Thank you. It just looks incredible. I have all kinds of equipment and the love of my life is my Grasshopper. Been running a Grasshopper since 2006. I would love to keep my brushy field edges mowed with it and then jump over the the 4 acres of alfalfa and clip it (deer plot...can't find anyone to harvest) and then put it on the trailer and drive back home and cut my well fertilized tall fescue lawn....If I could do all this I would be a happy camper......now how hard is it to change out the hammers or whatever they are in case I want more options with it? Basically I would like to have a finish mower for my beatiful landscaped lawn that can also bush hog without having to do anything to it.
Are you buying one for your hopper?
Yes, I'm buying one.
To answer your questions...
1- KNIFE DESIGN/CHOICE:
The 'Y' knives are perfectly capable of both finish and rough cut mowing. Only the most discerning would require the 'shovel' or 'paddle' style knives... which are also capable of rough cut mowing. If you don't want to change knives, you could easily choose either style. I run Y knives on my Toro... but it has 72 pairs of knives for a more even cut (and smaller clippings). The Perruzzo only has 50, which may leave a slightly ridged cut (what some call a "combed finish")... but honestly, I doubt you'll complain. If you require a laser flat finish cut, you could fit the paddle knives. They will be slightly slower in rough cut situations, with a slightly larger clipping size, and require periodic maintenance.
2- MAINTENANCE
Changing/replacing/servicing the knives is fairly straight forward and simple. The knives are held in place by a single bolt and lock nut. A wrench and ratchet is all you should need. A common misconception about flail mowers, is high maintenance. As a property owner who owns one... TRUST ME, my maintenance has been cut down to a twice annual event (aside from greasing the unit). At the beginning of the year, I inspect the knives and sharpen/replace as needed. A small die grinder and a pair of vice grips will eliminate any need to remove the knives for sharpening. With nearly 50% more knives on my unit (144), my wife and I replaced the entire set last year in 3hrs... but it's worth noting the knives had over 12yrs abuse from a municipality, and were reportedly never changed (I'll believe it, as they appeared never to have been even turned).
You will likely never have to replace an entire set at once.
As for post season... simply clean the unit, spray the knives with some sort of corrosion inhibitor, and park it.
Previously, my rotary deck required blade removal and sharpening after every weekend of mowing (6 acre yard, and two auxiliary lots of about an acre and a half).
With Y knives on my flail deck-
-I've received more compliments on our property, mowing half as often
-I've cut maintenance down to 5 minutes of greasing and visual inspection every weekend... instead of an hour of blade sharpening, deck cleaning, etc.
-I no longer have to stop and let the deck clear its clippings... cut mowing time by AT LEAST 30%.
The flail does use a bit more fuel... but it's also more productive. I'll trade a couple dollars in fuel for productivity and time with my family any day.
I'd stick with Y knives, if you plan on doing any significant amount rough cut work. We all know, no matter how much you walk a field, there's always something you'll miss (especially next to a roadway). The paddle flails will cut rough/tall material... but they don't deflect from rocks and other hard obstructions as well as Y knives. For me, that's the whole point. My wallet and watch doesn't cringe every time I run over something harder than a blade of grass. Also, paddle blades will dull faster, requiring a bit more maintenance... still not nearly as fast as rotary blades, but more often than Y knives. Another downside to paddle knives... they only have one cutting edge, where as Y knives have two, are reversible, and typically cost 1/3rd the price.
With 100 inches of blade area (50 pairs of Y knives @ 1 inch cutting area), that's a vast improvement over a three blade rotary with less than 1/4 of that (3 blades with two 4 inch cutting sections is 24 inches). Blades are cheaper (about 75-80 cents for Y knives), they deflect from most obstructions, and they cut tall material in a single pass.
I hate to be so long winded, but I can't say enough about my flail mower.
-less maintenance
-less downtime
-higher productivity
-single pass efficiency in tall material
-better deflection over unseen obstructions
-cheaper blades
-finer clippings
- B E S T S T R I P E S E V E R
-with Y knives, they have cutting edges on both sides... so once you dull one side, simply remove the rotor and flip it around. VOILA! brand new cutting edges all the way across with no sharpening
... effectively doubling the life and and serviceability of your blades with less than half the downtime.
... effectively doubling the life and and serviceability of your blades with less than half the downtime.