Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Clearsmoker]

Figured I'll chime in here for the first time. Ive read most of the posts so I'm up on some stuff. I bought an older Bush hog fh188-01 just last week and have been working on it to make it better then it was.

I changed the oil and greased the bearings, tightened the belt and generally went over it to get it ready to use. Yes I did say belt as in just one. It is a Gates 2/B54. I love this belt it is a double V-belt bonded together. Works great now that I got the tensioner pull on the right side of the belt.. It was on the inside of the belt with the V's riding on it instead of on the outside so the pulley was riding on the back of the belt. Looks and works a lot better that way. I bought 3 new knives and links for it to replace the ones missing and now it works great. I mean it worked good enough without them, just left 3 stripes where they weren't.

I'm using my new LS G3033 with FEL to run it and havent had any problems other then having to go to a lower gear where the brush got a bit thick. All in all I like the flail better for the finish it gives in in the field but I still use the Rotary to knock down the 1-2" garbage in the woods area,

Looks like the Bush Hog and the Ford or is it Mott are the same. I forget which it was since the information overload of reading over 4,000 posts is a bit much to handle at my age. How old am I? Well let's just say that I know the class of '67 was the best.

Anyway just wanted to touch base and give a bit of info.

MG

 

[IslandTractor]

Welcome Clearsmoker. I also use a rotary for initial mowing of heavy brush, mostly because there is a lot of metallic and rock debris in some of the overgrown fields. I think you'd find that the flail will handle up to 1.5" without much bother but beyond that size the rotary is better for the initial messy cut.

 

[shaeff]

Welcome to the club, Clearsmoker!

I knocked my roughly 2 acre field down five weeks ago, then again a few days ago. Trying to get rid of a lot of the weeds and get it to remain field grass.

 

[Clearsmoker]

Welcome Clearsmoker. I also use a rotary for initial mowing of heavy brush, mostly because there is a lot of metallic and rock debris in some of the overgrown fields. I think you'd find that the flail will handle up to 1.5" without much bother but beyond that size the rotary is better for the initial messy cut.

Yes I have read that the flail will handle up to 1.5". Unfortunately I found that like a few other people my flail will only bend those over and strip the branches off. On anything up to about 3/4" it works just fine. That's why I did the rotary first just running around and cutting down the bigger little pines and then the flail for the nice fine cut and manicured look. Also found out that it will prepare a nice seedbed for new grass if you lower it to the bottom. Just had to go slow. Probably not too great for the knives but I'm planning on getting new scoop knives to replace the wore airplien wing knives that are on there.

I'm glad I don't have any rocks to worry about, just some pieces of badly rusted sheet metal that I ran into. That woke me up! No wire yet unless you count the extension cord that the mower found in one corner. Popped the shear bolt but the cord wasn't even skinned open.. Only took 2 min to unwind it. Looks like I have a new extension cord to use. Nah only kidding. It's going to metal recycling.

 

[Steave]

Yes I have read that the flail will handle up to 1.5". Unfortunately I found that like a few other people my flail will only bend those over and strip the branches off. On anything up to about 3/4" it works just fine. That's why I did the rotary first just running around and cutting down the bigger little pines and then the flail for the nice fine cut and manicured look. Also found out that it will prepare a nice seedbed for new grass if you lower it to the bottom. Just had to go slow. Probably not too great for the knives but I'm planning on getting new scoop knives to replace the wore airplien wing knives that are on there.

I'm glad I don't have any rocks to worry about, just some pieces of badly rusted sheet metal that I ran into. That woke me up! No wire yet unless you count the extension cord that the mower found in one corner. Popped the shear bolt but the cord wasn't even skinned open.. Only took 2 min to unwind it. Looks like I have a new extension cord to use. Nah only kidding. It's going to metal recycling.

My flail has better eyes than me, as somebody said, it can seek out and fine stuff I don't see. Wrapped up some baling twine at my neighbors pasture that I didn't see but took a lot more time than your 2 min unwind to remove it all.

I have a couple of old flails I use and just bought another this week. It's a Bush Hog FH 174. It's a beater with several of the side slicer knives missing and parts of the deck cut out where it probably got bent and letting the knives hit so they just cut it out. I just use these to keep junk knocked down around the field roads except for my Mott 72. It's a finish cut flail with lots of the side slicer knives. I use it on my extended lawn but use a lawnmower around the house.

