Ford 22-125 flail advice

[Mallard1]

My father in law has an old ford 22-125 7 flail mower, we yanked it out of the weeds this weekend and I知 going to borrow it and try it out for mowing food plots down before disking them down.

We cleaned it off and everything appears to spin freely it痴 missing 6 or so hammers right now. Other than filling if full of grease and seeing how it runs is there anything I should do first?

Here are a couple pictures

 

[Mallard1]

 

[leonz]

Hello and good morning Mallard1,

I want to welcome you as the newest member of the Flail Mower Nations from The Great State of Arkansas.

About your flail mower; you need a new V belt and you need several scoop knives and for now buying a few replacement scoop knives/spares from the local ford dealer is the quickest way to get you in the field. Your ford dealer should be able to make a copy of the manual for you if they have it in their existing parts book libraries.

You also need to make sure that you measure the PTO shaft properly for the tractor you are going to use as you do not want to damage the gearbox on the flail mower or the PTO stub shaft, bearing and flange on the tractor if it is measured incorrectly as you can cause a lot of damage to the PTO drive on the tractor and the gearbox on the flail mower.
remember that when the flail mower is raised to its highest point the PTO shaft is fully compressed and creates the greatest force against the PTO drive train and it must be short enough to allow the male end of the PTO shaft to fully retract and not have any chance of deflecting and bending the PTO Shaft and possibly damaging the PTO drive system on the tractor or damaging the right angle gear box of the flailmower.


Investing in a gates V belt tension gauge from amazon or a gates stocking distributor is the fastest and best way to correctly tension the V belt.

It appears that your knife hangers are held in place by a steel rod that is removed to replace the broken or missing scoop knives. The steel rods should be held in place with cotter keys much like the Vrisimo flail mowers.

After the cotter pins are removed the rod slides out and the knife hangers and scoop knives drop out and you replace t hem one at a time as you slide the rod back into place.


Move the flail mower to an open area and lay an inexpensive plastic drop cloth on the ground and place hardwood blocks under the flail mower before you lower it on the blocks and then you have plenty of room to work.


OK now-


1. New V belt; the least expensive place would be a NAPA, Car Quest, Autozone, Menards, Farm and Fleet or Tractor Supply store.
They will have a V belt measuring ruler to check it to make sure they sell you the right one.

2. the ford new Holland dealer for replacement scoop knives and cotter keys.

3. after you replace the missing scoop knives you need to grease the flail mower;

a. no more than 5 pumps of grease in the flail mower rotor bearings

b. no more than 4 pumps in the rear roller bearings

c. 3-4 pumps of grease in the open flange bearing that supports the drive pulley for the flail mower rotor-this is the pulley and bearing that is at the top of the V belt housing.

You also need to be sure to pump enough grease in the PTO shaft tube to allow it to push out the open end of the female half of the PTO shaft. The universal joints/crosses/spiders should not require any more than 3 pumps per universal joint.


D. To correctly level the flail mower place a small torpedo bubble level on the gear box and use the top link to adjust the flail mower to level
it and then you will be able to mow.

1. if the mule you are using has a three point hitch that sinks you need to lock it in place if your mule has a locking knob.

2. please understand that the flail mower cutting height is very important as the closer the knives are to the ground the flail mower will be better able to mow and lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor as you mow.

This is referred to as the pressure gradient/suction pressure/water gauge(HG)/ pressure being negative allowing the air flow to lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor.

You know its working well when it sounds like a household vacuum cleaner.

When your mowing job is done you should purge the bearings with a few pumps of fresh grease and then set the mower aside.


Happy Mowing.

 

[Mallard1]

Thanks for the help Leon, It looks like it takes a C-53 belt and I've got one at work and also have the tension gauge so that's not an issue. Are the cold shuts that hold the blades reusable or should they be changed with the blades. When i know that everything works correctly I would like to have all new blades to start with. also when searching for the knives pricing seems to be all over the board, is there a quality difference between the blades or just price? Thanks again for the help.

 

[leonz]

Thanks for the help Leon, It looks like it takes a C-53 belt and I've got one at work and also have the tension gauge so that's not an issue. Are the cold shuts that hold the blades reusable or should they be changed with the blades. When i know that everything works correctly I would like to have all new blades to start with. also when searching for the knives pricing seems to be all over the board, is there a quality difference between the blades or just price? Thanks again for the help.

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Hello Mallard1,

As for the cost of the scoop knives on your flail mower metal thickness and whether they are heat treated is the major concern.

The scoop knife hangers loops (V hangers) are reuseable as they are held in place by the metal strap loops that are held by the metal rods on each row.


