Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Brahmus]

It looks to me like you might be interested in the FTM1900FSC model which has 112 knives instead of 56 on the model that Agrisupply imports.

That is a front mounted cutter. So I'm assuming you meant the TM1900FSC.. hum.. I'll have to do more researching. Thanks for the input...

 

[Eagleview]

As i said early in this thread , i suggest cast 'P' type hammers as they do it all and do it well . It does not matter weather i'm mowing 2' tall grass or 8' tall scrub , this is the finish the cast hammers give . They have more stored energy than light weight 'Y' blades that retract against the drum when the going gets tough and also leave gaps between the blades . And also my 8' flail only has 22 hammers to replace . The photos are the before and after in the same spot with one pass .

 

[IslandTractor]

That is a front mounted cutter. So I'm assuming you meant the TM1900FSC.. hum.. I'll have to do more researching. Thanks for the input...

Yeah, I meant to list the rear cutter.

 

[Brahmus]

As i said early in this thread , i suggest cast 'P' type hammers as they do it all and do it well . It does not matter weather i'm mowing 2' tall grass or 8' tall scrub , this is the finish the cast hammers give . They have more stored energy than light weight 'Y' blades that retract against the drum when the going gets tough and also leave gaps between the blades . And also my 8' flail only has 22 hammers to replace . The photos are the before and after in the same spot with one pass .

So the key is the hammer available for the unit that limits it's ability not the unit itself....

 

[IslandTractor]

The photos are the before and after in the same spot with one pass .

Your photos are of an area I'd characterize as light brush rather than lawn. The issue is which flail blades do best with lawn I think.

I appreciate the points about the hammers but the Y blades are pretty efficient too. The Caroni finish versions just use more Y blades and don't use shackles. I'm not really sure which excels at which task though I would certainly rather have hammers if I was going to hit a cinder block. Y blades on shackles seems like it might be a compromise.

I don't have any experience cutting real lawns with my flail. Here are some photos of brush areas cut with one pass with the TM1900 with Y blades. One photo (the one where you see the mower close up) is an area that got cut a couple of times.

 

[Eagleview]

As i said , it does not matter what i cut , i end up with lawn . If i cut lawn i end up with lawn . If i cut pasture i end up with lawn . If i cut scrub i end up with lawn .

 

[IslandTractor]

As i said , it does not matter what i cut , i end up with lawn . If i cut lawn i end up with lawn . If i cut pasture i end up with lawn . If i cut scrub i end up with lawn .

I think you are saying that anything you cut is reduced to a short "lawn" height and that it is uniform. I wouldn't call the photos you posted good evidence of a finish lawn cut. I'm not trying to split hairs but I think the issue is more what happens when you cut lush grass and whether the finish cut has any rows visible or whether it looks exactly like it was cut with a true rotary or reel finish mower.

 

[GinNB]

I'm not really sure which excels at which task though I would certainly rather have hammers if I was going to hit a cinder block. Y blades on shackles seems like it might be a compromise.

Y blades on a shackle are the best when mowing rocks. You would think that hammers are tougher but they fail many times faster than the shackled Y blades. I'm a lowbush blueberry farmer so I mow rocks for a living. If you don't care about money and REALLY want to damage the rocks/cinder blocks/whatever, go with hammers. If you want the knives to survive repeated hits and don't care about how little damage you did to the rock, go with Y knives on shackles. The shackle gives added length for tip speed while still allowing the blade to bend easily when it meets an immovable/uncuttable object.

 

[IslandTractor]

That is nice to know. I somehow figured the hammers would be tougher. Glad to know I can mow rocks too.

 

[Eagleview]

Island i am not attacking your personal views on 'Y' blades . I was called the other day by a lawn contractor to do a lawn that was too large for his ride on lawn tractor . The grass was ablout 4-5 inches high , after i finished he shook his head and said it puts his gear to shame . He said it looks like a golf course and where are the clippings ? I don't have photos of the lawn work i do as taking before and after photos of a lawn would not show much . But surely you can imagine how good it does lawns if it does such a good job with scrub and with no clippings .
These are the cast 'P' hammers for those who have not seen them . You will note how sharp they are and how wide they are , it is not hard to imagine how they would cut the grass neatly . And as they are paddle shaped they create great suction that lifts the grass and leaves etc to meet them .

 

[IslandTractor]

Point taken. No harm no foul. I haven't mowed lawns myself so couldn't answer the question posed earlier. I know mine does fine with pastures but I'm not fussy about it either.

I do think that the golf course management would be a bit nervous seeing that grapple on the greens though.

