Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Artisan]

Scooby,

The majority of the brush I need to deal with is like .75" diameter, and really mostly smaller.
Of corse there is a bigger stuff, that is a different plan. It is the 3-4' tall trash
bushes and brush I want mulched up, hard to get that stuff in the chipper shredder.
That GML flail / mulcher machine is rated down to 16 PTO HP, I have 17.7 I thunk it is,
and it is rated up to 1.5" diameter material, fitted w/ hammers.

Mark,

Yes, I would LOVE to have a bigger tractor in ADDITION to the BX25
The BX25 is irreplaceable because of it's size.
It will slither in and out of big trees quite easily where a
big tractor would be worthless. I do not want roads everywhere, I want
a park everywhere.


quicksand,
When you say "rough" mower what exactly are you refering to please?


I am also going to be on a good grade, w/ a winch attached to the front
of my BX25's front hitch w/ a man running it, semi lowering and I am sure will be needed going
back up, as well as attached for safety. It will not happen till early next
year. I will get some video I am sure. It is sure to be "interesting".

 

[quicksandfarmer]

quicksand,
When you say "rough" mower what exactly are you refering to please?

A rotary rough mower, aka bush hog, brush hog or shredder.

 

[leonz]

Scooby,

The majority of the brush I need to deal with is like .75" diameter, and really mostly smaller.
Of corse there is a bigger stuff, that is a different plan. It is the 3-4' tall trash
bushes and brush I want mulched up, hard to get that stuff in the chipper shredder.
That GML flail / mulcher machine is rated down to 16 PTO HP, I have 17.7 I thunk it is,
and it is rated up to 1.5" diameter material, fitted w/ hammers.

Mark,

Yes, I would LOVE to have a bigger tractor in ADDITION to the BX25
The BX25 is irreplaceable because of it's size.
It will slither in and out of big trees quite easily where a
big tractor would be worthless. I do not want roads everywhere, I want
a park everywhere.


quicksand,
When you say "rough" mower what exactly are you refering to please?


I am also going to be on a good grade, w/ a winch attached to the front
of my BX25's front hitch w/ a man running it, semi lowering and I am sure will be needed going
back up, as well as attached for safety. It will not happen till early next
year. I will get some video I am sure. It is sure to be "interesting".

These heavy scoop knives are hardened and they will
last you a long time as long as you use a
wet well knive grinder on these scoop knives.

These specific scoop knives are made for several brands of
european flail mowers.

You should be fine with the gearmore unit as long as you knock it all down
backing over the brush on the first pass and then driving forward for the
second pass.

 

[DavisHollow]

Value Leader flail mower vs cactus in Texas Hill Country. Tractor is a Yanmar 2610D (~31 HP) and mower is the 6' heavy duty version from Value Leader.

Flail Mower Farm - YouTube

 

[bandit67]

Value Leader flail mower vs cactus in Texas Hill Country. Tractor is a Yanmar 2610D (~31 HP) and mower is the 6' heavy duty version from Value Leader.

Flail Mower Farm - YouTube

Pretty impressive how well it cuts when you're going 20-25 mph.

 

[whirly]

Artisan, I have a flail and a rough mower and I would do that with the rough mower. Maybe afterwards I would make it pretty with the flail. My flail doesn't do too well with tall stuff. Plants that are taller than the mower is wide (about 18") have a tendency to get caught on the front edge and pushed flat and run over rather than mowed. Heavy foliage is much more likely to clog the flail than the rough mower. Also, a wild patch like that is likely to have rocks or logs hiding in the weeds and my flail mower will break on things my rough mower just spits out.

I have a tractor with a 47HP PTO but my flail will bog down and stop the tractor in really heavy wet brush. Yes I have to mow wet cuz we get 120" of rain a year and the grass/brush never stops growing.

Anyway ... I run through it first with the flail about 18"off the deck. That knocks down and mulches the tall stuff. Then I go back over with the flail in its normal position and it goes much easier. It really doesn't matter how high the brush is to start with, the 18" seems to give the flail enough room so it doesn't wrap the long stuff up around the bar.

