Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[threeoranges]

Yes, there are four bolts which hold the gearbox to the mower.

They are untightened before the tension bolt is adjusted, and retightened after the tension bolt is adjusted, before operating the mower.

I tried lifting the gearbox when the four bolts were loose, on the chance that I could stop the noise, but I did not succeed.

It seems that the U-joint on the implement side strikes the top of the gearbox if it's raised high enough to tighten the 40" outer circumference belts. I will try shorter belts.

 

[TractorNoob85]

Yes, there are four bolts which hold the gearbox to the mower.

They are untightened before the tension bolt is adjusted, and retightened after the tension bolt is adjusted, before operating the mower.

I tried lifting the gearbox when the four bolts were loose, on the chance that I could stop the noise, but I did not succeed.

It seems that the U-joint on the implement side strikes the top of the gearbox if it's raised high enough to tighten the 40" outer circumference belts. I will try shorter belts.

The 4 bolts of the gearbox do not get loosed. The piece of metal that the gearbox attaches to has 4 bolts, 1 at each corner. I circled them in the photos. You can see how they are slotted to pivot when the adjuster bolt is raised or lowered.

 

[threeoranges]

Yes, those are the ones that I was talking about. They are loosened and retightened. By "gearbox" I meant the entire assembly.

 

[TractorNoob85]

Im at a loss then. If you run out of adjustment, then a shorter belt will be required. Regarding the noise when running, is the side shaft hitting the cover? Does the gearbox have plenty of oil? Are there metal shavings in the gear oil?

 

[threeoranges]

Im at a loss then. If you run out of adjustment, then a shorter belt will be required. Regarding the noise when running, is the side shaft hitting the cover? Does the gearbox have plenty of oil? Are there metal shavings in the gear oil?

I cannot see the exact hitting with the PTO guard on, but I can see the orange metal underneath the U-Joint vibrating as though it is being struck from above, and the banging noise happens roughly once per revolution. I think the U-Joint is striking the top of the orange gearbox assembly underneath it when the tension bolt is tightened enough to make a 40" outer circumference A38K belt tight enough.

I bought an A37K 39" outer circumference belt, but I cannot get it on the pulley even with a screwdriver, and even when the tension bolt is totally loose. I may need to remove the bearing and pulley and wrap the belt around it and then reinstall the pulley. Or try finding a 39.5" outer circumference belt.

The shear bolt is on the tractor side, as per the warning sticker on the PTO shaft which has an arrow pointing left toward the back of a tractor picture. I have been told by Betstco that the shear bolt should be on the tractor side, and that if it breaks, the drivetrain will stop spinning, while if it were on the implement side, the drivetrain would still spin even though the mower doesn't.

There are no metal filings or dark oil in the gearbox. It is filled to the max until the drain hole on the side drips. I leave the drain hole on the side open for a few seconds for all excess to drain out.

 

[threeoranges]

I have been talking to Aaron Pierce for a few days now.

"Keith" (mentioned at the top of this thread) is no longer with Betstco.

I will try some more suggestions from Aaron tomorrow, but he might have to send me a new PTO shaft.

Would there be any damage if I removed the bearing and pulley so that I can wrap shorter belts around it and then reattach the pulley?

It is too difficult to install a 39" belt, even with a flat screwdriver and even when the tension bolt is totally loose.

A 40" belt, which is listed in the parts manual (Napa A38), can be installed with some effort by rotating the pulley to guide the belt around it. But once it falls into the V-belt groove, it is too loose unless the tension bolt is screwed to its max, which causes the banging sound near the implement side of the PTO shaft.

 

[OldTrix]

Greetings Flail Mower Nation,

811 pages. Whew! I admit I sorta skipped through a lot if the earlier stuff, but it is amazing to see how much pricing has increased in 18 years.

Seeking advice on my first flail mower purchase:

We bought a place in VT with 28 acres of mixed pastureland and woods. Now that I'm here full time, I plan to reclaim some of the old orchard land and clean up the logging trails running through the woods. I also have a pond that would benefit from a ditch/bank mower to clean up the banks. Weed whacking it by hand truly sucks.

From all the advice and experience I've read here, It's clear a ditch/bank mower is the ticket. I can keep fence rows and trails clear with a vertical pass and be able to use the offset to catch the pond and stream banks.

I have a Mahindra 2665 that is 65HP, 50 at the PTO, with a cat II TPH. With the front loader and filled tires, it is somewhere north of 7500lbs.

I've been gumming by with a 6 ft RC, but it is difficult with all the trees interfering with the cab along the edges. It also sucks trying to reclaim areas that have been taken over by brush and saplings.

