Flail Mower for Hedges?

[Suburban Plowboy]

This will probably sound crazy, but can a flail mower be used to trim the sides of hedges?

I have a power hedge trimmer, but I am really bad at trimming. My hedges look like they have some kind of disease. It would be wonderful if I could tilt a flail mower and drive down a hedge, making it look more like a human being trimmed it and less like the result of a tornado.

It would be neat if I only had to trim the tops by hand.

 

[nyone]

I use to cut chain link fence lines with a boom mower like that. I dont see why you couldn't with a side flail.

 

[leonz]

This will probably sound crazy, but can a flail mower be used to trim the sides of hedges?

I have a power hedge trimmer, but I am really bad at trimming. My hedges look like they have some kind of disease. It would be wonderful if I could tilt a flail mower and drive down a hedge, making it look more like a human being trimmed it and less like the result of a tornado.

It would be neat if I only had to trim the tops by hand.

You can use a boom mounted orchard and vineyard shredder to
trim vertically but it would help if we knew how long your hedges
are as you have to justify the very large expense for an orchard
and vineyard shredder and have a large enough mule to carry
one for doing the work.

There are vineyard and berry row trimmers that can trim the top
and sides of hedges with hydraulic driven sickle bars in one pass.

I hate my barberry hedges, I cut them back to less than 3 feet high
to make it easier to trim them.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I'm already planning to get a flail mower for brush. I thought being able to zip around the perimeter of the house and trim the sides of the edges would be a bonus. I might set out some privacy hedges later.

The house hedges are your typical house-length hedges. The privacy hedges could to maybe 300 feet eventually.

 

[leonz]

The three point mounted hydraulic drive sickle bars will be less money and will be easier to use for the hedges;
Thay way you can buy a simpler to own and operate Del Morino or Maschio flail mower with hydraulic side shift.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I'm thinking more along the lines of $3000-$5000, total. A sickle mower would eat an awful lot of that all by itself.

 

[LouNY]

A lot will depend on what you are planting for a hedge and how often you'll trim it. The small stiff branched bushes will trim nicely. The trees with longer limber limbs don't tend to trim as nice. Vines don't trim very will for me. But Lilacs and such do good.
My ditch bank flail has the hammers on it, the J knives may do entirely different.

 

[leonz]

The 3 point hitch sickle trimmers will reach much higher than a
flail shredder and a flail shredder will not reach the top of a hedge
to mow it level where a hydraulic arm mounted sickle pruner will
do this at a slow ground speed.


If you have a loader for your mule you could take advantage of a
SABRE SAMURIA to trim the hedges by mounting it on the bucket
for both flat trimming and vertical trimming and take it off when
you are done with it. You need long hoses to run it.

 

[LouNY]

This mower works well for hedges and trimming. It is a bit of a pain as it really magnifies and irregularities in the ground while mowing. It is much more open in the front of the flail so it's not shrouded as much as the ditch bank units.

The controls can keep you quite busy also,...........the flails are more of a scoop style

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

A lot will depend on what you are planting for a hedge and how often you'll trim it. The small stiff branched bushes will trim nicely. The trees with longer limber limbs don't tend to trim as nice. Vines don't trim very will for me. But Lilacs and such do good.
My ditch bank flail has the hammers on it, the J knives may do entirely different.

Sounds like it would do the job for me, well enough to make driving the tractor out of the shop worth it. Thanks.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

The 3 point hitch sickle trimmers will reach much higher than a
flail shredder and a flail shredder will not reach the top of a hedge
to mow it level where a hydraulic arm mounted sickle pruner will
do this at a slow ground speed.


If you have a loader for your mule you could take advantage of a
SABRE SAMURIA to trim the hedges by mounting it on the bucket
for both flat trimming and vertical trimming and take it off when
you are done with it. You need long hoses to run it.

As I was saying above, I would be content just to get the sides trimmed. That alone would save me considerable aggravation.

The mower will be mostly for getting rid of brush with stems up to maybe an inch in diameter. If it helped with hedges, it would just be a side dish.

The Sabre Samurai looks nice, but $2400+ in addition to the mower cost.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

The flail mower puzzle is confusing. I think I will pick up a Victory Trim-56 next month. It looks like it will work for me.

 

[RjCorazza]

Hedges and general vertical mowing were also a secondary consideration for me when I got a ditch bank flail. I guess it all depends on the type of vegetation and blades, but cutting anything vertical so far has been unimpressive for me.
It does do a basic hack job up to 6 or 7 feet

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

In my case, "hack job" is probably better than what I do now.

 

[RayIN]

Trimming hedges can be easy with the right equipment:

 

[RayIN]

Trimming hedges can be easy with the right equipment:View attachment 3810895

And nobody had to hold his beer!

 

[Cdash]

I keep seeing adds on Facebook for a sticker bar that you mint onto a loader bucket with clamps. Laneshark maybe? Know nothing about them other than seeing the adds.

That would allow vertical and horizontal positioning. Then you'd only have to worry about gopher holes causing a dip in your top of hedge.

 

[Lena]

This will probably sound crazy, but can a flail mower be used to trim the sides of hedges?

I have a power hedge trimmer, but I am really bad at trimming. My hedges look like they have some kind of disease. It would be wonderful if I could tilt a flail mower and drive down a hedge, making it look more like a human being trimmed it and less like the result of a tornado.

It would be neat if I only had to trim the tops by hand.

I'm retired from highway dept. we used the side flail all the time for trimming brush back from the side of the roadways. the only thing with that was larger size brush made blade replacement more often. I don't see why you couldn't trim your hedge with it. doubt you have anything in your hedges that will cause any problems.

 

[Hoho223]

You will not get topiary as an end result. It won’t be pretty.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

One thing you don't mention is the size of the tractor or the flow rate on the hydraulics.

As seen in my logo picture I have a Laneshark LS2 that attaches to my FEL. The new ones have hydraulic positioning which I wish I had as it can be a struggle to reposition.

I use mine to clear my trails on my wooded 25 acres, meaning it's positioned for vertical cutting ninety percent of the time.

I had mine since '20 and have had to replace the main bearing on it already. They're not inexpensive so if cost is a factor I'd think hard on if this is the right tool for the job. They also don't mulch being a literal bush hog style mower for the FEL. It does the job it's meant to do, but I'd also recommend a rear weight for balance. I have a rollover box blade I use as a counter-balance.