Flail Mower Recommendations On Flail Mower Blades

[AGTtactical]

I thought it might be useful to start a thread on your experience with various blades on your flail mower (for a certain person, yes, I've read the flail mower thread, but at over 500 pages, its getting too broad). For simplicity, we will define the 3 blade types as duckfoot, Y-type, and hammer.

Please tell us your:
1) Brand flail
2) Model (important because there is significant difference in blade tip speed depending on the model. For example, a LP 2572 has a tip speed of 12,046 fpm. A Woodmax FM78 has a tip speed of only 7680 fpm).
3) Type blade and why you like it (or not)
4) How it mows (like a finish mower, looks terrible, whatever).
4) Photos of the cut product would REALLY be great!
5) How many hours you got on a set of blades.

Sometimes the rotor is designed for a particular blade type, so you can't switch blades without changing the whole rotor....hence the importance of making a good choice of blades before buying the flail. For example, Landpride's FM25 Series offers all three type blades, but all three are mounted on different rotors...this is done to optimize the performance of each blade type but you can't change blades on the same rotor. FM25 Series Flail Mowers | Land Pride.

Woodmax has two blade types, duckfoot and Y-blades, but you can swap them without changing rotors. They call their duckfoot blade an H-blade, and also a hammer blade, depending on where you are looking on their website. Their duckfoot/Hammer is really more a cross between the too.
.

Landpride says this about their blades: "High knife tip speed 12,046 fpm provides a clean cut, creates a vacuum effect when using hammer or ducksfoot blades, and slices through saplings with great force when using heavy-duty Y blades."
Ducksfoot blade can cut up to 1" small brush. Heavy-duty Y blade can cut up to 1 1/2" brush. Hammer blade can cut up to 2" small saplings."

Our land was recently forest then thinned out...most of the grass is under or within 20-30 feet of trees. Hammers would likely be best given the rough terrain and likelihood of limbs falling, but I also want nice grass. Since hammers lift grass better than Y blades, maybe the cut quality is better? Thanks for your input fellas!

 

[knucklfrank]

howdy, i read your post and have a question , you state that the woodmax flail mowers FM-78, that the blades are interchangeable, but the manual states that they are not. what would be the dif, i have the FM-78 with the Y and want to change to their hammer blades, what is the hangup in doing this, any modifications that can be done to do this without swapping out the rotor also?

 

[Torvy]

I'll play...Nova BCRM 175 ditch mower. 26 x 1.76 lb hammers. 2200 rpm cylinder (no idea about tip speed). 68" wide. It can take Y blades, too.

I've been happy with the cut quality. I don't really have a lawn. We cut easements and ditches with whatever brush grows wild. Definitely better cut than neighbors' rotary cutters.

 

[RjCorazza]

Del Morino Centurian Super, 62" ditch bank flail with hammers.
It eats brush and saplings, and leaves relatively evenly distributed mulched material. On tall fescue, it gives a reasonably good looking cut, but set at 4" it will not always standup the grass for a even cut.
I just finished cutting a farmer's stream bank (about 1000') that is adjacent to my stream. It's MUCH easier than backing a brush hog over the bank 6' at a time, takes half the time, and looks much nicer with the flail also.

 

[leonz]

The side slicer knives have been diminished in their quality of cut because they have
been mounted on a narrow knife mounting station with twin weldments and as result
the stationary side slicer knives move in a linear direction.

Flail mowers with D mounting rings allow a side slicer knife that was punched with an
elongated mounting hole to move sideways to become an airfoil.

This narrow mounting station keeps the side slicer knives stationary at all times and as
a result the individual side slicer knife is not allowed to become a horizontal airfoil to
provide the user with a flat sliced grass blade.

The quality of cut/finish depends strictly on the tractor horsepower, speed of travel,
knife count of the flail mower rotor where a finish flail mower with have 3 or four rows
of knives that overlap in cutting assuring that the entire width of the finish flail mowers
total knife edge length is able to cut the grass or brush.

