Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

Halftrack · May 5, 2017

Did one side of my 918 last year at this time. The bearing box from Motion Industries displays part # 1207 ENT9. That and the seal are in SKF boxes. The seal is labeled 35X62X7 HMSA10. That bearing comes basically dry and when I put it back together, I pulled the zerk and squeezed in some 00 (pourable) grease and replaced the zerk. Filled the area about half way and have not touched it since. Hopefully the seal stays intact and so far so good. The other side is being greased and we will see which fails first.

OhioCowboy · May 5, 2017

Halftrack: Thanks for the part numbers, Do you have the 918H? my shaft is 1.25". Yours is 35mm (1.377"). Mine is probably 15 years old. Maybe they changed the roller studs ends and bigger bearings since mine was built? I'll check the O.D. when I get the chance to see if your bearing fits the housing. Thanks again for your help.

Halftrack · May 5, 2017

Mine is a 918H 60" but is at another farm so I can't give you a serial #. ID on the shaft bearing is 35 mm and OD is 72 mm. I believe the seal sits on a step inside the bearing cup so it has an OD of 62 mm. Sorry I did not recognize the discrepancy and am glad you did.

View attachment 508520

Halftrack · May 5, 2017

Found a 2007 Flailmaster catalog and this is all they show. Makes me wonder if yours has been turned down to 1.25 at some point in time.

aczlan · May 5, 2017

Halftrack said:
Found a 2007 Flailmaster catalog and this is all they show. Makes me wonder if yours has been turned down to 1.25 at some point in time.

View attachment 508521

Perhaps the previous owner had a bearing freeze up and turned the end down to be true and round?

Aaron Z

Trails End · May 5, 2017

OhioCowboy said:
I remember paying about $50 at the Ford dealer about 4 years ago when I last replaced them.

If you still have the invoice from the Ford dealer, it should have the part number of the bearings that you replaced 4 years ago.

OhioCowboy · May 5, 2017

Maybe I screwed up. When it blew the bearings this time it had also tapered the shafts. I measured the previous shaft as 1.25" and welded a 78" 1.25" rod through the center of the roller rather than welding stubs on the roller end caps as it came from Ford. Can't believe I misread 35mm as 31.75mm, but knowing all the mistakes I've made in my lifetime, it's not impossible.
So I'll be looking for a Double Row Self-Aligning Ball Bearing - 31.75 mm ID, 72 mm OD, 17 mm Width if that's what happened.
I'll let you know what I find. Always wondered why they had the oil seal anyway since its sealed in the housing the way it is.

OhioCowboy · May 5, 2017

Trails End: LOL - not quite that organized. I lose tools in my workshop. Still looking for a pair of reading glasses I was wearing last week.

OhioCowboy · May 5, 2017

Wow. Prices sure have jumped up in 10 years. Bearing $57 to $97 (+70%) and side housings up from $257 to $413 (+60%)
The Caroni is starting to look better tonight.

IslandTractor · May 5, 2017

I'm not sure if anyone with a Caroni here has put 2000 hrs on it and I don't recall anyone needing to replace bearings either. I do have a vague recollection that someone who was once a Caroni dealer (?Dave in CA) noted that replacing Caroni bearings was a bigger job than on the US manufactured flails. Still, at under $2k plus shipping for a 75" cut, it is hard to beat the Caroni deal.

OhioCowboy · May 6, 2017

2000 hours/year sounded wrong when I saw that earlier. When I got home I did the math using a calculator and I know I had the wrong numbers. It's actually about 200 hours a year. I've been using this mower for more than 10 years and this will be the third set of roller bearings. Still using the original belts and replaced the blades last summer for the first time. I'm not abusing the mower, it just gets used for what it was built to do. From what I saw the Caroni houses the bearing on the ends of the roller and the shaft is on the side brackets with the roller sandwiched between the two brackets. Ford/NH reverses the location of the bearing and shaft. (The side brackets are the bearing housing. The 918H will cost me about $500 for the side brackets + $300 for the bearings and seals plus possibly $500 for a roller (no longer available from Ford or CNH) or $1900+ for a new complete Caroni 73" unit from ASC.

