Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[jthibodeau89]

Finally got the anti-wrap modification on my JD 25A complete. Rotor spins great. Welded the original bolts to the washer plate to make a stud plate with collar. Rotor has about 1/8" axial and radial clearance. The design is similar to what is on my JD390. Just need to add some paint to the drive end plate and covers and it will be ready to mow.

I included a pic of the jack stands on casters that I made to allow me to support and move the rotor when replacing the bearings or pulling the rotor. The stands work great and can extend from 12" to about 21" tall. They will be put to use again when i add the grease zerks to the rotor bearings on my JD 390 Flail.

 

[leonz]

I love it when a plan comes together, happy mowing Jthibodeau89.

 

[JD40MO77]

Thanks for sharing the mod for the JD 25A. I have collected 3 of these.....everyone says I have a problem.. 2 I have actually used and one I haven't gotten around to trying out. Just put in a order for 3 belts, 150 FM 7 blades and a batch of nuts, bolts, and hangers. I put new scoop style blades on the 1st one I bought back in 2013.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I saw this on the palletforks site this morning. Might be a solution for those with no PTO on their tractors or ...... no tractor period.

ATV UTV Tow Behind Flail Mower For Grass Mowing In Fields, 48" Mowing Width

 

[Reg]

Overall width of 79" for a cutting width of 48"
Somehow it doesn't seem like a good "fit", i.e. a lot of folk who would be content with 48" cutting width probably have tight quarters where 79" won't fit too well, or if you have that width to get through you would want more cutting width.

Simple solution would be to put the wheels behind.
13.5 HP seem a bit much for only 48" too, given that it isn't self propelled - garden tractors cut wider than that with similar HP.

 

[PRCWI]

Anyone have one of their skid steer mounted flails? 69” Hydraulic Skid Steer Flail Mower For Maintaining Fields With Tractor Loaders

 

[PRCWI]

Curious on what their quality/durability is. Price seems very reasonable

 

[whirly]

On their site .... Recommended Hydraulic Flow: 13-21 GPM

That leaves out most of the "tractors" they say it will work with including my MX5100 which only has 9.5 GPM.

It'll work with a skid steer just fine.

 

[Fallon]

On their site .... Recommended Hydraulic Flow: 13-21 GPM

That leaves out most of the "tractors" they say it will work with including my MX5100 which only has 9.5 GPM.

It'll work with a skid steer just fine.

13gpm @ 2,500psi (tractor standard) = under 19hp
21gpm @ 3,000psi (common on skid steers) = 37hp

Seems a little underpowered to me. Especially when you factor in hydraulic being less efficient than PTO. Of course this is coming from somebody who ran a 7' flail on a 25 hp PTO (L3200) machine ok.

A tractor of appropriate size for that will not have enough hydraulics to run it. Doable for a skid though.

 

[whirly]

13gpm @ 2,500psi (tractor standard) = under 19hp
21gpm @ 3,000psi (common on skid steers) = 37hp

Seems a little underpowered to me. Especially when you factor in hydraulic being less efficient than PTO. Of course this is coming from somebody who ran a 7' flail on a 25 hp PTO (L3200) machine ok.

A tractor of appropriate size for that will not have enough hydraulics to run it. Doable for a skid though.

You have 2 pumps on your L4060HST. One for your Power steering and one for your Implements.The manufacturer adds them together to give you give you "Total Hydraulic Flow" of 14.1 GPM. Considerably less than the 21 GPM you mentioned. In addition, you are only going to get the flow from the Implements pump of 9.4 GPM. See attached from the Kabota site:

https://kubota.ca/en/products/power-equipment/tractors/l60/l4060hstcc:

 

[Fallon]

You have 2 pumps on your L4060HST. One for your Power steering and one for your Implements.The manufacturer adds them together to give you give you "Total Hydraulic Flow" of 14.1 GPM. Considerably less than the 21 GPM you mentioned. In addition, you are only going to get the flow from the Implements pump of 9.4 GPM. See attached from the Kabota site:

https://kubota.ca/en/products/power-equipment/tractors/l60/l4060hstcc:

View attachment 596616

I definitely know that. Never bothered to look to see if it's a 2 chamber pump or a 1 chamber with a flow divider, but the effect is the same.

