Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[sagefruit]

The MFZ has a Comer gearbox, and the hammers are heavy 1500g. I wonder what the hp rating is on that gearbox.

 

[lagreex1]

Well I had my first mow with the Caroni and it did great. My toplink was just barely long enough, so I had it pulled in a bit to make sure it didn't break. I picked up a longer toplink today, so my next mow should be even better.

This is the position of the mower fully extended out.


Here's the position fully drawn in. With the side shift kit the mower is almost centered, although the cut is still offset to the right (due to the gear box on the left).


Other than putting the PTO guard on (oops), she's all done and ready for the season. My test mow went well, everything went fine.
A few notes to anyone looking into this setup:
1. Because of the positioning of the shift kit and my PTO, I CANNOT raise the mower all the way up without bending the PTO shaft. That's fine for me, but could be a problem for some. To fully raise the mower I'll need to unhook the PTO shaft.
2. Because of the extra length added by the shift kit, I did NOT need to shorten my PTO shaft.


I'm not used to having that much weight behind me, it'll take some getting used to. I have a 55 gallon drum of wiper fluid ready to fill the tires with, as soon as my buddy has time.

One question: For those with side shift mowers, do you grease the rails at all? There is a light amount of grease or film on them currently, but the manual doesn't say anything about keeping the rails lubricated.

 

[RoyJackson]

Well I had my first mow with the Caroni and it did great. My toplink was just barely long enough, so I had it pulled in a bit to make sure it didn't break. I picked up a longer toplink today, so my next mow should be even better.

Nice job!

 

[leonz]

Hello Lagreex1,


I want to welcome you as the newest member of the Flail Mower Nations from the great state of Indiana.

If both of your lower links can be extended I would definitely extend them as you will have a better balanced mower and mule.


Take your time when you begin mowing as you have a short implement mounted on the rear of the mule.
You have to remember that quick turns while driving at transport speeds are not a thing to do with a raised flail mower.

When you get to do a lot of mowing your going to have a lot of fine dust from mowing and the heat drying up the grass that sticks to the mower shroud and the rest of the parts.

The fine dust screen in front of the radiator(if it has one) may plug more often too so plan on using hot water to help wash the radiator out and flush the chaff and dust screen if it has one.

I always tell everyone that the tattle tale vacuum indicators on the air filters are not to be trusted as they can and will be affected by fine dust. I do not like dry paper air filters as I found that oil bath air cleaners are much more reliable as they have pre cleaner dust cups that remove the heavy dust from the air stream and that cannot plug.

Best thing to do is just wash it off with really hot water in a hand held lawn sprayer with filled with some Dawn Dish Soap when the dust gets to be noticeable as it will get into everything and the guide tubes for the rails. Washing under the mower shroud occasionally will help to dissolve the grass dust that will accumulate on everything and the bolt threads on the knife hangers.

Welcome to the Flail Mower Nations.


Happy mowing.






Happy mowing

 

[RoyJackson]

Hello Lagreex1,


You have to remember that quick turns while driving at transport speeds are not a thing to do with a raised flail mower.

That's applicable to most any implement...rotary cutters being the worst.

Good tips in the rest of the post!

 

[JD40MO77]

Got the flail out Friday and worked it a couple hours. Our spring green up is running late in southeast Missouri this year.
Anyone else have pics of their John Deere 25A or other green flail mowers?

 

[leonz]

We have a big herd of 25A pictures and the mules pulling them on the forum.

Happy mowing.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I just spent the better of 3 hours cutting out polyester bailing twine from my Caroni flail mower. In the past I had gotten barb wire and a old bed spring caught in the flail drum rotor but this was by far the hardest to clear. There was also some wire with the twine to make it difficult to cut the twine and the twine made it near impossible to get cutters on the wire. The worst problem however was the twine was pulled into the drum collar that protects the bearings, I had to remove the collar and dig out the stretched and partially melted twine that had gotten behind the collar and locked the rotor. I mowed this area last year, an area where the commercial hay balers don't cut, without incident. Apparently the commercial guys threw the remnants of a spool of twine on the ground and my flail mower found it.

My sympathies. I have found my flail mower to be the best tool on the box for finding half buried items in tall grass. So far I have found mesh fence wire, baling twine, and a 5/8" wire rope. It is truly amazing how fast a flail mower can wrap wire rope around the drum. It was a 100' laying on the ground, but I only wrapped about 20' before the belts slipped and my clutch application. It was only about a hour of cutting with an angle grinder to clean it out. I must have looked mighty impressive dragging the remaining 80' back to the house though.

While finishing up a new fence installation I noticed a little piece of 12.5 ga. high tensile wire, about a foot long, on the ground. Figuring it was just a short piece that I had dropped, I tried to pick it up to dispose of it. I turned out to be something left by the previous owner because as I pulled it up, I found one end was connected to the remains of a wire spool and the other end went under the fence I installed and paralleled it for about 500' becoming 2 strands of wire at about the 100' mark. It is on state hwy right of way, but I had started mowing it to keep the tall grass away from the electric fence and drawing current. Thank God I found it before my mower did,what a mess that would have made if I would have hooked that stuff with my old flail.

 

[leonz]

Hello Frank,

Sorry to hear about the fence wire mishap. I have always found garden hose snakes are the worst as they really bite back
and I have the bite marks to prove it.

Finding and removing extension cord snakes in winter is a really nasty job as they tend to gum you and bruise you quite a bit when unwrapping them from your snow blower, first they wrap them selves around the wrist and keep gumming you as you pull the them out from the single stage snow blower rotor.


How far are you from Skykomish if you do not mind me asking? I have been an amateur historian of the GN from 1888 to 1929 when the GN was running the line from Seattle to Skykomish to Wellington then Cacade Tunnel Station and then to Wenatchee.


:drink:

 

[lagreex1]

Leonz thanks for the warm welcome, and the tips.

Hello Lagreex1,
If both of your lower links can be extended I would definitely extend them as you will have a better balanced mower and mule.

My lower links don't extend out (I don't think so anyway...). I am about to extend my wheels out, which will be nice.