Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Catman8]

Catman8
I'm puzzled. Cant you just weight it with the good scale set up you have like you did your tiller in your other thread?
Have you tried Bush Hog(R) Performance You Can Count On and contacting them. Many times you can get manuals for free. Here is their contact page Contact Us Also in one of the photos is a Ford label so Fallon may be on to something.
Hope this helps

Thanks powerscol, yes I can weigh it but the weather man has predicted rain for seven days straight so I was looking for an easy answer, when I picked the flail mower up it sure was leaning to one side a lot. But thanks for the other info I'll check them out.:wave: my FEL has a capacity of 1,020 lb at the pivot point so if the flail mower is less than that I can weigh it. I found a photo of the wheels I was talking about, they seem more practical for uneven fields, I'm guessing that's what they are used for.

 

[IslandTractor]

Firstly, thank you very much for the warm welcome and initial information that has been provided. I will definitely read through this site as much as I can!
I should have been more specific, while 150 acres is total land, it certainly will not be the total required land needing to be mowed. I will get a better estimate of total land for mowing purposes during tomorrow's session.
A finer cut will be necessary as we will not have the man power or time to collect and clear large clumps of grass left here and there.
The links provided are most helpful and appreciated; I will use this new information in discussing options with the Peruzzo dealer. I will study up before returning with what I hope to be well informed questions.

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Sal

Don't worry about needing to clear lumps of grass cuttings if you are mowing regularly. Flail mowers mulch grass pretty efficiently. Of course if you are mowing meter high grass and mowing quickly then you will see cuttings the next day when the cuttings dry out. Only cure for that is to cut regularly and slow down to allow complete mulching. A flail will do a better job in this regard than either a rotary "bush hog" or a finish mower so the problem of clippings is minimized by using a flail. I'd estimate that at a normal 1-2 acres per hour mowing speed that you shouldn't have any issue so long as you cut no more than 15-20cm at a time. If you cut 50cm or more you will almost certainly have some clippings evident but they will be evenly distributed, not in piles. I often cut 50cm+ at a time as I cut some fields only once per year. The clippings are evident for a few days and then new green grass pokes up through the clippings and they are not so evident anymore. Another trick is to remow the same area with a perpendicular pattern to the original cut. The second pass can be quick as you'll really only be remulching not cutting.

Key point is to minimize clippings more more frequently.

 

[leonz]

Thanks powerscol, yes I can weigh it but the weather man has predicted rain for seven days straight so I was looking for an easy answer, when I picked the flail mower up it sure was leaning to one side a lot. But thanks for the other info I'll check them out.:wave: my FEL has a capacity of 1,020 lb at the pivot point so if the flail mower is less than that I can weigh it. I found a photo of the wheels I was talking about, they seem more practical for uneven fields, I'm guessing that's what they are used for.

View attachment 494193

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If you have the rear wheel mounts investing in a pair of them will only help you in you mowers use as quite often they were used to do stabilize the mower while mowing and allowing a smaller mule to be used for mowing and some of them were designed to towed the motorized Mott flail mowers that were used to mow large overgrown areas.

 

[Catman8]

These are the paddle blades on this tiller, I will be using it to mow a field, how do I know if they are any good, can they be sharpened or do you just replace them.

 

[IslandTractor]

These are the paddle blades on this tiller, I will be using it to mow a field, how do I know if they are any good, can they be sharpened or do you just replace them.

View attachment 494604View attachment 494605View attachment 494606

The blades look fine. No dings. If you are just field mowing you are probably not concerned about having the cut resemble a fairway at a fancy golf course. No need to sharpen before you mow. If it were me I would never sharpen the blades for field/pasture cutting.

 

[ericm979]

I read the entire thread and I have a dumb question- how does a flail mower follow the terrain? A rotary cutter is free to pivot up and down on the lower links. The flails I have seem appear to be solidly attached to all three points on the hitch.

 

[leonz]

I read the entire thread and I have a dumb question- how does a flail mower follow the terrain? A rotary cutter is free to pivot up and down on the lower links. The flails I have seem appear to be solidly attached to all three points on the hitch.

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Hello ericm979,

If you look very closely you will see that they are mounted on the three point hitch.

An integral or towed flail mower/crop shredder is free to follow the ground contour and follows the ground contour better than a rotary cutter or finish mower just as long as it is left in the float position as it is shorter in total length.

The rear roller acts as the height of cut gauge on most flail mower brands that are made today and follows directly behind the mule powering it and the rear roller position on the side weldments adjuster holes regulates the cutting height.

The exceptions are the towed motorised units popular in Europe that have either a single hand crank connected to a worm gear that connects to the landing gear on the two wheel towed motorised flail mowers or the units that have four wheel adjustments with two sets of hand cranked worm gears that connect separately to the front wheel sets and the rear wheel sets to adjust the mowing height as most all these towed motorised units are strictly ment for heavy brush mowing using quad bikes or SUV's to tow them.

The other major exceptions are flail choppers for harvesting green chop or flail crop shredders that do not have rear rollers as they are not needed as the height of cut is regulated by a lift cylinder on the flail chopper body or the wheel sets that allow the flail shredder to control its mowing height.

A towed flail shredder or flail harvester is adjusted using a hydraulic cylinder or cylinders to control the height fo cut.

 

[Milo]

If you look very closely you will see that they are mounted on the three point hitch.

An integral or towed flail mower/crop shredder is free to follow the ground contour and follows the ground contour better than a rotary cutter or finish mower just as long as it is left in the float position.....

Just to help me I assume you're referring to a "float position" on the flail itself, correct? There isn't a float on some three point hitches is there?

 

[Xfaxman]

I read the entire thread and I have a dumb question- how does a flail mower follow the terrain? A rotary cutter is free to pivot up and down on the lower links. The flails I have seem appear to be solidly attached to all three points on the hitch.

With no attachment on your lowered three point, grab a lower link and pull up on it, both lower links will come up.

The top link just keeps the flail from tilting forward or backward.

Very few tractors have down pressure on the three point and it will float when pushed up by the attachment.

 

[IslandTractor]

Just to help me I assume you're referring to a "float position" on the flail itself, correct? There isn't a float on some three point hitches is there?

I think what he meant is that when the 3PT is lowered sufficiently that the flail rides on the rear roller rather than being supported by the 3PT. The 3PT pulls but does not control the height of the flail in that setting. The terminology is confusing.

It is possible to mow with the 3PT elevated so either 1) the cut height changes a bit as the rotor pivots upwards while the rear roller is still on the ground, or 2) you can still cut when the 3PT is elevated further so the rear roller comes off the ground. In this latter situation you can still cut but as the mower will now be bouncing around and varying height of cut as the tractor bounces along, it does not lead to a quality cut and there will be less mulching. Still, there are times when you are just knocking down weeds or light brush when it is faster to run in that configuration.

In thick grass I often raise the 3pt but leave the rear roller on the ground just a bit to cut less. It is essentially a quick and dirty way to adjust the height of the cut.

In thick brush, I sometimes raise the rear roller off the ground so I quickly knock down light brush or so I can back into the brush to make a first pass, then drop the roller and mow the same area again as I drive out.