I would just purchase the number needed for the repair and then a few extra spares from the Ford dealer for now and do your mowing and then decide if you really want to change them. These scoop knives are not all that expensive to replace in the scheme of things but you can also clean the cutting edge a little using a narrow whet stone dipped in water while it is on the knife hanger if they are really bad.
If all your doing is the food plots I would not worry to much about the scoop knives simply because the time to change them is when they
have been really dinged by rocks or you ride up on an asphalt drive way ledge while the mower is running.

You can always invest in a wet well grinder from micromark and a grinder angle tool from wood craft and sharpen them during the winter and then the mower will be ready to mow in the summer.

Mallard1 if you do not mind me asking this, are they growing a lot of dryland rice and sorghum in your neck of the woods?

 

[Fallon]

Change the belts. Grease up all the bearings including PTO bearings & splines to make sure they are in good shape. Check, maybe change the gearbox lube. Make sure none of the flails are in really bad shape & you should be good to go.

 

[Mallard1]

==============================================================================================


Hello Mallard1,

As far cast the cost of the scoop knives on your flail mower metal thickness and whether they are heat treated is the major concern.

The scoop knife hangers loops (V hangers) are reuseable as they are held in place by the metal strap loops that are held by the metal rods on each row.


I would just purchase the number needed for the repair and then a few extra spares from the Ford dealer for now and do your mowing and then decide if you really want to change them. These scoop knives are not all that expensive to replace in the scheme of things but you can also clean the cutting edge a little using a narrow whet stone dipped in water while it is on the knife hanger if they are really bad.
If all your doing is the food plots I would not worry to much about the scoop knives simply because the time to change them is when they
have been really dinged by rocks or you ride up on an asphalt drive way ledge while the mower is running.

You can always invest in a wet well grinder from micromark and a grinder angle tool from wood craft and sharpen them during the winter and then the mower will be ready to mow in the summer.

Mallard1 if you do not mind me asking this, are they growing a lot of dryland rice and sorghum in your neck of the woods?

Thanks for the help, as to the rice, I don't believe I have ever seen a dryland rice field around south eastern Arkansas, all of the fields around here are flooded with most now being zero grade fields. there is also very little sorghum grown here. the big crops are rice, soy beans, and corn. these are followed by less and less cotton every year and also some milo and a few people will do winter wheat. This covers 95%+ of the farms around here.

 

[Mallard1]

what are typical speeds to pull the flail using a 50-60 hp tractor, i understand the thickness of the weeds matters but is there a rule of thumb.

 

[Fallon]

what are typical speeds to pull the flail using a 50-60 hp tractor, i understand the thickness of the weeds matters but is there a rule of thumb.

Dont bog the engine & dont bounce out of the seat for the most part. Flails do a bit better a bit slower than a rotary, but it varries.

I rarely exceed 4mph with my L4060HSTC & 7' Peruzzo Brush Bull even if I'm not limited by power or cut quality. It's a bit big & wide for my tractor, but I prefer to go slow & wide. Less bouncing out of my seat per acre.

Thickness of weeds rarely has much of anything to do with it. Big weeds has nothing on thick grass for HP requirements. Heavy woody brush cuts faster & easier than thick lush grass that can have me crawling.

 

[leonz]

Hello and good morning Mallard1,

The simplest rule of thumb is to use the creeper gear for your first up and back full cutting width pass and then get to the center of the property and make half cuts at the next highest speed as your going to plug the chaff screen more than once as you mow.

It will not hurt to remove the tattle tail air filter restriction indicator and clean it with warm water and dawn dish soap and also wipe the interior of the air filter housing too. I hate these things as they can become plugged fairly quickly.

Get a headset radio or a fender radio, set the cruise control, make sure that you have a spare outer pre filter and secondary air filter -safety air filter.I hate those things by the way as an oil bath precleaner is much better to use.

 

[Mallard1]

Thanks for the help. So far all of the grease fittings have taken grease and everything is moving freely. I am currently missing 2,1,3 knives so I plan to make each one short 2 knives closest to the drive end until I can get new knives ordered in. There is still some rust on the sheaves that I will clean up before I test it. Hope to try it out in the yard one day this week.

 

[Mallard1]

I pulled the rods out the hold the knives in and put the two open links closest to the gear box. Everything spun good with very little vibration. It cut good in thinner grass however I cut some Bahia grass that was 18” tall and it slipped the old belt in first gear. My new belt should be in soon. When I actually go cut my food plots would I be better off to raise it up one hole on the rear roller vs being all the way down? Thanks.

 

[leonz]

Hello Mallard,

If you raise it up one hole it will lower the cutting height if you have more mounting holes below
the current setting you can lower it one position and see how it mows.

When the rear roller is adjusted at the lowest mounting hole position it will be at its highest cutting height.