My Ford 907 had the wing looking knives on it when I got it but I've since changed it to scoop knives. The Bush Hog I just got has the side slicers on it but they are heavy built... 2" wide X 1/4" thick. There's only 30 ish,,, stations on it so its more of a rough cut I think. Haven't had time to look at it much to see if it's worth repairing. Also needs bearings in the back roller.

 

[Clearsmoker]

My flail has better eyes than me, as somebody said, it can seek out and fine stuff I don't see. Wrapped up some baling twine at my neighbors pasture that I didn't see but took a lot more time than your 2 min unwind to remove it all.

I have a couple of old flails I use and just bought another this week. It's a Bush Hog FH 174. It's a beater with several of the side slicer knives missing and parts of the deck cut out where it probably got bent and letting the knives hit so they just cut it out. I just use these to keep junk knocked down around the field roads except for my Mott 72. It's a finish cut flail with lots of the side slicer knives. I use it on my extended lawn but use a lawnmower around the house.

My Ford 907 had the wing looking knives on it when I got it but I've since changed it to scoop knives. The Bush Hog I just got has the side slicers on it but they are heavy built... 2" wide X 1/4" thick. There's only 30 ish,,, stations on it so its more of a rough cut I think. Haven't had time to look at it much to see if it's worth repairing. Also needs bearings in the back roller.

Does your Bush Hog FH174 have the same drive belt arrangement as your Ford 907?
My Bush Hog FH188 looks exactly like this.



And the belt system is the same as below even though I belive I downloaded the pics from a post that said it was a Ford.



Of course mine started out a red color but is now a very shiny blue.

 

[Fallon]

Does your Bush Hog FH174 have the same drive belt arrangement as your Ford 907?
My Bush Hog FH188 looks exactly like this.

View attachment 516004

And the belt system is the same as below even though I belive I downloaded the pics from a post that said it was a Ford.

View attachment 516005

Of course mine started out a red color but is now a very shiny blue.

That & maybe all of the older Brush Hog flails are just rebadged Ford flails. Not that it's a problem, I like my Ford 917, other than is 20-30 years past it's prime & beat to **** these days.

 

[Steave]

Does your Bush Hog FH174 have the same drive belt arrangement as your Ford 907?
My Bush Hog FH188 looks exactly like this.

View attachment 516004

And the belt system is the same as below even though I belive I downloaded the pics from a post that said it was a Ford.

View attachment 516005

Of course mine started out a red color but is now a very shiny blue.

This is the Ford 907 it has 1 "C" size belt.



This is the Mott 72 I use mostly for finish cut. It has 1 "C" size belt and 96 stations = 192 blades.



I haven't had time to look at the Bush Hog FH 174 haven't even taken the cover off but it does have the twin belts that are tied together as 1 belt. Don't know what you call them. Here's a picture I took Monday when I picked it up. It was sold as parts only but might be worth repairing. ?? I'll post some pictures of the drive as soon as I can maybe a few days.

 

[Steave]

That & maybe all of the older Brush Hog flails are just rebadged Ford flails. Not that it's a problem, I like my Ford 917, other than is 20-30 years past it's prime & beat to **** these days.

My ford 907 is not as heavy built as your 917. I think it's a older mower also. It's heavy enough for what I do with it but not as hefty. The 907 and 917 can use some of the same knives and mine had the wing looking blades until I changed them to scoop. The scoop knives were a bit longer so I also had to replace the hanger.../D ring or V/ring with a shorter one. I'd been better off the just replace with the original wing. The side slicers for these mowers are pretty heavy built but to me it's just not enough of them compared to my Mott. Mott has 4 rows of stations with 24 in each = 96 stations = 192 knives. Ford has 3 rows of stations with 11 in each = 33 stations = 66 knives. Both are 72" cut.

I was looking for a 917 when I ran across this 907 and settled for it since the pickens are slim for flail mowers around here except for the crop choppers used by farmers.

 

[TerryCC]

I have seen posts about how to set the flail mower to cut a certain height. Here is what I did and do.

I moved my Caroni 1900 skids up one bolt, may have moved the roller up one also...can't remember. The way I set the Caroni to mow is I have the tractor and mower on level ground, lower the 3 point hitch until the roller touches the ground, then lower it further until the front edge of the skids are a couple of inches above the ground. I set the 3 point hitch controller stop at this height. I then adjust the top link to put the hitch pin in the center of the slotted hole on the Caroni. I then double check the height of the front edge of the skids and adjust the 3 point hitch height stop as necessary and check the top link pin position again and adjust again as necessary.

I get about a 3 to 3.5 inch cut which is perfect for bermuda grass