The other major factor is the cutting height where the knife edge is closer to the ground
creates the greater pressure gradient to lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor.

Of equal importance is the ability to recut the clippings so they can dissolve back into the
soil faster. Scoop and hammer knives are less effective in this regard because they have a
limited ability to create the pressure gradient/suction needed to lift up clippings a second
time unless that are a dense growth of brush or crop waste which has a greater density
per inch depending on the crop.

 

[rgr33]

as you can see, I have several flail mowers, too many probably, aquired through many years of owning/ operating a commercial wine grape vineyard

Ancient Mott 60inch, thin Y blades. Built like a tank, Used strictly for cutting grass, has a very nice finished look

Caroni 60 Inch with super thick Y blades. Used mostly for cutting last years grape vine brush, up to 3/4 inch, piled in between the rows. Nice finished cut, but nowhere near as good as the Mott

Rhino 60 inch, super heavy duty. A bit difficult to hook up due to its weight and the fact that it is a grease magnet, Rock solid machine that never has an issue, no matter what you ask it to do.
I swear this thing would flail cut a Volkswagen

Unbranded old cheap Chinese flail with duck foot blades. Haven’t used it much, every time I do use it, belts loosen, belts break, smoke appears from inside, goes back to the shop, and then back to the shed. Every time I use it, it irritates me.
Why do I keep it? I wish I knew

My favorite? All of them except for Chinese no name

 

[Sportsman762]

1.) Alamo SHD88 forward rotation (rotor spins same way as rear tires)
2.) 8900 FPM blade speed
3.) Y blades on D ring Course Cut
4.) I am not finish mowing, but mowing grass knee high. It cuts it well, but leaves an even spread of cuttings that are 4-6" long. If cutting more frequently (half way up calf) it does not leave much noticeable clippings. The cut is not perfect like a finish mower, but looks like grass that has two or three days of growth after a rotary cutter cut it. (this is with worn blades) It does not cut woody material well and will defoliate them rather than cut them.
5.) My blades are worn, not sure how many hours, but over 100. I will keep running them, because it cuts good enough for my fields. I bought the mower used so I have never seen it cut with sharp blades.

There is a difference between forward cutting and reverse cutting flails. Forward cutting flails clean up the tire tracks well, however they do not size material well as they spit it right out the back. Reverse rotation mowers will toss the clippings forward and up causing the clippings to get cut more. In tall grass (waist high on up) my forward rotation will size the material the spacing between the blades (about 6") and then deposit it out the back. Cup (duckfoot) knives and hammers have less tolerance for dullness than side cutters (Y knives) and will bludgeon the grass rather than cut.

I am very happy with the Alamo SHD88 as it fills the need I have between a brush hog and a finish mower. Let me mow the fields less often, but looks significantly better than the brush hog.

 

[dieselscout80]

I have used three different flail mowers:

1. An old 74” cut Ford 917 with duck foot blades (2010 to 2019) and I paid a $100.00 for it.

2. Alamo SHD96 = 96” cut with heavy Y blades (2020-2021)

3. A later model Ford 917 again with a 74” cut and it has the same heavy Y blades as the SHD96 has (2022 to present). It has a different drive/belt setup than my old 917.

I really don’t think there is much difference between the duck foot and the Y blades. I will have a better answer as I am running low on the heavy Y blades and have a set of duck foot blades to replace them.

The heavy/thick Y knives do seem more durable and mulch branches better.

In the past I thought the duck foot blades took more power to spin, but won’t know until I switch them this time as I am running it on a different tractor now.

 

[dieselscout80]

Here is a picture of yard mowing with the Y knives. I put my last two new Y knives on, so it won’t be too long before I need to switch them if I keep losing them.

 

[leonz]

The sod looks very good.

How fast were you traveling?

what is your cutting height measured at the tip of the side slicer knife and the solid sod ground?

Have you considered mowing in an slightly overlapping spiral pattern to shred the clippings further?