So, I'm convinced a ditch/bank mower with hammers is the solution. I can swap out for Y blades once things get groomed up a bit.

I'm leery of going smaller than 70" as it takes a lot of time as it is mowing everything (including the Neighbor's 7 Acres) but also concerned about the weight of the larger mowers.

Does anyone have any real world experience with 70-78" mowers on a tractor my size? (@LouNY , you're a bit bigger than mine). I'm worried about stability when offset with the heavier 1500-1800 lb units.

Any specific brands to avoid?

Also, I see some brands have float controller options. Could someone explain to my 5th grade brain how those function and if I need one?

Hoping to pull the trigger this month or next and get crackin this season.

 

[JWR]

Greetings Flail Mower Nation,

811 pages. Whew! I admit I sorta skipped through a lot if the earlier stuff, but it is amazing to see how much pricing has increased in 18 years.

Seeking advice on my first flail mower purchase:

We bought a place in VT with 28 acres of mixed pastureland and woods. Now that I'm here full time, I plan to reclaim some of the old orchard land and clean up the logging trails running through the woods. I also have a pond that would benefit from a ditch/bank mower to clean up the banks. Weed whacking it by hand truly sucks.

From all the advice and experience I've read here, It's clear a ditch/bank mower is the ticket. I can keep fence rows and trails clear with a vertical pass and be able to use the offset to catch the pond and stream banks.

I have a Mahindra 2665 that is 65HP, 50 at the PTO, with a cat II TPH. With the front loader and filled tires, it is somewhere north of 7500lbs.

I've been gumming by with a 6 ft RC, but it is difficult with all the trees interfering with the cab along the edges. It also sucks trying to reclaim areas that have been taken over by brush and saplings.

So, I'm convinced a ditch/bank mower with hammers is the solution. I can swap out for Y blades once things get groomed up a bit.

I'm leery of going smaller than 70" as it takes a lot of time as it is mowing everything (including the Neighbor's 7 Acres) but also concerned about the weight of the larger mowers.

Does anyone have any real world experience with 70-78" mowers on a tractor my size? (@LouNY , you're a bit bigger than mine). I'm worried about stability when offset with the heavier 1500-1800 lb units.

Any specific brands to avoid?

Also, I see some brands have float controller options. Could someone explain to my 5th grade brain how those function and if I need one?

Hoping to pull the trigger this month or next and get crackin this season.

Flails are good tools and the hammer type will certainly allow beating down some heavier stuff. Reading thru your narrative I have these observations: nothing like authority but opinion...

1. I think the 6ft hog you already have is the right tool for your larger acreage. You probably could trade for a 7 foot hog which is what I use (but on a little larger 81 horse tractor.) You might like the 70-78 inch flail but I do not see the advantage of it.
2. I have a 7 1/2 ft Alamo flail mower which I like for annual cutting of meadows before winter, etc. However mine is "Y" cutters and using it out in the pasture field means having to stop and replace fails or do maint having hit a rock or too large a limb in the grass, etc. way too often.
3. For the pond and ditch banks there are a lot of options for mounting on your FEL or for offset gadgets in the back. In my experience they just never reach out far enough. I had a 17ft arm articulated boom mower on the back of my MF2660 but it was too much of a pain to get on and off the tractor. There are quite a few manufacturers of various rigs that offset and/or reach out and are 3pt hitch mounted. I was surprised to find so many varieties in searching around for them.
4. I ended up with a Lane Shark FEL mounted, hydraulic motor driven, cutter. They are in the $4K to $5K range. It is very flexible in terms of being able to reach out in front, switch to the right side offset position, etc. Designed to run off tractor hydraulics and does not require a PTO pump. One elderly man like me can get them on and off in short order. They are also really nice for cutting off overhanging limbs around the borders of meadows, etc. Mine is an early model (first one sold in the state of WVa) and the newer ones have some nicer features like hydraulic positioning of the angle of cutting (vertical down to horizontal, etc.) You may be interested to know the Lane Shark comes with either a flail cutter or 4ft rotary cutter. I chose the 4ft rotary which is very robust and cuts 2" limbs etc very well.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

 

[RjCorazza]

Greetings Flail Mower Nation,

811 pages. Whew! I admit I sorta skipped through a lot if the earlier stuff, but it is amazing to see how much pricing has increased in 18 years.

Seeking advice on my first flail mower purchase:

We bought a place in VT with 28 acres of mixed pastureland and woods. Now that I'm here full time, I plan to reclaim some of the old orchard land and clean up the logging trails running through the woods. I also have a pond that would benefit from a ditch/bank mower to clean up the banks. Weed whacking it by hand truly sucks.

