Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[Industrial Toys]

And some think Humans should be expanding and going to other planets. This IS a prison planet and a good thing for that. That would remind me of Welfare people going from apartment to apartment laying waste to them in sucession.

 

[ukrkoz]

Hello ukrkoz,

You have a different style clutch than what I have on my Lawn Genie.
My Lawn Genie has a Hilliard friction disc clutch system.

I believe what you have is a ball type grip type clutch that locks in
place when a certain rpm is reached.

The Hilliard clutch I use has a centrifugal brake pad type clutch that
engages when the 16 horse power Briggs & Stratton engine mounted
on it reaches 3,200 RPM at the crank shaft.

The speed of the flail mower rotor is less than the crank shaft speed as it is belt driven
by 4 inch identical pulleys with one V belt.


If at all possible check it with a high power flashlight for any fine dirt and if
you have an air compressor or vacuum remove the dirt from the clutch.
If you have a safety nozzle wand you can vacuum the dust up as it is blown out of the clutch assembly.

I am glad to hear from you that the moles are gone. Is your ground dry enough now to use your ztr and set the deck lower and push the clippings outward?

The two groove toothed V belt will last you a long time and in the off season you should remove it and put it in a plastic bag and seal it up to reduce the amount of ozone damage that occurs with V belts.

Thank you so much. I absolutely appreciate advice.
I will. I have 96 gal compressor, blowing off stuff will not be an issue. What I am scratching my head over is different. Motor housing, where fan is, collects every piece of dry grass on it. It is literally covered in hey beard after about an hour. I think I need to come up with some protective cage, to prevent hey from getting the fan housing, or I'll overheat it. I'll take close look at it this weekend.

I figure it's some sort of centrifugal clutch one way or another as it does lock at high RPM. New one is $77 plus $15 shipping, I guess, I'll just buy spare just in case.

Still very impressed with mow quality. Did another run this Saturday. it's literally like a table. if my wife said, "good job" = that means something.
Yep, moles are mostly gone. I swear, they don't like the racket SxS and mower produce.

The only thing to keep in mind - it drops clippings down, as it passes. So you have to be Ok with it. With rows of dry clippings few days later. I don't care.

 

[leonz]

Thank you so much. I absolutely appreciate advice.
I will. I have 96 gal compressor, blowing off stuff will not be an issue. What I am scratching my head over is different. Motor housing, where fan is, collects every piece of dry grass on it. It is literally covered in hey beard after about an hour. I think I need to come up with some protective cage, to prevent hey from getting the fan housing, or I'll overheat it. I'll take close look at it this weekend.

I figure it's some sort of centrifugal clutch one way or another as it does lock at high RPM. New one is $77 plus $15 shipping, I guess, I'll just buy spare just in case.

Still very impressed with mow quality. Did another run this Saturday. it's literally like a table. if my wife said, "good job" = that means something.
Yep, moles are mostly gone. I swear, they don't like the racket SxS and mower produce.

The only thing to keep in mind - it drops clippings down, as it passes. So you have to be Ok with it. With rows of dry clippings few days later. I don't care.

========================================================================================================


Hello Ukrkoz,


About the fan housing and the motor; The best thing you can do is continue to use the air compressor and a shop vac to keep vacuuming and blowing the chaff out of it as you are going to get a lot of it. Putting a guard over of some kind it will affect the air flow and overheat the motor and you do not want that.

Stopping every couple of hours to blow it out with a safety wand while it is running at half throttle or more will clear a lot of the chaff out and every couple of weeks you will need to take the fan cowling/starter rope assembly off and then remove all the fine dust and dirt from the bottom of the fan cowling.

The fine dry chaff will create a lot of static electricity and that is what creates the buildups on the machine while mowing.

 

[troverman]

I can bog my MF150 down a bunch with the 68 inch flail, if I get into deep grass. Even in first gear, there are places I can't take a full cut and not bog the thing down. But I've got very thick pasture grass I'm cutting, while I don't have any animals in the pasture.

Yeah, I'm powering my 72" Titan with a Kubota MX4800. I just have to go very slow in certain areas. I'm mowing drinking water reservoirs and capped landfills, so no animals, and very tall grass. I'm curious to see how my new little Kubota L2501 will mow with a 4-foot flail mower behind it.

 

[ukrkoz]

========================================================================================================


Hello Ukrkoz,


About the fan housing and the motor; The best thing you can do is continue to use the air compressor and a shop vac to keep vacuuming and blowing the chaff out of it as you are going to get a lot of it. Putting a guard over of some kind it will affect the air flow and overheat the motor and you do not want that.

