously mowed pass. That minimizes the stripes.