From all the advice and experience I've read here, It's clear a ditch/bank mower is the ticket. I can keep fence rows and trails clear with a vertical pass and be able to use the offset to catch the pond and stream banks.

I have a Mahindra 2665 that is 65HP, 50 at the PTO, with a cat II TPH. With the front loader and filled tires, it is somewhere north of 7500lbs.

I've been gumming by with a 6 ft RC, but it is difficult with all the trees interfering with the cab along the edges. It also sucks trying to reclaim areas that have been taken over by brush and saplings.

So, I'm convinced a ditch/bank mower with hammers is the solution. I can swap out for Y blades once things get groomed up a bit.

I'm leery of going smaller than 70" as it takes a lot of time as it is mowing everything (including the Neighbor's 7 Acres) but also concerned about the weight of the larger mowers.

Does anyone have any real world experience with 70-78" mowers on a tractor my size? (@LouNY , you're a bit bigger than mine). I'm worried about stability when offset with the heavier 1500-1800 lb units.

Any specific brands to avoid?

Also, I see some brands have float controller options. Could someone explain to my 5th grade brain how those function and if I need one?

Hoping to pull the trigger this month or next and get crackin this season.

I have only used my ditch bank flail for one season. In that time, I believe my choice of a 62" flail (700 lbs) on a 6500 lb tractor was about as big as I would want. My primary use is running the flail over a stream bank (usually with the roller off the ground, fully extended). I certainly feel that weight out there, and I wouldn't want to be doing that on a slope.
As far as the knives, the hammers do a pretty good job as a finish mower also. I'm particular about how my 4 acre front yard looks, and the hammers leave a satisfactory finished look.
I agonized over brands, and ended up with a DelMorino. It is very well built and have had zero problems so far. The Chinese flails are tempting, but as I get older I'm more in the "buy once - cry once" club.

 

[LouNY]

Greetings Flail Mower Nation,

811 pages. Whew! I admit I sorta skipped through a lot if the earlier stuff, but it is amazing to see how much pricing has increased in 18 years.

Seeking advice on my first flail mower purchase:

We bought a place in VT with 28 acres of mixed pastureland and woods. Now that I'm here full time, I plan to reclaim some of the old orchard land and clean up the logging trails running through the woods. I also have a pond that would benefit from a ditch/bank mower to clean up the banks. Weed whacking it by hand truly sucks.

From all the advice and experience I've read here, It's clear a ditch/bank mower is the ticket. I can keep fence rows and trails clear with a vertical pass and be able to use the offset to catch the pond and stream banks.

I have a Mahindra 2665 that is 65HP, 50 at the PTO, with a cat II TPH. With the front loader and filled tires, it is somewhere north of 7500lbs.

I've been gumming by with a 6 ft RC, but it is difficult with all the trees interfering with the cab along the edges. It also sucks trying to reclaim areas that have been taken over by brush and saplings.

So, I'm convinced a ditch/bank mower with hammers is the solution. I can swap out for Y blades once things get groomed up a bit.

I'm leery of going smaller than 70" as it takes a lot of time as it is mowing everything (including the Neighbor's 7 Acres) but also concerned about the weight of the larger mowers.

Does anyone have any real world experience with 70-78" mowers on a tractor my size? (@LouNY , you're a bit bigger than mine). I'm worried about stability when offset with the heavier 1500-1800 lb units.

Any specific brands to avoid?

Also, I see some brands have float controller options. Could someone explain to my 5th grade brain how those function and if I need one?

Hoping to pull the trigger this month or next and get crackin this season.

My 86" is almost too big for my tractor, it can get the uphill side a bit light at times.
A 70" would likely be all you would want especially for working around a pond bank. You may want to consider additional weight on the unloaded side of the tractor.
As far as the float function it would be used on the tilt of the mower head, it would allow the head to follow the ground contours while running on the rear roller and/or guide shoes. It would be handy to have at times but it isn't a necessity as most of the tilt units do have a built in amount of "float" in the tilt linkage with the pin of the cylinder actually using a slot instead of a pin hole for mounting. With mower resting on the rear roller the tilt cylinder can be extended till the pin is in the middle of the slot which will allow the head to float up and down a bit on the outer end. It does require some attention to maintain it in that position while working.
One thing I need to do with mine is to add a CV joint into the pto shaft, and add a bit of guarding to the drive end for when I'm mowing horizontally as the gear box can get into obstacles and at times the u joint angle can get severe and start causing some vibration.