I was just pointing out what HP would be transferred to that flail based on common pressures & the stated GPM range.

I run a hydraulic SSQA on the L4060 & it has about half the HP (seat of the pants, a bit more calculated) that the PTO PHD on my old L3200. Other factors make it better over all (downpressure & ease of hookup), but it has way less power. Most CUTs can put out under 15hp at best via hydraulics.

 

[Reg]

Power is rate of doing work, right ?
Dimensions of force x distance / time
Without deriving this I'll state that in hydraulic systems Flow x pressure is also "rate of doing work".
For THIS application flow rate is probably required to get the required rotor speed, PRESSURE may only be needed if/when the mower meets a heavy load.

It seems to me that if PRESSURE isn't critical it could be sacrificed for flow, i.e. double the flow while halving the pressure (not quite, there would be losses).


Kwiz kwestion;
How could you do that ? <smirk>

 

[leonz]

:thumbdown:

I can say that with proof; until I fixed the wheels and bearings on my fathers Lawn Genie Pic Up mower we had that type of wheel and so called bearing and they do not last very long and the wheel becomes damaged and the only thing salvageable is the tire.

The 13.8 horsepower engine is not enough for a 48 inch flail mower either. My Lawn Genie Pick Up Mower has an original 16 horse power Industrial/Commercial Briggs & Stratton engine from 1980.

You can purchase motorized flail mowers with rear mounted wheels but they will have no rear roller as they have a worm screw adjustment for height control and they have to be imported.

 

[lostcreekranch]

:thumbdown:

I can say that with proof; until I fixed the wheels and bearings on my fathers Lawn Genie Pic Up mower we had that type of wheel and so called bearing and they do not last very long and the wheel becomes damaged and the only thing salvageable is the tire.

The 13.8 horsepower engine is not enough for a 48 inch flail mower either. My Lawn Genie Pick Up Mower has an original 16 horse power Industrial/Commercial Briggs & Stratton engine from 1980.

You can purchase motorized flail mowers with rear mounted wheels but they will have no rear roller as they have a worm screw adjustment for height control and they have to be imported.

I never recommended the product. It was posted as an "IDEA" for those w/o tractors.

I'll learn from this though.

 

[arto98607]

........................................13.5 HP seem a bit much for only 48" too, given that it isn't self propelled - garden tractors cut wider than that with similar HP.

You are comparing power requirement of regular lawnmower to a flail mower!

:laughing:

 

[downsizingnow48]

I wonder if anyone has any experience or thoughts about this flail mower. It would be perfect for getting into all the hard to clean up areas of our property.

48" Ditch Flail Mower (Embankment), EMSD-12 from Victory Tractor Implements 68665944583 | eBay

 

[whirly]

If you want to do "down" banks of greater than 15 degrees and not have one tire over the bank, you really need one that has the gearbox on the outboard of the belts rather than the inboard AND when swung completely to the right it should clear your tires. Otherwise you won't be able to get the full downward motion.

The videos show them doing banks but notice that right tires are always on the down slope.

Similar to this one:



(Edit) - otherwise the one you linked to will work great for level ground.

 

[metalbender]

Have one similar to the one linking. It does swing out far enough to do the steep banks. Mine is around six ft

 

[Reg]

Anyone figure out the "BEST" replacement belts for the Caroni 1900 ?
It seems I bought a set of 3 spares when I bought the mower a dozen or so years ago, now that I need them I have discovered that they are 48 inch ones and WAY too long.

Is it worth buying the fancy (kevlar) ones ?

 

[bdhsfz6]

I wonder if anyone has any experience or thoughts about this flail mower. It would be perfect for getting into all the hard to clean up areas of our property.

48" Ditch Flail Mower (Embankment), EMSD-12 from Victory Tractor Implements 68665944583 | eBay

I use a similar model with my L6060. It's a 72" Maschio Girafetta offset flail



It cuts banks with the right tire on the level as shown:



The trade off is the cutting path on the level with the head fully retracted is not centered with the tire track and the left tire rolls over an uncut surface. This forces you to mow in only one direction when on level ground. There is a model which does center but the slope cutting width is reduced.