Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Hieronymous]

Someone was asking about a Del Morino Flipper 186 M flail mower recently. I can't find the post/thread now as when I first saw it I couldn't log in due to a new OS.

Anyway I have one of these machines and have found it quite adequate for my purposes. That is, until last Monday (26th) when it wouldn't work. On inspection I found that the belts had disintegrated. I saw a post that hinted that there is a problem with belts burning out so that's something I need to keep an eye on.

Replacements are on order and I'm considering getting some spare to avoid any down time.

 

[IslandTractor]

Someone was asking about a Del Morino Flipper 186 M flail mower recently. I can't find the post/thread now as when I first saw it I couldn't log in due to a new OS.

Anyway I have one of these machines and have found it quite adequate for my purposes. That is, until last Monday (26th) when it wouldn't work. On inspection I found that the belts had disintegrated. I saw a post that hinted that there is a problem with belts burning out so that's something I need to keep an eye on.

Replacements are on order and I'm considering getting some spare to avoid any down time.

Suggest you get Gates Kevlar reinforced belts. You just need to know the profile and length.

 

[Hieronymous]

Thanks. There's a place near me that should provide what you suggest or similar.

 

[IslandTractor]

Thanks. There's a place near me that should provide what you suggest or similar.

If you can figure out the profile and size, Amazon can also supply them. I keep one extra set on hand and reorder when I replace broken belts. I always replace them all as a set even though sometimes only one of the three on my Caroni breaks. I get two to three years from a set on average.

 

[Hieronymous]

When I get the replacements I'll take them to Abex Power Components first and see what they've got.

 

[vvanders]

Officially joined the flail mower club today.



54" Caroni, was a little worried that 4ft would be too small but the size is perfect with the offset. Since we're mostly using this to keep our pasture in check I set the roller and skids at the highest level and it did an awesome job cutting down the overgrowth while leaving enough grass for forage for our animals. I expected to need to slow down the tractor a bit seeing as our 1500 is only ~19HP, however the thing just tore though large patches of grass with no issue at almost full speed.

I remember trying to do this with our riding lawn mower and it just bogging/taking forever, mind blown. Also can't believe how quiet this is relative to a bush hog, happy to not be risking sending things flying into the neighbor's house as well.

One small question for other people who have this. Our dealer set this up with the top link in the sliding slot to adjust for bumps/etc however there's another hole there:


Is that just a hole that's nice for transporting? The manual makes no mention of it that I could see.

 

[sidecarist]

I don't use the round hole for my top link,but my tractor has a high lift on the hitch. On a smaller tractor using the round hole may give you more lift for transport, it will also reduce any bounce considerably.

I was surprised that I can mow grass & weeds faster than I want... Thick clover will make the tractor work harder than grass and if I go too fast it will clump a bit.

 

[leonz]

Officially joined the flail mower club today.

View attachment 513742

54" Caroni, was a little worried that 4ft would be too small but the size is perfect with the offset. Since we're mostly using this to keep our pasture in check I set the roller and skids at the highest level and it did an awesome job cutting down the overgrowth while leaving enough grass for forage for our animals. I expected to need to slow down the tractor a bit seeing as our 1500 is only ~19HP, however the thing just tore though large patches of grass with no issue at almost full speed.

I remember trying to do this with our riding lawn mower and it just bogging/taking forever, mind blown. Also can't believe how quiet this is relative to a bush hog, happy to not be risking sending things flying into the neighbor's house as well.

One small question for other people who have this. Our dealer set this up with the top link in the sliding slot to adjust for bumps/etc however there's another hole there:
View attachment 513743

Is that just a hole that's nice for transporting? The manual makes no mention of it that I could see.

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



Welcome to the Flail Mower Nations.

Whether you use the top link or not it is up to you. the upper pin hole is there to mount the mower in a horizontal plane in relation to the ground when mowing.

The slotted hole lets the mower follow the contour of ground a bit closer if you have uneven ground to mow. Many flail mowers are also mounted on the front of small four wheel tractors used for mowing good sod to allow the flail mower to
mow closer to the contour rather than have high spots and low spots when mowing good sod that is not level in spots.
The mowers sound is just like a high quality high powered vacuum cleaner.

You can use it with either the top link mounting location or the slotted top link for your mowing, but with good sod you want to make sure its in the pin hole

 

[vvanders]

Yeah, that makes sense, he also left the lift arm pins free so that the mower would follow the ground easier. Seems to work really well, skids stayed off the ground even when turning and we've got some pretty bumpy pasture that it handled well.

Overall really impressed. We had some other dealers try to talk us out of using one for a pasture saying that it was only good for sod. Don't know what he was talking about, this thing works great for our pasture even on a smaller tractor.

 

[shaeff]

Makes me chuckle when people say that a flail is only for good sod. Then there are the people who say they're only for brush, like the state guys use. With the rotor and knife selections available, it's truly a versatile machine.

