Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

Urakunu · Apr 26, 2020

JWR said:
Mr Urakunu -- Fallon is right (as he usually is!) Just a couple of comments: You said you have a mile of road to your cabin, banks to keep clean, etc. I'm still hoping to see a few pictures of your circumstance. Anyway, I was not up on the flail mower you are considering and after some study I am thoroughly impressed. Very attractive features. One question is how heavy a material will you normally be cutting? The flail mower is not intended for thick woody brush, saplings, small trees, etc. Neither would a sickle bar mower of course. The Martin side-frame rotary cutter you mentioned would be a heavy duty solution good for cutting a lot heavier stuff than the flail mower. If most of your need is cutting light brush and mostly weeds and heavy grass, etc. the flail will probably be the right tool. On the other hand if you have fairly frequent need to cut 2" thick material (and maybe clusters of it) the Martin (or similar, there are several brands) would be the better tool. BUT if that be true, you really need a larger, heavier tractor. As Fallon said, weight matters a whole bunch. If the heavier material is going to be your long-term challenge then spending twice as much for the mower may not be a bad idea but then there is the tractor ...and money. It never ends does it?

I don't have pics handy of the situation, cabin is 4 hours away. I wouldn't try to cut anything super thick with it, will be getting a grapple to handle that kind of stuff, keeping our extensive road system mowed and food plots along with the pond and some sides of the roads.
I'm not going to go larger on the tractor because I won't be able to move it on my own easily. The tractors I'm looking at I can easily move and haul attachments and implements as well. And you are correct it never ends with the amount of implements and attachments. Thanks again for the insight, it's much appreciated!

chinton · Apr 28, 2020

I finally pulled the trigger on a flail mower the other day and it arrived today. I purchased the Woodmaxx FM-78.

I spent the afternoon getting it setup and will hopefully run tomorrow after work.

Alien · Apr 29, 2020

The Woodmax has exactly the same gearbox as my Hayes mower. No leaks after 4 years. I am very happy with it

mred2 · Apr 30, 2020

Urakunu, I have a LS XR4150 and a 5 foot ditch bank flail mower. FEL on and all tires filled. It handles it well. I can mow about 4 foot to the side. The mower rides on the rear roller when mowing, so not a lot of problems with weight. The only issue with mowing the first time is not to hit something that will not move. It could turn tractor real fast, if you are mowing too fast. It is a long way down a couple of my banks.

Urakunu · Apr 30, 2020

mred2 said:
Urakunu, I have a LS XR4150 and a 5 foot ditch bank flail mower. FEL on and all tires filled. It handles it well. I can mow about 4 foot to the side. The mower rides on the rear roller when mowing, so not a lot of problems with weight. The only issue with mowing the first time is not to hit something that will not move. It could turn tractor real fast, if you are mowing too fast. It is a long way down a couple of my banks.

Thanks for that info I appreciate it. I bought the mower I was referring to now I need the tractor LOL!

Apeman426 · Apr 30, 2020

Stupid hurts. Thankfully only my wallet is injured this time.
I was interested in a flail, started reading and looking at the same time, found an alamo shd74, read how stout they were, made a move on it because it seemed like a good deal. I checked what I knew to look at but after I unloaded it at home I realized that the hitch and gear box were facing the wrong way. It must have been on the front of a tractor. So to make work I think these are my options.

1. Buy the hitch and gearbox mount from messicks for about twice what I have into already.
2. Buy the gauge wheels and take the roller out and run it reverse, about the same price as the hitch.
3. Put it all back together and use it as trade bait for an ditch bank flail which would be move useful.

Are there any salvage yards that would have the parts I would need used?
What ditch bank flail is best reviewed? My tractor is a ford 345, about 8800 lbs and 42hp at the pro. Thanks for all the advice..

JWR · May 1, 2020

Apeman: No idea what you paid but my instinct says sell it somehow/someway. Even if you take a loss it will not be as much as the money you will put good after bad trying top re-do it.

But... you may not want to do that. There are all sorts of parts available. Flailmaster was the dominant source for flail cutter parts for most brands. Even after they went out of business late last year, there is some lingering part business that I am not up on. Suggest tracking down Flilmaster status. 2nd., Alamo flail mowers are so durable and common and used by so many highway maintenance outfits there are parts forever. For example the big John Deere dealer in north central WV also sells parts for Alamo. Alamo themselves (cust service) tends to be quite helpful in all sorts of oddball situations. Try (830) 372-9551. There are rare but a few people who want/need/prefer to run the flail mower on the front of a tractor so they may be interested in it.

If you do welding/fabrication work yourself or have access to a good shop there may be some interesting possibilities there.

It depends a lot on what you really want and need to do with the mower. If it is "reach over the edge" bank mowing, [you probably have the wrong machine] and there are some really attractive new cutters for that. Look back several posts in this thread for some discussion. If you convert to putting this one you have on a 3pt hitch, check on rotation direction and whether it is right OR does it matter, etc.

Be nice to see some pictures of what you have.

Anyway, good luck !

Apeman426 · May 1, 2020

That number was super helpful. He was able to determine that what I have is a shd-h, it was designed to be pushed on the front of a tractor. He also said that there is no way to make this work from a 3 point without significant money and work. Only 1% of these were made in this configuration, figures that I would find it by accident. Kind of makes me want an alamo after talking to this guy and seeing how sturdy this thing is. It's for sale to say the least, but I'm sure everyone on this site is smarter than me and cant use this thing. Haha Most likely going to be trade bait for something else. Thanks for all the help and advice

Xfaxman · May 1, 2020

Do you know what PTO RPM it is?

I have a front mount flail for my Toro, it is 1800 RPM.

You can advertise it for sale here on TBN: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments-sale/