Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[JWR]

JethroB your cutting parts look just like my SHD88 Alamo. But your knives are staggered in pairs rather than individually. Mine are not paired. I notice you have used some nice shiny bolts to hold your clevis' on. Do lock washers hold well keeping those from loosening? Mine uses pins with cotter keys and maybe once or twice a season I hit something that strips the cotter key from one of the pins and I lose the whole set of pin, clevis and knives. One time it happened and made enough noise that I halted quick enough and found the pin out on one end and nothing missing YET except a cotter key.

 

[JethroB]

JethroB your cutting parts look just like my SHD88 Alamo. But your knives are staggered in pairs rather than individually. Mine are not paired. I notice you have used some nice shiny bolts to hold your clevis' on. Do lock washers hold well keeping those from loosening? Mine uses pins with cotter keys and maybe once or twice a season I hit something that strips the cotter key from one of the pins and I lose the whole set of pin, clevis and knives. One time it happened and made enough noise that I halted quick enough and found the pin out on one end and nothing missing YET except a cotter key.

Flail Master supplied what they called compatible blades that they make in-house. Each stamped 200C. Caroni uses bolts and nylocks instead of pins/cotter keys. I haven’t had any known issues with the nylocks. The threads get crudded up pretty quickly too. I asked FM about using pins, she said it’s mostly municipalities and such with commercial mowers that use pins likely because they change the blades often. Very understandable, grrr.
The metric nuts and bolts came from Fastenal because FM was out of stock. About $1.50 per set. Not bad I thought.

 

[JWR]

Agree. I thought Flail Master went out of business a year or two ago (??)

 

[JethroB]

Agree. I thought Flail Master went out of business a year or two ago (??)

Me too. Another poster here recently said he drove by their business often. Some items aren’t in their online catalog so I called.

 

[Racenut]

I agree ! With some searching I find the NovaTractor products are from a Houston TX company. But the very foreign tractor in their YouTube videos looks to be a Chinese (??) machine. NovaTractor flails appear to be very new and not on the market long. Wonder what the whole story is ? Impressive looking mowers.

So far, we have been impressed with it. Granted, I don't have much to compare to, but it has eaten everything I've fed it, including that stump I have not cut much grass with it. The grass isn't a lawn, just a fire hazard so I'm not picky about how fine the cut is. They've been around for at least a few years, they're also sold under Bowell brand in Europe. They certainly don't seem to have the advertising budget some other places do. Chinese made, but have a Comer gearbox and decent bearings and everything in this price range is Chinese anyway. So far, no regrets at all other than the color . There's a guy named Jack Yuan that either runs or works for the company, he posts here sometimes.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

But your knives are staggered in pairs rather than individually.

That's an interesting observation. I wonder why they designed it that way If anybody has any ideas I would like to hear them.

I asked FM about using pins, she said it’s mostly municipalities and such with commercial mowers that use pins likely because they change the blades often. Very understandable, grrr.

Another interesting piece of information that I never considered before.

 

[jthibodeau89]

Me too. Another poster here recently said he drove by their business often. Some items aren’t in their online catalog so I called.

Flailmaster was able to secure funding and is now employee owned. They were closed for about a year IIRC. I drive past their shop in Murfresboro on my commute to work. I am very glad to see them back. Great folks there.

 

[JWR]

Flailmaster was able to secure funding and is now employee owned. They were closed for about a year IIRC. I drive past their shop in Murfresboro on my commute to work. I am very glad to see them back. Great folks there.

Wow! That is good information for all flail mower owners and would-be owners. Thanks.

 

[JethroB]

Flailmaster was able to secure funding and is now employee owned. They were closed for about a year IIRC. I drive past their shop in Murfresboro on my commute to work. I am very glad to see them back. Great folks there.

So you’re the one! I was too lazy to search back in this monster thread.
Thank you. Saved me a bundle.

 

[Number15]

Disaster time. Not sure what took these belts out, unit has less that 3 hours on it. Didn't even make it to the first maint check LOL
I was just mowing grass and it tanked.