 

[spo307]

Hello guys, newbie here needing a little advice. Have owned my 2004 Kubota L3000DT for several years, always bush hogging. Just recently bought a used flail mower with double "L" knives. What is the easiest way to sharpen these? Where can I price out that specialty sharpener mentioned? Sounds like some guys replace the knives rather than spending labor sharpening, but I have more time than money so far, so I think I will be sharpening for a while. Thanks for any help and advice you can offer. Fred.

i raise the cutter put jack stands for safety and use a 4" grinder

 

[sodamo]

Just went with a friend to look at a Deere 25a flail that was listed on CL for $1600. The guys father recently died and he's keeping the actor and 6 foot rotary cutter. Mower is stored in a metal barn but hasn't been used in a few years. Other than surface rust/dirt it looked good and no major visible damage, even the knives looked in decent shape. Unfortunately, the guy was not able to turn the gearbox by hand, seemed frozen, which seemed to surprise him, but not sure he was all that familiar with the flail himself, said only his Dad used it, he used the rotary. So my friend offered $500 (based on my advice) and the guy accepted after a bit of discussion. I figured at that price he can replace a lot of parts and still come out ahead. If he gives up, maybe he'll sell it to me LOL. Thoughts anyone?

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[IslandTractor]

Just went with a friend to look at a Deere 25a flail that was listed on CL for $1600. The guys father recently died and he's keeping the actor and 6 foot rotary cutter. Mower is stored in a metal barn but hasn't been used in a few years. Other than surface rust/dirt it looked good and no major visible damage, even the knives looked in decent shape. Unfortunately, the guy was not able to turn the gearbox by hand, seemed frozen, which seemed to surprise him, but not sure he was all that familiar with the flail himself, said only his Dad used it, he used the rotary. So my friend offered $500 (based on my advice) and the guy accepted after a bit of discussion. I figured at that price he can replace a lot of parts and still come out ahead. If he gives up, maybe he'll sell it to me LOL. Thoughts anyone?

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

I don't think I could turn my flail gearbox by hand but have no trouble doing that with my rotary cutter. The belts add friction is my guess. I can easily rotate the spindle by hand though.

If the cutter looks to be in good shape and there is oil in the gearbox, i would think it is fine. Not a bad price.

 

[GinNB]

Might be a bit of corrosion on a bearing somewhere, but they're a LOT easier to turn by rotating a pulley by hand than the driveshaft due to the gearing and mechanical advantage. Depends on whose hands you're using, too.

 

[sodamo]

Thanks guys. My only experience is my own which I can turn by pulling on the blades or turn the shaft to align with the PTO coupler, but then mine hasn't been sitting unused a few years. I think he got a great deal.
Here's a pic


David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[sodamo]

Good news. Neighbor removed belt and everything seems to be freed up and working fine. A bit of maintenance and attempt to mount on his tractor.

Wow, can't believe I saved him $1100

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[Blaneypark]

Still looking for a gear box with gears for a Mott 60 flail mower. Someone out there must have one sitting around.

 

[leonz]

Still looking for a gear box with gears for a Mott 60 flail mower. Someone out there must have one sitting around.

Have you checked with the folks at flailmaster or from Wwengers of Myerstown PA.? the Wengers
folks are supermarket of used farm machinery.

 

[DaNag]

Having busted several clevises on my Caroni 1900 recently during an initial lot clearing, I discovered the sticker shock of buying parts from Agri Supply for this implement. Querying here for options resulted in the sad news known to many of you - nobody seems to have found an alternative for the ridiculously priced $7 metric clevis. That didn't sit well with me...

I may have found a solution. I say "may", as I've not actually tried it yet - but once I've used up the last of my four spare metric clevises from Agri Supply, I'll give it a try and report back if nobody else has given it a whirl.

I got the idea from Island Tractor's post, wherein he gave the info on cheaper blades from Flailmaster.com. I picked up a bunch of those, and they do indeed work fine. However, he also mentioned an SAE clevis - Flailmaster part #M-100761. This clevis is too wide to fit between the ears of the Caroni drum. However...I was able to easily tweak it to fit. Pic:

I simply took one of the M10x80mm bolts and a nut, and pressed the SAE clevis together. It deformed as I expected, such that the ears are no longer perfectly parallel - but that doesn't seem to matter. The assembly shown above still moves easily on the stock M10x80mm bolt, swinging back and forth with no interference. The clevis modification takes all of a minute or so.