 

[GinNB]

If I can think of it, I'll try and get a few pics of what happens to different blade designs when they hit rocks. I think we've still got a little of everything on the scrap pile.

 

[GinNB]

Here's a pic of one of our triple-gang flails equipped with shackled Y-knives for mowing dippy ground with the (sometimes more than)occasional rock. It's got three 3' heads.

 

[KRBrouwer]

Finally, it only took me a week to make it through this thread. I'm looking for a cutter for my Kubota L4240. I used my fathers 72" Bush Hog this weekend but I really like the idea of the Flail if I can do both brush cutting and lawn cutting. I haven't seen a sound "Yes, with this hammer/knife you will get an excellent lawn and still beable to cut pasture etc." We don't have alot of woods or super overgrown around down here. Most of what we use a bush hog for would be pasture or fields. The stuff I cut this weekend was some of the thickest I've dealt with in a while and was near 18" tall. The Bush Hog was working hard and the tractor was creeping. I left lots of balls of grass clippings that I'm thinking the flail would help eliminate while speeding up the process. I have my fingers crossed that one of you guys can tell me I can buy a flail instead of a finishing mower and a Rotary cutter.

It obviously works tell in the tall, overgrown stuff but has anyone perfected the lawn cutting? I don't have rocks here and I don't need a golf course. Does the Caroni offer forged hammers that were just spoken about leaving a cleaner lawn vs. the y type knife?

I just purchased a Caroni TM1900 about 3 weeks ago. I mow my lawn (2 acres), pasture and the edges of the road in our development. It does an excellent job on all, and I especially like the offset for mowing along the road. The appearance of the lawn is excellent, as good as with my 3 bladed Rhino 5 foot finish mower (now gone). The only difference is the grass looks like someone ran a large comb over it (due to the Y blades), however I think that it looks very manicured.

Ken

 

[Eagleview]

Ive probably gone off on my own little tangent there . What i was implying is that in my opinion , if someone was wanting a flail that would handle scrub , pasture and also do a presentable job on lawn the cast hammer flails are a good choice . If on the other hand a dedicated lawn mowing flail was needed the lighter flails as Island suggests may be a better choice . There is a pressed metal flail that i cannot find on the net , i think someone said it was called a scoop flail which may be better again . It will fit where 'Y' blades attach and it also has a hollow spine which accepts a long straight knife blade so you can Verti cut the lawn at the same time . I had a picture of it in a magazine , i'll have another look .

 

[Brahmus]

Island i am not attacking your personal views on 'Y' blades . I was called the other day by a lawn contractor to do a lawn that was too large for his ride on lawn tractor . The grass was ablout 4-5 inches high , after i finished he shook his head and said it puts his gear to shame . He said it looks like a golf course and where are the clippings ? I don't have photos of the lawn work i do as taking before and after photos of a lawn would not show much . But surely you can imagine how good it does lawns if it does such a good job with scrub and with no clippings .
These are the cast 'P' hammers for those who have not seen them . You will note how sharp they are and how wide they are , it is not hard to imagine how they would cut the grass neatly . And as they are paddle shaped they create great suction that lifts the grass and leaves etc to meet them .

That's what I was invisioning. And you say it'll does it all and does it well? We don't have rocks down here so no worry their. Now to find an entry level Flail that will accept these hammers.

 

[Brahmus]

Who makes the P cast hammers you posted in the picture?

 

[Eagleview]

Seppi make the ones in the picture but many companies make them and many flail mower manufactures do a hammer version of their mowers . This is a link to the pressed metal type i was refering earlier to which are cheap , light weight and probably be better in your instance if your not doing heavy scrub than any other . They also attach the same way as the 'Y' knives . Flail Mower Knives

 

[DavesTractor]

Seppi make the ones in the picture but many companies make them and many flail mower manufactures do a hammer version of their mowers . This is a link to the pressed metal type i was refering earlier to which are cheap , light weight and probably be better in your instance if your not doing heavy scrub than any other . They also attach the same way as the 'Y' knives . Flail Mower Knives

Here in orchard country, we all use flail mowers and with the exception of the brush shredders, everyone uses the scoop knives similar to the ones shown in the post above.

 

[IslandTractor]

Here in orchard country, we all use flail mowers and with the exception of the brush shredders, everyone uses the scoop knives similar to the ones shown in the post above.

Dave, do you know if anyone makes a scoop knife that can be fitted to a Caroni flail. Caroni only sells Y knive flails as you probably know having been a dealer for them in the past.