Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Jack Yuan]

I have a question, why the cylinder is not parallel with the two track? I think this could make big noise when it is moving.

It should be parallel like this.

 

[Reg]

Well I finally have time to start getting the side shift kit onto the TM1900. The "directions" (if you can call them that) are TERRIBLE. I am trying to document the process in case anyone else can benefit from it.

View attachment 543360

To fit the side shift kit you have to take all the standard hitch equipment off.
View attachment 543351

This leaves you with the standard top link tower and lower 3pt mounts as spare parts (unless you take the slide shift kit off later).

The kit comes with it's own top link tower. It is different from the standard one
View attachment 543361

I dry-fit the side shift assembly on top. It's held on by a bolt and some wire. The cylinder mounts aren't lined up in this picture, so it won't normally be cockeyed.
View attachment 543356
View attachment 543362

One thing I didn't realize was that holes need to be drilled to mount the kit. I'm not looking forward to that. That's the next step, for another day. There are spacers that need to be inserted on the cylinder assembly, but I haven't figured out exactly how many or where. Different spacing is required for rear mount or front mount assembly, and the instructions aren't clear.

It has been a long time since I did mine, but from memory it wasn't all THAT hard.
Accepted that the translations are rough, add some intuit and with a clear head ta dahh... all done.

One thing to watch out for when drilling the holes is that you have everything "square, level and plumb".
Initially I didn't and a slight out of squareness caused considerable binding when shifting to extreme right.
I had to "oval out" a couple of holes, assemble barely snug then shift out to allow everything to settle "where all the tolerances tolerated each other" then really tighten things up.

YMMV etc.

 

[leonz]

Hello Countryguy,

If you purchase the wet well grinder from Micromark and a grinder angle guide from woodcraft to adjust the tool rest on your wet well grinder you will be able to set the proper angle and also save the metal from becoming heat damaged losing and losing its heat treated strength.

 

[leonz]

Hello Mr Yuan,

Is this one of your side shift kits that you sell????

As the cylinders stroke is limited by its mounting point and stroke limiter it will travel only a short distance along the XY plane but the bronze bushings if used will be a major wear part.

 

[leonz]

Well I finally have time to start getting the side shift kit onto the TM1900. The "directions" (if you can call them that) are TERRIBLE. I am trying to document the process in case anyone else can benefit from it.

View attachment 543360

To fit the side shift kit you have to take all the standard hitch equipment off.
View attachment 543351

This leaves you with the standard top link tower and lower 3pt mounts as spare parts (unless you take the slide shift kit off later).

The kit comes with it's own top link tower. It is different from the standard one
View attachment 543361

I dry-fit the side shift assembly on top. It's held on by a bolt and some wire. The cylinder mounts aren't lined up in this picture, so it won't normally be cockeyed.
View attachment 543356
View attachment 543362

One thing I didn't realize was that holes need to be drilled to mount the kit. I'm not looking forward to that. That's the next step, for another day. There are spacers that need to be inserted on the cylinder assembly, but I haven't figured out exactly how many or where. Different spacing is required for rear mount or front mount assembly, and the instructions aren't clear.

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WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, Before you start drilling anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please purchase an Italian to English language dictionary to do the work first !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to flip the side shift kit over to mount it in the 3 attachment holes that correspond with the three holes in the side shift kit on both weldments on the flail mower shroud.


I will have to get in touch with Rodney Barbour about this.

 

[lostcreekranch]

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WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, Before you start drilling anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please purchase an Italian to English language dictionary to do the work first !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to flip the side shift kit over to mount it in the 3 attachment holes that correspond with the three holes in the side shift kit on both weldments on the flail mower shroud.


I will have to get in touch with Rodney Barbour about this.

Good Catch! I was also wondering about the need to drill holes.

 

[powerscol]

Leonz - correct as usual
Errore! Pagina non trovata - Caroni SpA

3 pages down shows a good picture of the install

 

[lagreex1]

I scanned in the installation manual for the side shift kit, for anyone who's interested:
Caroni Side Shift Kit Instructions - Album on Imgur

 

[lagreex1]

I got a little bit more figured out today.