Some caveats:

- You'll likely want to replace all of your metric clevises if you go this route - not just the broken ones. This SAE clevis is indeed beefier than the metric one, and weighs more. I'd be concerned about proper balance mixing them up.

- The entire assembly is just a tad longer than stock - perhaps 1/8".

Here's a breakdown of current pricing from Agri Supply vs. the sources I used for the entire assembly:

Agri Supply

Clevis: 6.99
2 x Blades@ 3.49: 6.98
M10x80mm Bolt: 3.49
M10 Nylock nut: 1.49
Total: $18.95

Elsewhere

Clevis M-100761: $2.80 (flailmaster.com)
2 x M-108381 blades@$1.54: 3.08 (flailmaster.com)
M10x80mm Bolt: 0.46 (nutty.com)
M10 Nylock nut: 0.13 (nutty.com)
Total: $6.47

Yup...almost 1/3 the price. And, based on the sturdier appearance of the SAE clevis - my guess is, the cheaper assembly will hold up to more abuse.

Again - untested, but looks promising.

 

[GinNB]

How's the balance? Untested means you haven't mowed with it or haven't powered it up to check for vibration? How easy was it to bend the new clevis enough to keep it from binding (and therefore sticking in place) for its full range of motion?

 

[J F]

Can someone please remind me (I actually read the whole thread awhile back) the downsides to a flail mower? Just curious.

 

[leonz]

Can someone please remind me (I actually read the whole thread awhile back)
the downsides to a flail mower? Just curious.

The only down side is the initial purchase price per foot as compared to those
ugly rotary cutters, but saying that the Agrisupply internet prices for the finish
and rough cut flailmowers are very good in my opinion for the first time buyer if you
are on a budget.

My 48 inch flailmower is 32 years old so its long life asset in any case.

 

[J F]

Thanks, Leo.

 

[leonz]

Having busted several clevises on my Caroni 1900 recently during an initial lot clearing, I discovered the sticker shock of buying parts from Agri Supply for this implement. Querying here for options resulted in the sad news known to many of you - nobody seems to have found an alternative for the ridiculously priced $7 metric clevis. That didn't sit well with me...

I may have found a solution. I say "may", as I've not actually tried it yet - but once I've used up the last of my four spare metric clevises from Agri Supply, I'll give it a try and report back if nobody else has given it a whirl.

I got the idea from Island Tractor's post, wherein he gave the info on cheaper blades from Flailmaster.com. I picked up a bunch of those, and they do indeed work fine. However, he also mentioned an SAE clevis - Flailmaster part #M-100761. This clevis is too wide to fit between the ears of the Caroni drum. However...I was able to easily tweak it to fit. Pic:

I simply took one of the M10x80mm bolts and a nut, and pressed the SAE clevis together. It deformed as I expected, such that the ears are no longer perfectly parallel - but that doesn't seem to matter. The assembly shown above still moves easily on the stock M10x80mm bolt, swinging back and forth with no interference. The clevis modification takes all of a minute or so.

Some caveats:

- You'll likely want to replace all of your metric clevises if you go this route - not just the broken ones. This SAE clevis is indeed beefier than the metric one, and weighs more. I'd be concerned about proper balance mixing them up.

- The entire assembly is just a tad longer than stock - perhaps 1/8".

Here's a breakdown of current pricing from Agri Supply vs. the sources I used for the entire assembly:

Agri Supply

Clevis: 6.99
2 x Blades@ 3.49: 6.98
M10x80mm Bolt: 3.49
M10 Nylock nut: 1.49
Total: $18.95

Elsewhere

Clevis M-100761: $2.80 (flailmaster.com)
2 x M-108381 blades@$1.54: 3.08 (flailmaster.com)
M10x80mm Bolt: 0.46 (nutty.com)
M10 Nylock nut: 0.13 (nutty.com)
Total: $6.47

Yup...almost 1/3 the price. And, based on the sturdier appearance of the SAE clevis - my guess is, the cheaper assembly will hold up to more abuse.

Again - untested, but looks promising.

As you are in Port Angeles Home of the A boats;

Any supply company that sells marine clevises for nets and cable should
have easy access to metric clevises as the majors like Campbell chain make them.