Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[leonz]

Ok wow, I will have to reread this a couple times then check the pully.... Huge help .. Thank you

Well I'm glad I didn't try cutting in the rain... You saved me some time from trial and error ....

When you say highway, do you mean the hydraulic driven flail mowers can cut in the rain?






As for Napa, they did not have the same belt as for my mott.... CX-51 if I recall... They would of had to order it. It was $36 plus $12 for shipping.

Soooo I ordered it myself for I think $18 .... New belt works great so far. Ill have either pick up a couple or find a Kevlar one as well. Id like to have backup so there is no down time on jobs

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Hello KenB2920,

You can buy belts at your local Kaman Industrial supply if needed.
The highway mowers are typically a mongrel mower being half hydraulic
with the left and right side mowers being hydraulic and the rear mounts are PTO
rear mounts.

 

[leonz]

Ok wow, I will have to reread this a couple times then check the pully.... Huge help .. Thank you

Well I'm glad I didn't try cutting in the rain... You saved me some time from trial and error ....

When you say highway, do you mean the hydraulic driven flail mowers can cut in the rain?






As for Napa, they did not have the same belt as for my mott.... CX-51 if I recall... They would of had to order it. It was $36 plus $12 for shipping.

Soooo I ordered it myself for I think $18 .... New belt works great so far. Ill have either pick up a couple or find a Kevlar one as well. Id like to have backup so there is no down time on jobs

============================================================================

Hello KenB2920,

You can buy belts at your local Kaman Industrial supply if needed.
The highway mowers are typically a mongrel mower being half hydraulic
with the left and right side mowers being hydraulic and the rear mounts are PTO
rear mounts.

The hydraulic mowers are energy hogs as they require a lot of power to operate the pumps and cooling fans for the oil tanks.

They mow in the rain simply because they they are stuck out there working in the weather-if they are lucky they have an all weather cab with air conditioning.

 

[Fallon]

Excellent thank you.... Gonna make some ice cream with the wife then I think I'll hit TSC

Question for cutting height. Aside from changing the rear roller height, will extending the top link give some extra height or vise versa, shortening top link cause for shorter cuts. Does this change the vacuum affect or cutting angle of the blades by doing this? How do you guys set your top link.

If it's he same concept as tilling, I adjust the top link for depth.

I have a hydraulic top link, so that makes things easy for me. The roller on my 917 is non-adjustable I believe. I just leave the toplink in float & set the height on the 3pt (often all the way up). The toplink just extends until the roller hits the ground giving me about a 6-7" cut.

I suspect this decreases the vacuum effect & when cutting 2-4' grass it won't suck the grass crushed by my tires up. If I kept up on the mowing a bit better I probably wouldnt end up with uncut tire tracks. It was a really wet spring & I was trying to get this flail resurected, so it didn't get mowed properly. Now I'm letting most of the grass go to seed & just tying to cut the weediest bits so they don't go to seed.

 

[Fallon]

I stopped by Napa & other auto-parts stores when belt hunting. Napa had one (needed a matched pair), none of the other auto stores had any in that size.

 

[KenB2920]

I have a hydraulic top link, so that makes things easy for me. The roller on my 917 is non-adjustable I believe. I just leave the toplink in float & set the height on the 3pt (often all the way up). The toplink just extends until the roller hits the ground giving me about a 6-7" cut. I suspect this decreases the vacuum effect & when cutting 2-4' grass it won't suck the grass crushed by my tires up. If I kept up on the mowing a bit better I probably wouldnt end up with uncut tire tracks. It was a really wet spring & I was trying to get this flail resurected, so it didn't get mowed properly. Now I'm letting most of the grass go to seed & just tying to cut the weediest bits so they don't go to seed.

A hydro top link would be nice and I hope to have one sooner than later

So today I cut about 35" grass/weeds with the top link extended leaving about 6" plus Mohawks ....

I then blew the cut grass off the area with a back pack blower revealing the Mohawks ..... I then shortened the top link and cross cut the area with nice short results..... I love this flail mower game.....

 

[KenB2920]

 

[KenB2920]

 

[leonz]

View attachment 431239

Hello KenB2920,

I see that your mowing session went very well.
it will be even better when you go over it again
at two inches in cutting height.

Happy mowing.

 

[KenB2920]

Hello KenB2920, I see that your mowing session went very well. it will be even better when you go over it again at two inches in cutting height. Happy mowing.

Yes, this was a photo of the first pass (and dull blades). I then blew off the grass clippings and cut at a lower height. The customer seemed to be really happy. He is having a firework display this coming week and wanted as much dry dead grass gone.

The one thing I really like about a flail vs a rotary cutter is the ability for a regular mower (Ztr) to be able to immediately cut afterwords.

The flail doesn't leave the large clumps and can cut much shorter. Then with a rotary mower, if you attempt to cut short and then make a turn, it slices the top of the sod with the drag rails leaving a mess.

I still have many more hours of trial and error to perfect my performance but this seems to be a winner. Rotary cutter may only come out for thick brush as these are a dream to use.

 

[IslandTractor]

KenB2920, why blow off the clippings before making a second lower pass with the flail? The flail will just mulch those clippings if you simply mow over them again. Green fertilizer.