In order to mount the strike plate for the hydraulic cylinder, I had to do some grinding on one of the welds where the 3pt link arm attaches. After that, the bolt holes lined up and the M18 bolt fit in fine.


I finally realized that the spacer the installation instructions were referring to was already installed.


The smaller spacer is only required for front-mounting. I don't know why I received two of the smaller spacers.


Here is the box of bolts and misc parts. I finally realized that the red and black discs are not spacers. They are heavy-duty washers to be used on the inside of the flail mower after drilling bolt holes. The two red ones are clipped because full sized discs won't fit with two of the holes.

 

[leonz]

Here is another picture of the Side shift kit installed at the Caroni factory in Italy

 

[lagreex1]

I have a question, why the cylinder is not parallel with the two track? I think this could make big noise when it is moving.

It should be parallel like this.View attachment 543410

Jack, yes absolutely! I had it off in my original picture and mentioned that in my post: "The cylinder mounts aren't lined up in this picture, so it won't normally be cockeyed."

When mounted it will be parallel, thank you for checking!

It has been a long time since I did mine, but from memory it wasn't all THAT hard.
Accepted that the translations are rough, add some intuit and with a clear head ta dahh... all done.

One thing to watch out for when drilling the holes is that you have everything "square, level and plumb".
Initially I didn't and a slight out of squareness caused considerable binding when shifting to extreme right.
I had to "oval out" a couple of holes, assemble barely snug then shift out to allow everything to settle "where all the tolerances tolerated each other" then really tighten things up.

YMMV etc.

Thanks for the warning! I'll make sure to keep things lines up as best I can. At this point I plan to drill out the top left and bottom right holes first, then tighten them down and drill the rest.

Leonz, i couldn't pull up the first link you posted, but the second one is great, thanks! It looks like they've revised the kit since then (it's definitely different). But besides the hydraulic unit being oriented the other way, it looks like I've got it mounted correctly.

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, Before you start drilling anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please purchase an Italian to English language dictionary to do the work first !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to flip the side shift kit over to mount it in the 3 attachment holes that correspond with the three holes in the side shift kit on both weldments on the flail mower shroud.

I will have to get in touch with Rodney Barbour about this.

Sorry, not sure I follow. Are you saying I have the whole thing upside down, or spun 180 degrees? There are absolutely zero holes on the surface of the mower, so I can't imaging not drilling holes and getting this thing mounted.

Thank you all for the help!

 

[leonz]

Hello lagreex1,

These beautiful flail mowers share components with their sister line of rototillers and the mower shrouds and three point hitch assemblies are almost identical to the rototiller shrouds.
If you can rent a mag drill(drill press with a magnetic base) you will have a much easier time of mounting the side shift attachment that will help you 500% in assembling it as the magnet on the drill press will hold it in place with no effort and the drilled holes will be perfect.
Once you have the holes drilled I would definitely want you to use red Loctite to secure the nuts as tight as possible.

 

[TerryCC]

I just spent the better of 3 hours cutting out polyester bailing twine from my Caroni flail mower. In the past I had gotten barb wire and a old bed spring caught in the flail drum rotor but this was by far the hardest to clear. There was also some wire with the twine to make it difficult to cut the twine and the twine made it near impossible to get cutters on the wire. The worst problem however was the twine was pulled into the drum collar that protects the bearings, I had to remove the collar and dig out the stretched and partially melted twine that had gotten behind the collar and locked the rotor. I mowed this area last year, an area where the commercial hay balers don't cut, without incident. Apparently the commercial guys threw the remnants of a spool of twine on the ground and my flail mower found it.

 

[leonz]

I just spent the better of 3 hours cutting out polyester bailing twine from my Caroni flail mower. In the past I had gotten barb wire and a old bed spring caught in the flail drum rotor but this was by far the hardest to clear. There was also some wire with the twine to make it difficult to cut the twine and the twine made it near impossible to get cutters on the wire. The worst problem however was the twine was pulled into the drum collar that protects the bearings, I had to remove the collar and dig out the stretched and partially melted twine that had gotten behind the collar and locked the rotor. I mowed this area last year, an area where the commercial hay balers don't cut, without incident. Apparently the commercial guys threw the remnants of a spool of twine on the ground and my flail mower found it.