Start in the middle position and see how it mows. You may want to lower the cutting height by raising the
rear roller one position and try mowing again.

No worries we are here for you Mallard.


LeonZ

 

[Mallard1]

Thanks Leon, I guess I worded that incorrectly, it is currently in the top hole giving it the lowest cutting height. It is cutting maybe 2” from the ground. It only has three adjustment holes so that is my plan to move it to the middle height.

My flail is also missing the rear deflector. I know from a safety standpoint it is needed but does it have any effect on cut quality?

 

[Mallard1]

another question the the knifes, in the picture below i currently have the one on the left marked "1". would the one on the right marked "2" be better for mowing food plots and trails? what is the advantage of each. Sorry for all of the questions just trying to figure it all out. Thanks again for all of the help!

 

[leonz]

Thanks Leon, I guess I worded that incorrectly, it is currently in the top hole giving it the lowest cutting height. It is cutting maybe 2” from the ground. It only has three adjustment holes so that is my plan to move it to the middle height.

My flail is also missing the rear deflector. I know from a safety standpoint it is needed but does it have any effect on cut quality?

(it is better that you have the deflector only because of the possibility that a knife my lift a rock up and out and hit a 2 or 4 legged rug rat or a car.

another question the the knifes, in the picture below i currently have the one on the left marked "1". would the one on the right marked "2" be better for mowing food plots and trails? what is the advantage of each. Sorry for all of the questions just trying to figure it all out. Thanks again for all of the help! View attachment 619580

The cut is something you will have to decide on Mallard, the scoop knives are a one and done affair. the side slicers will let you make a second or even third pass on the clippings to shred them even finer. The scoop knife was developed as a dual purpose mowing knife in that it could be used for mowing lawns and heavy brush.

The only decision will be whether you want to have brush laying down on the food plot or clippings that will dissolve quickly.

Happy Mowing

 

[Fallon]

Thanks Leon, I guess I worded that incorrectly, it is currently in the top hole giving it the lowest cutting height. It is cutting maybe 2” from the ground. It only has three adjustment holes so that is my plan to move it to the middle height.

My flail is also missing the rear deflector. I know from a safety standpoint it is needed but does it have any effect on cut quality?

No effect on cut quality as tested when I cut out the dented part of my hood. It was messy though.

My roller had been welded in place years or decades before I got it. I just adjusted cut height with the 3pt height rather than the roller height. Worked fine & I actually still do the same thing with my new Peruzzo. Much more convenient to do than messing with bolts. Just dont let the U-joint angle on the PTO shaft get to steep. The straighter the longer the U-joints will last.
View attachment 619644View attachment 619645

 

[Fallon]

another question the the knifes, in the picture below i currently have the one on the left marked "1". would the one on the right marked "2" be better for mowing food plots and trails? what is the advantage of each. Sorry for all of the questions just trying to figure it all out. Thanks again for all of the help! View attachment 619580

Heavier things win a fight thanks to basic physics. So the heavier a blade, the more likely it is to win a fight with a stick or a rock. For various definitions of win. You definitely want heavier blades for woody or brushy material so they impart more cutting force before bouncing.

I have side slicers on my 917, "2" according to your image. They cut woody brush up to finger size. When attempting to mow over branches or small trees 1-2" or so things would get noisy & it would just strip bark off. I'd imagine the duck foot (what you are calling "1") blades would do a bit better due to weight, but not that much better. My Peruzzo has 5lbs hammers that look basically like the duck foots. My tractor runs out of HP mowing wrist sized trees & branches while the mower is happily mulching away.

When mowing heavier brush, rocks or a well head, the lighter side slicers will just just bounce off without damage unless you jam things up really good. A heavier blade will have enough momentum to more likely damage itself. The 5lbs hammers start damaging the rocks & often taking little significant wear themselves.

The side slicers are plenty good for fields & pastures. They are also stupid cheap as its little more than light bar stock with a hole & a small bend in it. Way simpler & cheaper than the complex bending or welding required for a duck foot blade. Massively cheaper than my 5lbs cast hammers. Hitting the well wrecked 8ish side slicers & was under a $15 pain in the wallet (although I had old spares already).

 

[Mallard1]

Thanks for all of the help, i went ahead and ordered 42 of the scoop knives and also new links for them. I hope to try it out next weekend and see how it does now. Thanks again for walking me through this.

 

[Mallard1]

I got my new knives put on this afternoon and made a few passes on the yard at the camp. It cut good but I noticed when I got done there was grass stuck to the top of the blades. I attached a picture to show this. It doesn’t appear to be wrapped on the bottom just the top. Also I noticed that I must have slipped the new belt some as the sides had some wear.