Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[leonz]

side slicers



At or near, mower seems to cut the same even considerably lower, but the tractor is happier a little above..



I can only lift it about 6-8 inches or I risk the pto shaft separating, doesn't seem to make a difference with those stalks.
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EDIT: I looked at the image with your mule and mower in the foreground and I will assume that the three to four passes that were made on the edge of the field were by you using the ford and the flail mower??

IT does not look bad for a first mowing but the brush will need to be shredded up again to dissolve the clippings quickly into the soil


Lower the cutting height to two inches with the gearbox level from front to back and mow once more with the engine speed at the 540 RPM engine speed. If you have too slow down don't worry your going to love how it looks as long as you adjust the mowers cutting height properly.

Do not hesitate to mow in spiral to allow you to recut the material.
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I can try it, but if I have to stop, shift, back up, shift, go forward, etc.. over and over through large areas then I bought the wrong machine..

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EDIT:

My father used a ford Jubilee with a 7 foot JD25A finish mower to knock down
12-15 foot golden rod in old pasture to good sod, it just takes more time

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I don't think dropping it straight down would make any difference with the tall stalks as the front of the deck and roller are keeping them pinned below the knives, never having a chance to get cut. I'm planning on experimenting some tomorrow if it doesn't rain with different heights and dropping the back, raising the front as I think that's the best chance to get knives on those stalks.. :thumbsup:

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EDIT:

Hello Dan,

What I mean by half cuts is simply lowering the flail mower and using half the cutting width as something is very wrong, there should be nothing but clippings and your mowing does not seem to be working.

Set the mowing height at 2 inches and mow with the rear roller riding on the ground as you are losing the mowers ability to create the negative pressure gradient(suction) needed under the flail mower shroud to lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor.

IF it does not sound like a vacuum cleaner at the 540 RPM engine speed with the roller riding on the ground its not cutting well.

End of edit:

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I hate to ask but which way is your PTO shaft rotating??? some of the older PTO mules had right hand rotation.

 

[smilinjak]

I thought I had gotten a picture of some of the stuff that it leaves standing, but apparently didn't.. Anyway, I've figured out the problem, it's the same as when I mowed outlots earlier this year with a Gravely zero turn. The problem is stalks that are tall enough that the front of the deck pushes them down, and the back of the deck (the roller in the flail's case) gets to it and keeps it held down before the front clears the end of the stalk (never has a chance to pop up inside the deck). It passes right under the blades or knives and pops back up behind. I have one area that still looks terrible after mowing, and more passes doesn't do much either. So far I've had the mower set fairly level and also high, I'm going to try dropping the back of the flail low on the roller, then using the top link to lift the front so the flails are more 'exposed' to the incoming material. I'll try to get more pictures tomorrow and report if the change in angle helps or not...

View attachment 480088View attachment 480089

Pretty tractor, the flail fits right in the color scheme. They look good together whether it ever cuts a stalk or not. :thumbsup:
Smilinjak

 

[Dan in MN]

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Hello Dan,

What I mean by half cuts is simply lowering the flail mower and using half the cutting width as something is very wrong,
There should be nothing but clippings and your mowing does not seem to be working.

Set the mowing height at 2 inches and mow. if you have time.


I hate to ask but which way is your PTO shaft rotating??? some of the older PTO mules had right hand rotation.

Ahh...thought you were talking about raising for a partial height cut first.. I went out and verified that the knives are rotating upwards in front as intended. I also dropped it down much lower in hopes of trying again tomorrow (forecast is calling for rain...). I did find one mistake by the Value Leader engineers...dropping it down lower of course also needed the skids to be raised, but in front you can't get to the bottom bolt hole on the skid as the curve of the skid is such that it hits the side of the frame before you can get to the bolt hole. I was able to raise the back of the skids and it will work fine with some angle to it, but thats kind of a ridiculous oversight..

 

[Xfaxman]

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I can only lift it about 6-8 inches or I risk the pto shaft separating,----------------

A PTO shaft extender would solve that problem.