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BOOOOO, GRRRRRRR, HIIIIIISSSSS, SPIT, Shame on those commercial hay baling guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would not know how to stop them from doing that other than blocking off the area with movable fence so they cannot dump that garbage before your mowing that area before they come and make a mess for you to deal with later under your beautiful flail mower.

They have never owned an NH, JD or Ford flail chopper and had to clean up their flail mower rotors and the discharge fans.

 

[nmclella]

Good evening all.

Looking for some advice. I've been looking for something a little more serious than my finishing mower for sometime now. Leaning towards a flail over bush hog.

I have a chance to pick up the following for probably about $600.

It is a 48 inch vemco according to the ad.







Google didn't net me many results in terms of reviews or durability.

Does anyone here have any experience with Vemcos, and perhaps what should I look for when I go to look at it?

I appreciate all of your time.

Thank you,

Nate

 

[leonz]

Hello Nick,

For $600.00 I would want to run it on your tractor long before I wrote a check or offered cash. The fresh coat of paint and not having a complete drive shaft is an almost automatic no sale for me.
If you really want to buy it hire farm equipment mechanic from a local dealer for an hour to look at it and buy his dinner for his time.
Do you know what type of knives it has mounted on the flail mower rotor or what condition they are in??

I have a long post on the forum here describing what one needs to look for in a used flail mower.:thumbdown:

 

[4570Man]

Maybe they decided to make it look a little better and the driveshaft was truly lost. Looks kinda fishy though. I'd borrow a driveshaft off another one of your implements and try it out first.

 

[DavesTractor]

I just spent the better of 3 hours cutting out polyester bailing twine from my Caroni flail mower. In the past I had gotten barb wire and a old bed spring caught in the flail drum rotor but this was by far the hardest to clear. There was also some wire with the twine to make it difficult to cut the twine and the twine made it near impossible to get cutters on the wire. The worst problem however was the twine was pulled into the drum collar that protects the bearings, I had to remove the collar and dig out the stretched and partially melted twine that had gotten behind the collar and locked the rotor. I mowed this area last year, an area where the commercial hay balers don't cut, without incident. Apparently the commercial guys threw the remnants of a spool of twine on the ground and my flail mower found it.

With the proper disclaimers about fire and damaging seals and whatnot, a little torch will save quite a bit of time on a deal like this. Keep a hose or water nearby. You will still have to remove the collar most likely, but you can hit the mess just in one spot with a little heat and it will melt/burn the wire and twine in that spot. Then peel it back with pliers and a screw driver or whatever, then do it again. Pretty soon you got it. Either way it is a difficult task, but that is the way I have done it. It can take a 3 hour job down to 30 minutes.

 

[Jack Yuan]

Hello Mr Yuan,

Is this one of your side shift kits that you sell????

As the cylinders stroke is limited by its mounting point and stroke limiter it will travel only a short distance along the XY plane but the bronze bushings if used will be a major wear part.

Hi Leonz,

I used to sell this offset flail mower. You are right, the bushings on the track are the major wear part. This offset kit only has 11inch offset capacity, too short, so I change it into 20 inch now.

 

[Jack Yuan]

Jack, yes absolutely! I had it off in my original picture and mentioned that in my post: "The cylinder mounts aren't lined up in this picture, so it won't normally be cockeyed."

When mounted it will be parallel, thank you for checking!



Thanks for the warning! I'll make sure to keep things lines up as best I can. At this point I plan to drill out the top left and bottom right holes first, then tighten them down and drill the rest.

Leonz, i couldn't pull up the first link you posted, but the second one is great, thanks! It looks like they've revised the kit since then (it's definitely different). But besides the hydraulic unit being oriented the other way, it looks like I've got it mounted correctly.



Sorry, not sure I follow. Are you saying I have the whole thing upside down, or spun 180 degrees? There are absolutely zero holes on the surface of the mower, so I can't imaging not drilling holes and getting this thing mounted.

Thank you all for the help!

That's why I think the seller sold you the wrong offset kit which is not for your Caroni mower. I cannot believe Caroni need customer to drill holes on the mower to assemble the hydraulic offset kit, Caroni engineers won't be so stupid, I don't believe it.