Adding a hydraulic sickle / flail mower to L5740

[cstamm81]

I’m always looking for ways to limit my time spent using a weed wacker! I’ve got 10 acres to maintain, 2 streams, many banks, and a tree line around the entire property. I’ve been looking at ditch bank flails, sickle cutters, etc etc. I’m looking to run something on my L5740 w BH92 backhoe. It specs out at 9.7gpm at about 2700 psi. My idea is to run either a hydraulic sickle cutter, or a tiny flail head on the end of the hoe, and possibly on the loader as well (multiple mounting options).
The sickle I found is made by eterra Eterra 5 Foot Razor Excavator Sickle Mower | Skid Steer Solutions
The demo video is pretty impressive, and the reviews for their various sized sickles are overly favorable. They offer a 3 cu in motor that calls for 8gpm plus.

The other idea is a tiny flail head, 21” cut, can handle 1” material, and supposedly heavier if you take it easy. There’s an outfit in KY that carries Lipa Italian flails and munchers LIPA TLBE-50 (For 4000-5000 lb Mini Excavator). This one calls for 7 to 8gpm minimum.

The flail would obviously mulch material much better, and allow a more uniform close to the ground cut. The sickle has more reach which would certainly be a big advantage for my intended use.

My 5740 has a hydraulic quick disconnect to add / remove the backhoe hydraulics. The hose comes out of the backhoe and straight back to the sump. Am I correct in assuming I can add a valve with detent after the backhoe connection, before the line returns to sump? I’m assuming the backhoe valve would need to be rated for power beyond. I do know you CANNOT use the factory rear remotes with the hoe installed, as per the manual and as per users on here reporting issues in doing so. I do not understand this, as it appears the remotes are ahead of the backhoe hydraulic circuit.

I value the opinions on here, and as you can see by the prices, this is not a cheap experiment.

 

[nybirdman]

I don't believe you will have enough hydraulic "cooling" to run either even if you have the gpm.

 

[ericm979]

You'll have to fab the connection between the mini ex flail and your backhoe.

How will you operate this? Drive the tractor to a spot, get off and on the BH seat, drop the stabilizers, mow a little, then back to the tractor seat to move 3ft forwards? Seems like it would not be very productive.

With a lot of backhoes the valve stack is not designed for power beyond and the tank port (outlet to the rest of the tractor) is only good for 500-750 psi. You can't operate a valve that's placed after the BH without risk of damaging the BH's valves. It'd have to go ahead of the BH. You'd need to place a flow splitter in front of the mower valve so you could run the mower and move the BH at the same time. That will further reduce the already poor mower performance.

I think a ditch bank flail or a dedicated tractor boom flail would be better. The boom flail runs off the PTO and has its own hydraulic pump and system so it has more power than your hydraulics can give, and you can operate it from the tractor seat. They're not cheap, and the ones that are small enough for a CUT are mostly made in China. A ditch bank mower and a good hand held brush cutter with harness for the corners and hard to reach areas would be more cost effective, assuming you can physically handle the brush cutter and can get the bulk of the area with the ditch bank mower.

 

[cstamm81]

You'll have to fab the connection between the mini ex flail and your backhoe.

How will you operate this? Drive the tractor to a spot, get off and on the BH seat, drop the stabilizers, mow a little, then back to the tractor seat to move 3ft forwards? Seems like it would not be very productive.

With a lot of backhoes the valve stack is not designed for power beyond and the tank port (outlet to the rest of the tractor) is only good for 500-750 psi. You can't operate a valve that's placed after the BH without risk of damaging the BH's valves. It'd have to go ahead of the BH. You'd need to place a flow splitter in front of the mower valve so you could run the mower and move the BH at the same time. That will further reduce the already poor mower performance.

I think a ditch bank flail or a dedicated tractor boom flail would be better. The boom flail runs off the PTO and has its own hydraulic pump and system so it has more power than your hydraulics can give, and you can operate it from the tractor seat. They're not cheap, and the ones that are small enough for a CUT are mostly made in China. A ditch bank mower and a good hand held brush cutter with harness for the corners and hard to reach areas would be more cost effective, assuming you can physically handle the brush cutter and can get the bulk of the area with the ditch bank mower.

Good info. My plan was to have my wife drive the tractor, and I'd be in the backhoe seat. It would save a lot of time over hopping on and off the backhoe. Still this would not be overly productive, but in my mind way easier and more productive than running a hand held weed eater on the banks I have.

Your hydraulics explanation make perfect sense, the valve has to go before the backhoe and the flail / sickle will eat all the flow and leave none for the hoe without a flow divider. Great point, that would make it nearly unusable. I have a new 11gpm Price pto pump, I suppose I could use that pump as a stand alone hydraulic system for the mower. Mounting a small tank and routing the suction / return lines could be cute with the hoe installed though.

The ditch bank flails are very appealing, and I have a line on a used Del Morino 60". It seems most of these have an inboard gearbox, which limits the overall reach. I'm tempted to try one of these out, but with the limited reach I feel I would still be left with a lot of areas I can't get to. The boom flails seem a lot better for my situation, in that you have the same or more reach of a backhoe, and the ability to control the height and the angle. In reading about them on here, they sure seem to put a ton of unequal stress on the 3 point, one arm has a ton of downward force and the other has upward force. It seems I would need to run one set up for a relatively small tractor, and finding them used seems impossible. The cost of new one these is too much to swallow.

I think the absolute best solution would be a flail on a mini excavator, seems to check all the boxes for me. If I could find a non trashed used mini for a good price, I'd sell the hoe off my tractor and go that route. Seems all the used minis under 20k are about shot though.