Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[leonz]

Over the weekend I decided to take the flails off my mower and give them a good sharpening. I then became OCD about the balancing and decided to weigh (measured in grams) every flail and toss the weights into a spreadsheet and calculate the most balanced combination I could come up with. For reference, the mower drum has 4 rows of 8 hammers/row, 32 in total. Rows 1+3 are opposing. Rows 2+4 are opposing. The hammers are staggered on the drum for overlap. I focused on getting the opposing sides balanced and keep the difference across all 4 rows minimal. I could definitely get better results if I ground down the 645 and 639 flails as they are the heavy outliers but all in all this was the best outcome I could come up with. Do you guys do anything crazy like this, or do you just grind em down and toss em back on?

View attachment 3513769

UGHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Are the flail mower rotor weights used to balance the flail mower rotor
"by itself": and after "the mounting stations were welded to the flail mower
rotor" still welded to the flail mower rotor???

Did you clean the hammers to bare metal with hot water and
Dawn dish soap??

Flail hammer knives, side slicer knives and scoop/duckfoot knives
should not be ground with a high speed dry grinding method as it
destroys the heat treatment/temper that was used to strengthen
the cast hammer knives.

One pass with the low speed wet well grind is plenty to maintain
37 degree edge.

Did you manage to keep the knife edge at 37 degrees?????

Flail shredders with side slicer, scoop or cast hammer knives come with
flail mower rotors in 2 designs either horizontal mounting in 2, 3 or 4 rows
or hammer knife mounting in a spiral knife mounting method surrounding
the flail mower rotor.

 

[LouNY]

My flails come into contact with rocks, fence posts (both wood and metal). I've never sharpened just inspected occasionally.

 

[TractorNoob85]

Only reason for removing them is I made the mistake of clearing some brush in the woods and made contact with some big rocks sticking out of the ground that I couldn't see and some flails got pretty beat up. None broken luckily but the edges were bad enough that it would knock down grass instead of cutting it.

@leonz, it's a Betstco flail mower so whatever the Chinese do to balance these things are probably not that accurate anyways. I would like to think the rotor would be balanced after the mounting points are welded on. No way of knowing though. It's not like you get a balancing sheet with these things. But, I do know the hammers on my mower are marketed at 27oz and not a single one is anywhere close to 27oz. Chinese products in a nutshell. Hammers were cleaned with soap and water prior to sharpening and weighing. Used a flap disc and grinder to sharpen. I'm not OCD enough to measure an exact angle, just following the factory edge by hand.

I'll be putting the flails on tomorrow and I'll let everyone know if any issues come about with the balancing so others know what not to do if it doesn't work out. Lol

 

[TractorNoob85]

An update on the "balancing" after sharpening.

No issues found. Mower operates smooth and cuts far better than it did when new. I'll probably continue to use the method I did if I need to sharpen them again. Hopefully not anytime soon. No more using it as brush mower.

 

[KenBike]

Just order a LandPride FM2584 with duckfoot blades for use behind my L6060 for mowing my horse pasture. Use a BushHog 1812 batwing and it works good by leaves clamps and does not shred the clippings well. Normally mow to 6 " but every spring in Ohio it gets away and end up cutting it down a few inches at a time.
Have pathways that also want to use the fail vs the zero turns so double duty.
Lots of good mowers out on the market but selected it becuse made in the USA and good dealer support locally to my home.

 

[dieselscout80]

FYI 917 (aka the Bush Hog FH174 or FH188 also) the skid shoes that go on either side are no longer available.

Here is a drawing of them.

They come from the factory with 5/16” plow bolts. However I couldn’t get any, so I used a 3/8” flat head cap screw/bolt.

I used 1.5”x.25 strap steel 36” long to make them.

Bush Hog said they made the 917 for Ford.

 

[BriManley]

I have a question about best practices of mowing with an offset ditch flail mower. I just had an issue with my Peruzzo Elk 1800 (72in) develop a bent PTO shaft. Enough that I couldn't pull it out once disconnected from the tractor. It has been getting stickier each time I connect it but thought I just needed to be better at greasing it. I don't know how it got that way. Never hit any trees and mostly mowing field grass for about 2-3 hours at a time. I do mow with the mower extended all the way since it tends to "walk" out if I have it directly behind the tractor. Should I not mow fields with it extended and only extend to do the ditches and pond area? Manual doesn't say anything about restrictions or best practices on mowing.

 

[LouNY]

I have a question about best practices of mowing with an offset ditch flail mower. I just had an issue with my Peruzzo Elk 1800 (72in) develop a bent PTO shaft. Enough that I couldn't pull it out once disconnected from the tractor. It has been getting stickier each time I connect it but thought I just needed to be better at greasing it. I don't know how it got that way. Never hit any trees and mostly mowing field grass for about 2-3 hours at a time. I do mow with the mower extended all the way since it tends to "walk" out if I have it directly behind the tractor. Should I not mow fields with it extended and only extend to do the ditches and pond area? Manual doesn't say anything about restrictions or best practices on mowing.

The most common reason for a bent pto shaft is a shaft too long,
2nd would be hitting something with it.
My ditch bank mower is often used fully extended and also fully upright.
I have gotten some severe u-joint hammering at times.
I have seriously considered a cv joint on the mower end.

 

[JWR]

The most common reason for a bent pto shaft is a shaft too long,
2nd would be hitting something with it.
My ditch bank mower is often used fully extended and also fully upright.
I have gotten some severe u-joint hammering at times.
I have seriously considered a cv joint on the mower end.

Agree. Probably BriManley had too long a pto shaft ... the rest of that explanation is that when the sliding/telescoping pto shaft is too long you raise the attachment with a very strong 3pt hitch and when the "too long shaft" bottoms out (unable to telescope further) the 3pt keeps putting more force on the lift and bends the shaft.

 

[1 Old Man]

..... I do mow with the mower extended all the way since it tends to "walk" out if I have it directly behind the tractor. Should I not mow fields with it extended and only extend to do the ditches and pond area? Manual doesn't say anything about restrictions or best practices on mowing.

As others have stated, PTO shaft was too long (no good way to fix that except to replace with
proper length shaft). Good luck.
I almost always mow pasture with the mower fully extended. Shouldn't cause any issues.
Besides it's easier to see in the mirror and helps prevent tractor neck....