IslandTractor · May 6, 2017

I'm still happy with my Caroni. Been through a couple sets of belts and, because of our rocky soil, a bunch of replacement knives/clevises but otherwise it has been fine for ten years. Less mowing than you do but I use it for brush as well as annual field mowing so it isn't just cutting grass. I'd buy another.

OhioCowboy · May 6, 2017

I use mine as a brush hog basically. Keeping the borders of the corn and bean fields tidy, fence lines, and the "lawn/grass" which is mostly reclaimed hay fields and anything green. I used a 72" Caroni finish mower for about 10 years until I got tired of fixing flats and straightening spindles and replacing belts and blades on a regular basis. Tried a few other brands of finish mowers because I could purchase local. None of them held up close to the Caroni. That's when I switched to the flail and never looked at finish mowers again. I'm thinking of downsizing to the 59" Caroni from the 71" 918H. The problem I see is that ASC isn't expecting any Caroni stock until the middle of July. It'll be the beginning of August before I see it at my place. That's a lot of mowing for our Bad Boy zero turn to do for 10 weeks. Sure will test it's durability.

IslandTractor · May 6, 2017

The current ASC print catalog shows only the 75" TM1900. I don't recall if the 1600 model was offered in the brush version or just with the finish rotor.

Any particular reason to skip the TM1900? The offset makes mowing close to objects easier.

OhioCowboy · May 6, 2017

I was reluctant to buy the TM1900 because of the small number of blades. My 71" 918H has 96 blades and I like the look of the finish. The look is as good as any of my finish mowers I had. I'm afraid going to 56 blades on the TM1900 will leave a more ragged look on my "lawn".

OhioCowboy · May 6, 2017

The ASC catalog I saw only offered the TL1200FSC, TL1500FSC and the TM1900BSC. I called and asked if I could order any of the other models and was told "maybe" but only if they order a large number and the delivery to ASC from Caroni is unknown. My take was that ASC only wanted to offer those 3 models when they could get them.

vvanders · May 6, 2017

Great thread, tons of awesome info here.

I'm trying to size a flail mower for some property that we have. It's about 5 acres that's currently being hayed but we'll be moving to livestock + orchard. We're looking to keep it knocked down until we have a chance to fully build out the orchard and fencing, then use it to upkeep the land.

We have a Ford 1500(~19hp PTO), would a 5' Caroni be too large for our tractor? Should I opt for the 4' instead? Caroni lists 20-40HP for both.

leonz · May 7, 2017

vvanders said:
Great thread, tons of awesome info here.

I'm trying to size a flail mower for some property that we have. It's about 5 acres that's currently being hayed but we'll be moving to livestock + orchard. We're looking to keep it knocked down until we have a chance to fully build out the orchard and fencing, then use it to upkeep the land.

We have a Ford 1500(~19hp PTO), would a 5' Caroni be too large for our tractor? Should I opt for the 4' instead? Caroni lists 20-40HP for both.

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Buy the four foot finish flail model (4 row flail mower rotor) you will have plenty of uses for it besides the orchard property.

IslandTractor · May 7, 2017

vvanders said:
Great thread, tons of awesome info here.

I'm trying to size a flail mower for some property that we have. It's about 5 acres that's currently being hayed but we'll be moving to livestock + orchard. We're looking to keep it knocked down until we have a chance to fully build out the orchard and fencing, then use it to upkeep the land.

We have a Ford 1500(~19hp PTO), would a 5' Caroni be too large for our tractor? Should I opt for the 4' instead? Caroni lists 20-40HP for both.

I'll differ a bit from my buddy Leonz here. If you are reclaiming overgrown land then the four footer would be best but if the fields have been mowed regularly and this new flail will just be maintains open fields/pasture then my choice would be the five foot version. Either will do the job.

vvanders · May 7, 2017

IslandTractor said:
I'll differ a bit from my buddy Leonz here. If you are reclaiming overgrown land then the four footer would be best but if the fields have been mowed regularly and this new flail will just be maintains open fields/pasture then my choice would be the five foot version. Either will do the job.

Yeah, this is mostly maintenance, the field is being hayed right now, we just want to be able to keep on top of it once they stop cutting. Any concerns around PTO HP? 19 seems on the low side but I don't have any practical experience with a flail mower so it's hard to gauge what I should be looking at.