My 25A, as I've mentioned in the past- beat to snot, bent knives, twisted hood, knives are dull and old. To the right you can see what this field started as. I'd say that's a pretty good cut on tall field grass and light brush.

 

[sidecarist]

Makes me chuckle when people say that a flail is only for good sod. Then there are the people who say they're only for brush, like the state guys use. With the rotor and knife selections available, it's truly a versatile machine.

My 25A, as I've mentioned in the past- beat to snot, bent knives, twisted hood, knives are dull and old. To the right you can see what this field started as. I'd say that's a pretty good cut on tall field grass and light brush.

I got a lot of mixed messages some even here. I'm very happy with the versatility of my flail. It won't replace a brush cutter for heavy work, but as soon as I have cleared all of the old nasty stuff the first time with the hog, then the flail will handle it from then on. I expect to be selling my brush cutter in the next year or two. I'm very happy with my choice.

 

[shaeff]

I got a lot of mixed messages some even here. I'm very happy with the versatility of my flail. It won't replace a brush cutter for heavy work, but as soon as I have cleared all of the old nasty stuff the first time with the hog, then the flail will handle it from then on. I expect to be selling my brush cutter in the next year or two. I'm very happy with my choice.

Right on, I still use a brush hog/rotary for heavy clearing. But after all that is done, maintaining with the flail makes it so much nicer.

I can run over 2" stuff with my flail, but all it does is strip the leaves and small branches off, then the sapling pops back up. The brush hog mangles it and shreds it at the blade height, then it rots away with help from the flail knives dancing off with every new pass.

 

[Ribz]

Before


After mowing with my JD 25A

 

[sidecarist]

Right on, I still use a brush hog/rotary for heavy clearing. But after all that is done, maintaining with the flail makes it so much nicer.

I can run over 2" stuff with my flail, but all it does is strip the leaves and small branches off, then the sapling pops back up. The brush hog mangles it and shreds it at the blade height, then it rots away with help from the flail knives dancing off with every new pass.

I've had good luck going back to the saplings and backing over them with the roller about 4-6" from the ground. As soon as it snaps up pull forward VERY slowly and all you will have is chips. My mower has heavy hammer blades which probably helps some too. I'll admit I haven't tried this on a 2" sapling, but on 1" or a little more it works great.

 

[IslandTractor]

I've had good luck going back to the saplings and backing over them with the roller about 4-6" from the ground. As soon as it snaps up pull forward VERY slowly and all you will have is chips. My mower has heavy hammer blades which probably helps some too. I'll admit I haven't tried this on a 2" sapling, but on 1" or a little more it works great.

I do the same thing when mowing over bushes. Raise mower 6-12", back into the bush while looking down behind the tractor until you can see the stump or denuded branches as they come out from under the front of the mower then drop the mower to ground and drive slowly forward. Looks like someone just spread nice clean mulch.

When mowing a field, if I see a tall weed that has been denuded but with the stalk still standing I either ignore it until next time or sometimes go back and hit them a second time. I'm generally mowing that type of woody weed in the fall when the plant has little time to recover before frost so unless cosmetics are critical, I usually ignore them.

 

[shaeff]

I've got scoop knives, so shredding the thick stuff takes some effort. Here's what it looks like when I hit a 2" sapling in 2nd gear low, PTO speed.

Mind you, my knives are pretty much shot, and I literally just ran it over once and kept going (actually to show Ribz what it'll do in one pass) Unusually it'll shred the branches off better. This sucker was quite springy.

If you look behind it to the left, you can see one I hit last year, probably 1.5". Shredded it bare, but left the main stalk.

 

[RoyJackson]

Subscribed to thread

 

[sidecarist]

I've got scoop knives, so shredding the thick stuff takes some effort. Here's what it looks like when I hit a 2" sapling in 2nd gear low, PTO speed.

Mind you, my knives are pretty much shot, and I literally just ran it over once and kept going (actually to show Ribz what it'll do in one pass) Unusually it'll shred the branches off better. This sucker was quite springy.

If you look behind it to the left, you can see one I hit last year, probably 1.5". Shredded it bare, but left the main stalk.

I have the heavy forged duck foot knives on mine. The back it down then pull forward method would have turned it to mulch.

If your knives are shot then that's probably all you can expect.

 

[shaeff]

I have the heavy forged duck foot knives on mine. The back it down then pull forward method would have turned it to mulch. If your knives are shot then that's probably all you can expect.

I don't expect much from them, but I'm waiting to replace all the knives so that I don't destroy the new ones on stones and the like. By end of this summer or next spring I'll replace them.

Here's the style knives that are on the 25A. I'd love some hammer knives:

 

[Wayne's Train]

I bought a 41" flail about a month ago and I cut two small pastures with it but I don't need to cut them anymore and I don't have a use for the flail now. It's available, like new
. Flail Mower - YouTube