Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

That's not really a question you can answer without knowing the details. One that's never been run would be worth a fair bit. Realistically I wouldn't expect one to be worth more than a grand or so though, they haven't been made in a decade or 2 & have been used a fair bit since then.

My 7' 917 had a bent hood, way to short PTO shaft, missing knives & had been used for 2 decades. I got a good deal at $100 for it. Have around $600 on it for knives, belts, PTO shaft & now new bearings. Few weekends worth of work on it too. I wouldn't sell it for under a grand though. To replace it with something new I'm probably looking at 3 grand or so.

I haven't called on it yet, not knowing much about flail mowers, what should I pay attention to? He wants $550 for it.

I would have 6hp per foot so I'm good there. What does a wore out knife look like?

From the pictures it looks like right under the PTO shaft, looks like it has a good amount of rust on it. Rest of the body looks ok

 

[leonz]

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I haven't called on it yet, not knowing much about flail mowers, what should I pay attention to? He wants $550 for it.

I would have 6hp per foot so I'm good there. What does a wore out knife look like?

From the pictures it looks like right under the PTO shaft, looks like it has a good amount of rust on it. Rest of the body looks ok

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NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The flail mower shroud weldment is a goner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I see that it tells me it has had impact damage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With that amount of steel gone the remaining weldments on the side weldments and the rear roller mount will have become weaker and suspect as the units entire strength of the full welds is gone.


Walk away please otherwise, if you buy it you will not be happy and blame flail mowers for bad mowing forever.


We want you to succeed not fail.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

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NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The flail mower shroud weldment is a goner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I see that it tells me it has had impact damage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With that amount of steel gone the remaining weldments on the side weldments and the rear roller mount will have become weaker and suspect as the units entire strength of the full welds is gone.


Walk away please otherwise, if you buy it you will not be happy and blame flail mowers for bad mowing forever.


We want you to succeed not fail.

What about that big boy? 12 footer pull behind, $500 woods

Listing as follows: 12ft Woods Flail Chopper model FL144-2, hydraulic lift good condition

 

[leonz]

If you can look at the red MATHEWS flail shredder behind it I would rather see you with that one.

 

[olPete]

What recommendations would you guys have for me.
My tractor has a solid 90 pto hp.
Basically I want to mulch areas of Californian Thistle with it. Have an 8'6 disc mower and can borrow a ten foot one for mowing hay silage etc. Looking at a flail/mulcher for topping grass left behind after livestock and thistle control. Used a big Berti mulcher and liked that, leaves the mulch nice and even to rot away.
My question is, what sort of flails/hammers/knives should I be looking for, not too concerned about finish as I know that is largely based on groundspeed. And how wide? Don't want to spend $$$$ on the wrong machine, and you guys know plenty from your experiences.
The Berti had flails that had about a 45° bend and left quite a stripey finish on stalky grass.

 

[Fallon]

Leonz is a bit more pessimistic on that one than I am, but that gap under the PTO shaft is worrisome. I went the other way. Got a crappy flail, fixed it up & got hooked on flails. Probably going to retire it to a backup & replace the 917 with a new flail within a couple years.

My shroud was bent in back & why some knives were missing. I torched out the dented part & patched it. One of the spars holding the hood is cracked & had a failed patch weld on it long before I got it. Have yet to bother patching it. I assume that is what is causing vibration noise but may or may not ever patch it.

If you are handy, can weld & don't mind a project it might be worth a hundred or 2. Make sure you have the skills, tools & motivation for a small project though & post better photos for better opinions.

Side slicers knives are just bar stock with a hole in 1 end & a 45 degree bend in the middle (maybe 1/3 of the way down). Usually sharpened on the sides at the business end. When they wear the end corner starts to round off first. Lots of my knives are rounded, especially ones mounted near the sides. They still cut fine so I haven't replaced or even sharpened mine.

My 7' pulled fine, if slowly behind my 25hp PTO L3200 (3.6hp/ft)

 

[Kodiak45]

I made the mistake of buying a flail couldn't be tested first. I thought it was a good deal. I noticed the patches of welded metal underneath and it didn't bother me too much, figured that was better than rust. Once I painted it and put all new knives and tried it for the first time all I heard was metal clanging as the weld patches didn't give clearance for the blades. A year of occasional tinkering and mostly sitting, I'm still grinding areas down that the blades contact and it hasn't cut one blade if grass yet. I hope to actually finish it in the next few weeks and finally get a taste of flail.

 

[IslandTractor]

I made the mistake of buying a flail couldn't be tested first. I thought it was a good deal. I noticed the patches of welded metal underneath and it didn't bother me too much, figured that was better than rust. Once I painted it and put all new knives and tried it for the first time all I heard was metal clanging as the weld patches didn't give clearance for the blades. A year of occasional tinkering and mostly sitting, I'm still grinding areas down that the blades contact and it hasn't cut one blade if grass yet. I hope to actually finish it in the next few weeks and finally get a taste of flail.

Man, I hope things go well. You've certainly paid your dues.

Could you not simply get shorter blades? Flailmaster has a variety of sizes.

 

[Kodiak45]

Man, I hope things go well. You've certainly paid your dues.

Could you not simply get shorter blades? Flailmaster has a variety of sizes.

I suppose I could, but I want it right and it's hard to tell where the contact places are without spinning at 540. It surely can't be spun by hand. It's a process of paint, spin, mark high areas, grind and repeat. All this with the rotor installed which makes it such a big task. I'm almost there and then I'll resharpen the new blades and hopefully cut some grass and corn stalks to get ready for planting in a month or two.

 

[leonz]

What recommendations would you guys have for me.
My tractor has a solid 90 pto hp.
Basically I want to mulch areas of Californian Thistle with it. Have an 8'6 disc mower and can borrow a ten foot one for mowing hay silage etc. Looking at a flail/mulcher for topping grass left behind after livestock and thistle control. Used a big Berti mulcher and liked that, leaves the mulch nice and even to rot away.
My question is, what sort of flails/hammers/knives should I be looking for, not too concerned about finish as I know that is largely based on groundspeed. And how wide? Don't want to spend $$$$ on the wrong machine, and you guys know plenty from your experiences.
The Berti had flails that had about a 45ｰ bend and left quite a stripey finish on stalky grass.

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Is your mule equipped with 540 RPM PTO or 1000 RPM PTO??

As long as your mule has that much power you can invest in a 10-12 foot crop shredder
with four rows of side slicer knives and you can leave the cut at 2 inches the year
round as you will have plenty of power.

if you had a bad finish the ground speed was either too fast, or the PTO was not up to 540 or 1000 rpm or the side slicers were dull.

If you have a Berti Dealer nearby you will have to decide which one of the 8 models of TFB/Y orchard and vineyard flails they offer or one of thier crop shredders, the knife style, 540 or 1,000 RPM and how much you can afford to spend. The largest model has five rows of knives hangers if I understand their brochure correctly.


Most side slicer knives are set at 37 degrees +-