Kubota B7100 & flail - does this look ok?

[biffo]

Hello

Have bought a nearly new Kubota flail mower to use with my B7100HST tractor. It was fitted to B1700 when bought new but soon taken back to the dealer in exchange for a new larger tractor and larger flail.

The 3 point mounting points on the flail are much wider than the lower arms on the tractor (about 8") although there are different brackets on the flail to allow offset and central mowing, so although the flail arms are too wide I have managed to get around that for the moment.

In the last photo below is the flail partly set up behind my tractor, but to me it appears too far back from the tractor and is creating a lot of leverage when lifted. The top link is of standard length I think and has just come to the end of it's safe adjustment outwards at 23.6" between bearing centers.
I realise that the B1700 is heavier than the B7100 by about 260#, but at the moment I still have the mmm in place wich weighs 330# so I guess they are similar in weight at the moment.

I always understood that one of the plus points of a flail was it sat right up behind the tractor and made the whole setup compact, this looks a long way back to me but I don't have any experience with 3 point mowers to know if this is normal or not. Any ideas on this?

Thanks guys, just want to get it right first time around.

Jamie

ps: It's Kubota FM120 weighing 540# with a 48" cut

 

[Ductape]

Going by your pictures, I see no reason the bracketry that the lower pins (on the flail) go through can't be turned around to make plenty of clearance between the lower arms and the rear tires. Also....... it does look to be on the tractor correctly in the third pic. Do you have a couple suitcase weights to put on the front of the tractor? That will offset some of the mower's weight. You will also want to make sure you don't need to shorten (or lengthen) the PTO shaft for your application........ don't assume its the correct length as-is.

 

[Harvest Moon]

My first thought is, is it possible to fit and bolt ordinary lift arm pins onto the mounts the brackets are now bolted to? Do away with the mount on captive brackets all together and maybe use the bolt end of the lift pin as the attachment for the top link A frame too. Maybe that would be too tight to fit the lift arm for attachment. Maybe you could fit a longer hitch pin through there. That would get you closer to the tractor.

Not sure if it's reasonable to mount a flail on non captive pins though. They are good enough for my rotary cutter weighing in over 400 lbs. 60" wide and extending back over 72".

And/or can you get suitcase weights on that machine?

 

[biffo]

Thank you