 

[Dan in MN]

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Set the mowing height at 2 inches and mow with the rear roller riding on the ground as you are losing the mowers ability to create the negative pressure gradient(suction) needed under the flail mower shroud to lift the clippings up and over the flail mower rotor.

IF it does not sound like a vacuum cleaner at the 540 RPM engine speed with the roller riding on the ground its not cutting well.

Somewhere with the edit or me just reading too quickly I had missed this part... Definately no vacuum sound, it's so quiet I hardly hear it working and the tractor isn't that loud either (no ear protection necessary). I had started higher just making sure the tractor had enough power, hopefully dropping down in height doesn't cause me to have to drive slower. I can handle mowing in 3L (2 speed Sherman transmission option on my Jubilee), but going down to 2L is a big dropoff in ground speed. I have around ~20 acres I want to mow a few times a year, not willing to make it a part time job.. If I have to creep along then I bought the wrong implement, regardless of how it cuts.. Actually when researching mowers all summer my main concern with a flail was ground speed, couldn't find any real information on it but I took a chance. I know a Bush Hog would move faster, but it was very important to me to be able to back into my shop with the mower attached and still get my zero turn in front of it, a 6' Bush Hog sticking out close to 8' behind the tractor would have been a big problem..

A PTO shaft extender would solve that problem.

Not in this case...I had to shorten the shaft to get it hooked to the tractor, maybe could have done a little bit less but certainly didn't go overboard with it. Part of the problem is this old tractor needs the pto engaged to have hydraulics, so the only way to raise it high is with the pto spinning and I've had it separate a couple of times (lesson quickly learned! lol). If I were able to raise it without the shaft spinning I could get it higher for servicing, etc..

 

[Catoosa]

Speaking of Mott flail mowers.. I have a good gear box off a Mott mower, at least I think it's a Mott. Looks like the one in the photo in post #1877 of this thread except it's red. If someone needs it and can pick it up (or have it picked up) just outside Tulsa OK I'll give it to you. Please do not ask me to ship it, if I wanted to go through the trouble I would put on eBay. It's still sorta attached to the mount because I was not able to get the PTO coupling off the input shaft. Probably needs to be cut off with a torch. It's used but looks good, a couple seals and it would be good to go.

 

[Steave]

Speaking of Mott flail mowers.. I have a good gear box off a Mott mower, at least I think it's a Mott. Looks like the one in the photo in post #1877 of this thread except it's red. If someone needs it and can pick it up (or have it picked up) just outside Tulsa OK I'll give it to you. Please do not ask me to ship it, if I wanted to go through the trouble I would put on eBay. It's still sorta attached to the mount because I was not able to get the PTO coupling off the input shaft. Probably needs to be cut off with a torch. It's used but looks good, a couple seals and it would be good to go.

That's very generous maybe help somebody out around your area. As for the PTO coupling I ended up having to cut the one on mine. When I got it the PTO shaft was bent and wouldn't slide. I tried everyway possible to get it off but ended up splitting it with a cut off blade and then a giant gear puller. Luckily the gear box was fine.

 

[gregharr55]

Good to know the rear roller isn't too easily bent. Thanks for all the good info.
Greg

 

[KenB2920]

Attempted to throw a BX45 belt on my Ford 918H.... Boy, I couldn't get it to fit only to see its a BX45 1/2...... Looks like .8 inches longer.... An inch means a lot to a guy...

Ordered some new ones from messicks and should be here next week. Hopefully I can get them on 1203mm comes to mind

 

[Dan in MN]

I went out yesterday with the grass wet to try the lower height and mowed an area that was only around 12" tall so I wouldn't get grass wrapped up in the roller again...it cut pretty nicely...



Today was nice and sunny all day, was going to go out late afternoon and mow a taller area but the tractor wouldn't start. After some troubleshooting I narrowed it down to the starter and took it apart, definately needs a rebuild with worn down brushes, corrosion on the commutator shaft, and one of the brushes had the wiring almost broken completely off (did come off while I handled it)... I'm surprised it was working at all, hoping to find a rebuild kit locally tomorrow otherwise I'll have to order and wait..