Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[leonz]

Hello ramptester,


I want to welcome you as the newest member of the Flail Mower Nations from Gainesville, Georgia.
You can purchase heavier drop forged or heat treated side slicer knives for your flail mower.
Hopefully you will not stir up the native Sasquatches with your mowing but your property looks like
it is well on its way to be reclaimed and to have good grass sod in the near future.


Leon

 

[def38]

First time post, I picked up an old Ford 907 I found on Craigslist for $500. It is missing the rear shield, and the original knives were worn out. After replacing the blades (with the Mott style two piece Y blades) and belt, it has served well to clear my dad's property. He purchased about 34 acres in north Georgia that had been partially clear cut, leaving tons of stumps. His 1950s era Bush Hog (has a patent pending tag!) kept shearing PTO linkage pins, so we were looking for something that would allow clearing. We have monster briars in this area of the state if land has been left for several years. They are virtually impassible, and the dozer operators wanted $4-5000 just to get their dozer and full size excavator machines in there with all the stumps.
With the flail, I was able to start by backing the tractor in, weaving between stumps, and then setting it down and mowing out in first gear. Tractor is an Oliver 550, about 40 PTO hp, 1964 year model.
Here are some pics of one of the clearings before and after. My son is 5 deet tall in these pics, to give some idea. Once we were able to get close to the trees larger than 2 inches we could cut them with saws. Also got a stump grinder in, and now the area is mowable. Included some pics of other areas that have been mowed with the flail at about 4 inches.

Your second photo...is that your idea of a flail mower...looks more like a sickle mower to me.

 

[Fallon]

Your second photo...is that your idea of a flail mower...looks more like a sickle mower to me.

Mighty funny looking tractor powering it too. Seems to be way underpowered for the job too.

 

[whirly]

It's called character development.

 

[ramptester]

That痴 pretty funny! In all seriousness tho, he was just using that sling blade type tool to try to break off some of the stalks at ground level. We were using it to help knock down those 7 foot blackberry thorny briars close to small trees to allow us to get in with the chainsaw. There are several pairs of pants and shirts that were shredded in the making of that field... had to invest in some puncture proof gloves.
Will post some pics of some of the other mowed fields later this week.

 

[KenB2920]

Looking at how pretty your 907 is , makes me want to pull mine out and paint her up. I haven’t used the 907 in over a year

 

[bkrgi]

Well... just dove into the Flail world ......put in a order for a Woodmaxx FM62H with "edit" hammer blades as woodmaxx calls it :thumbsup:. Will get used behind a Bota B26TLB. Likely be late April or May before it shows which is perfectly fine

Been a very very long time since I have operated a flail mower...like early 80's running a Mott but I run a Lawn business so this will be handy for overgrown lots and small acreages instead of using the Gravely.

 

[def38]

Running a flail mower is easier IMO (Full disclosure...I have no experience with a rotary). Less metal hanging out the back of the tractor. As I think about power, I believe it takes more power to run the flail than a rotary...my theory is there are more cutting surfaces in contact with the crop, hence more power needed. Also, the flail mulches cuttings finer than a rotary, extracting more energy in the process. Also, it is likely that there are more frictional losses in the flail mower belt drive that powers the cutting drum.

The secret to a good cut is the position of the rear roller and maintaining the correct drum speed, all based upon my engineering background, and the fact that like President Donald Trump, I too am a genius.

Finally, some of you have the wrong end of the duck...it's duck foot or forged hammer flails (my preference, I believe they mulch better than the "Y" style knives) not duck bill flails...you maybe confusing mower flails with AFLAC.

 

[ronjhall]

Well... just dove into the Flail world ......put in a order for a Woodmaxx FM62H with "edit" hammer blades as woodmaxx calls it :thumbsup:. Will get used behind a Bota B26TLB. Likely be late April or May before it shows which is perfectly fine

Been a very very long time since I have operated a flail mower...like early 80's running a Mott but I run a Lawn business so this will be handy for overgrown lots and small acreages instead of using the Gravely.

I have one on order also. If it works as good as the WoodMaxx chipper I bought. I will be very happy

 

[leonz]

Ah yes,


The thinner folded ones are scoop knives, The majority of the others on crop shredders are machined scoop knives or cast hammer scoop knives with a machined edge on the casting.