Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[troverman]

Quick question - As I mow a field, I mow in kind of a big circle...starting on the outer edges and just keep making smaller and smaller circles. Once the first row is cut and as I cut the second row, the outer edge of the flail mower that sticks out beyond the rear tires seems to catch the "cut" hay from the previous pass. It clumps and just keeps accumulating more hay until finally a huge pile just falls off the edge of the mower. It looks terrible. Any way to prevent this from happening?

Thanks

 

[leonz]

Hello and good morning troverman,

No worries troverman If you overlap on the unmowed side of your spiral it will not do that.


Leon

 

[troverman]

Hello and good morning troverman,

No worries troverman If you overlap on the unmowed side of your spiral it will not do that.


Leon

Thanks Leonz, it took me about 5 acres yesterday to try that and it seemed to work. I only made 3 passes though. Will continue that way for today. I was also thinking of adjusting the top link to be a little longer, to pick the front of the flail mower up slightly? Right now it is pretty level.

 

[leonz]

Hello Troverman,

Can you answer this before 10AM as I have to go to town for supplies?

I will be tied up with chores for the rest of the day when I get back.

If the brush is tall you can take less than a full width cut and it will slice the clippings finer for you as long as you maintain the proper mowing speed.

Ideally you want your mower to be level to create the pressure gradient to maintain negative pressure under the flail mower shroud to create the suction needed to make it sound like a high end vacuum cleaner and carry the clipping over the flail mower rotor and back to the ground.

What is your current mowing height? a two inch height is ideal and beats back the invasive plants.

you can raise it slightly but understand the higher the rotor is from the ground the less effective the flail mowers ability to create the pressure gradient need to lif the clippings and sound like a high end vacuum cleaner.

 

[Kirch169]

Hello all -New to Tractorbynet but long time flail mower I have a Ford 907 that I rebuilt with new bearings, flails and some welding. It works really well behind my under powered Kubota B3030 for field work. 2-4 foot high grasses and weeds as long as I do not take a full pass (72" cutting width). The wife asked if I needed a bigger tractor the other day, and of course I said well it would not be the worst thing. So now I am looking at the L4701 and the MX4800 from Kubota.

If I upgrade I loose my MMM on the B3030, so would the flail mower work for lawn type mowing if I switched from Y-blades to smooth cut blades?

Thank in advance!

 

[houser52]

Hello all -New to Tractorbynet but long time flail mower I have a Ford 907 that I rebuilt with new bearings, flails and some welding. It works really well behind my under powered Kubota B3030 for field work. 2-4 foot high grasses and weeds as long as I do not take a full pass (72" cutting width). The wife asked if I needed a bigger tractor the other day, and of course I said well it would not be the worst thing. So now I am looking at the L4701 and the MX4800 from Kubota.

If I upgrade I loose my MMM on the B3030, so would the flail mower work for lawn type mowing if I switched from Y-blades to smooth cut blades?

Thank in advance!

I just swapped the Y cut blades for duck foot blades and I'm very satisfied with the cut. They cut lawn type grass really well leaving a smooth level finish. Check out my pics in post 4833.

 

[Kirch169]

Thanks Houser52 The lawn looks really good. Flailmaster does not list a smooth cut (duckfoot) style blade but I can find another smooth cut blade that should work given the specs. Step one is going to be get the new smooth cut blades on the 907 and try it with my current B3030 if it works good then tractor upgrade is in order!

 

[leonz]

Hello all -New to Tractorbynet but long time flail mower I have a Ford 907 that I rebuilt with new bearings, flails and some welding. It works really well behind my under powered Kubota B3030 for field work. 2-4 foot high grasses and weeds as long as I do not take a full pass (72" cutting width). The wife asked if I needed a bigger tractor the other day, and of course I said well it would not be the worst thing. So now I am looking at the L4701 and the MX4800 from Kubota.

If I upgrade I loose my MMM on the B3030, so would the flail mower work for lawn type mowing if I switched from Y-blades to smooth cut blades?

Thank in advance!

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Hello Kirch169,

I wish to welcome you as the newest resident member of the Flail Mower Nations. All you may need is to sharpen the side slicers with a wet well grinder to bring the edge back and prevent damaging the temper in the steel.

There is no reason you cannot use your Ford 907 for lawn mowing AS EQUIPPED. The major worry is whether you can properly place the required number of scoop knives on the flail mower rotor and maintain a properly balanced flail mower rotor so keep that in mind when you examine it further.

if your 907 is a finish cut flail mower(high knife count) I would not change the knives, I would just purchase a low speed wet well grinder from Micromark to sharpen the flail mower knives and maintain the temper in the knife edges.

Happy mowing.

 

[houser52]

I got in some 45 kevlar belts to try. They were really no harder to get on the pulleys than the 46 belts but after installed they were tighter than the 46 belt. They may be tight enough that the idler pulley might not have to be used but I adjusted it to where the belts can be deflected slightly with my thumb, probably less than 1/2 There is definitely less belt contact on the idler compared to the 46 belts. Hopefully there will be less friction and less heat build up on the pulleys
I had already mowed everything so I did not ave any high grass to try it out on but I did mow a couple patches that had grown some since last week. So far so good.

 

[DoubleDeere]

Looks much better.Should make a big difference.Was the 46" the length that Caroni originally had on it?