Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[whirly]

You are correct in your thinking and modifying the Mott 72 for "D" hangars will cause you no end of grief. The old Mott was NOT meant to use "D" hangars.

If you put the mower up on a bench the whole process of changing out knives will take about 3 hours and a couple of band-aids.

Yes that is my Mott 72 on the back of the Fordson.

 

[retiredfarmer]

Whirly,
Does the Mott 72 have skids on the sides of the housing?

There are none on the one I acquired.

 

[whirly]

No. Alamo added skids when they started doing the manufacturing. That is one of the ways you can tell if you have a Mott or Alamo.

The skids aren't necessary if you manage the fore and aft tilt of the mower.

 

[retiredfarmer]

W
Thank you for the info!
4-1/2 replacement blades and a belt (plus a gearbox fluid change and hit the grease fittings) and I’m looking forward to the grass growing.

 

[whirly]

You can get your C-51 or CX-51 (Cogged) belts cheap at vbeltco.com. $10-12.

 

[leonz]

W
Thank you for the info!
4-1/2 replacement blades and a belt (plus a gearbox fluid change and hit the grease fittings) and I知 looking forward to the grass growing.

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Hello retiredfarmer,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the flail mower nations. Please fill in the rest of your details as you may have a " Resident Flail Mower Nations Member" nearby that can give you a hand or offer advice about your Mott Flail Mower

You should plan on investing in a slow speed wet well grinder to grind your mower knives to a fine finish without ruining the temper of the knives.
You will be able to purchase a wet well grinder for $99.00+ tax and freight from Micromark and an angle setter for the tool rest from woodcraft for $25.00+tax and freight.

I have been using the same knives since 1992 and when needed I use my WEN wet well grinder to cool grind them as needed.

 

[retiredfarmer]

I've read about forward and reverse rotation on this thread....

Does anyone that has or has used a Mott fine cut flail have any input if reversing the rotation makes any difference in cut quality. The Chinese Flails for sale online advertise that they run reverse rotation for a better cut.

Apparently you can reverse the cut of the Mott 72 by changing the drive belt to the right side of the mower. This must have been engineered into the design of this mower for some reason or use.

 

[whirly]

The Mott 72 cuts great as is. When you reverse the rotation it will fling the clippings forward toward the driver's seat.

 

[retiredfarmer]

I’m trying to figure out why Mott would bother making it reversible. I know the smaller ones were reversible because they were intended for some of the smaller import tractors that had a counter-rotating PTO shaft, and others were made for 1000 PTO as some of the older Kubota had dual speed PTOs.

 

[leonz]

Hello retiredfarmer,

You may want to back the tractor and mower out and back it in as your going to be working on it for a while and I don't think you want the tractor held captive by the mower.

They reversed for roadside mowing; they did not want any possible objects being ejected and thrown at an incoming car if the mower was elevated/riding over low spots that had debris sticking up in the mower path.

The use a front mounted flail mower in Europe to cut silage crops while using outboard rear mounted wing mowers as well.


This one still has the ball hitch mount for towing 2 or 4 of the motorized Motts with trailing hitches.