Stopping every couple of hours to blow it out with a safety wand while it is running at half throttle or more will clear a lot of the chaff out and every couple of weeks you will need to take the fan cowling/starter rope assembly off and then remove all the fine dust and dirt from the bottom of the fan cowling.

The fine dry chaff will create a lot of static electricity and that is what creates the buildups on the machine while mowing.

I', pretty sure if I build a cage with top open, it will do the job. Otherwise, my mow is about 2 plus hr, it's no big deal to stop and brush it off. Driving all the way back to garage/compressor - that's waste of petrol.
Chaff, huh.. learned a new word.
I also learned one thing. Don't drop mower off the hitch ball until rotor fully stopped. And it takes sweet time to do so.
Btw, didn't know they have same mower with wheels BEHIND, not on the sides. I think, that would have been a bit better, reduced width quite a bit.
I may look into some re welding done. Need welder anyway... comes handy.
Speaking of which.
Any idea how long that clutch will last? Noise it makes engaging makes me worry...

 

[Boxman]

I'm mowing probably a total of 40 acres, at 3 different locations (largest being 25 acres), twice per year. Mostly field grass, but all on steep slopes which may add to the stress, I don't know. I've got pictures if you'd like to see a torn up Titan.

I'd love to see pics, not because I don't believe you but because I might want to make modifications to mine to stave off the failures that you've experienced. I've already modified it to be quick hitch compatible so I'm not afraid to make improvements.

Fair enough, I was just curious as to the situation. I mow probably 6-8 acres every couple weeks with mine (the 68 inch Titan flail with hammer blades). Only issue I've had with it thus far is operator error (picked up a bunch of fence wire).

I picked up about 20' of barbed wire in the 1st 10 minutes of use, had no idea there was anything there, made a bunch of noise but other than that no harm.

I suspect the smaller mowers are actually stronger. Mine twisted slightly across the main housing. I'll be buying another soon, and I'm planning on getting the 68" instead of the 72". Not much loss of cutting width, but a little less stress on the whole unit. Maybe 68" is the sweet spot. It might also help the tractor not slow down as much in the very thick stuff.

The 68" unit is the one I have.

I can bog my MF150 down a bunch with the 68 inch flail, if I get into deep grass. Even in first gear, there are places I can't take a full cut and not bog the thing down. But I've got very thick pasture grass I'm cutting, while I don't have any animals in the pasture.

I've got some areas of really heavy grass in the pasture that I mow and it will knock 30-40 RPM off but I don't really consider that heavy bogging down, I just bump up the throttle a bit when I'm in those sections and keep mowing away. All in all I've been very pleasantly surprised with how well it's done in heavy grass

 

[leonz]

I', pretty sure if I build a cage with top open, it will do the job. Otherwise, my mow is about 2 plus hr, it's no big deal to stop and brush it off. Driving all the way back to garage/compressor - that's waste of petrol.
Chaff, huh.. learned a new word.
I also learned one thing. Don't drop mower off the hitch ball until rotor fully stopped. And it takes sweet time to do so.
Btw, didn't know they have same mower with wheels BEHIND, not on the sides. I think, that would have been a bit better, reduced width quite a bit.
I may look into some re welding done. Need welder anyway... comes handy.
Speaking of which.
Any idea how long that clutch will last? Noise it makes engaging makes me worry...

If you build a cage with the top open it will restrict the air flow and cook the piston jug if that engine is a tow piece sump and jug as the air has to be able to pass out the rear of the piston jug and head cooling vanes.

I suppose you could purchase a chaff screen for a larger tractors radiator and just bungee cord it in place in front of the engine and just thoroughly brush it off every hour or so. This would be simpler and it will allow you to keep the engine cooling air intake cleaner.

I have no idea how long that clutch will last but for what its worth the centrifugal Hilliard clutch I have on mine is 38 years old and has not required any repairs or replacement. Any type of ball clutch will wear over time but keeping it clean is a must.

 

[Boxman]

Carry a leaf blower on your tractor so you can blow it out in the field. I do.

 

[ukrkoz]

If you build a cage with the top open it will restrict the air flow and cook the piston jug if that engine is a tow piece sump and jug as the air has to be able to pass out the rear of the piston jug and head cooling vanes.

I suppose you could purchase a chaff screen for a larger tractors radiator and just bungee cord it in place in front of the engine and just thoroughly brush it off every hour or so. This would be simpler and it will allow you to keep the engine cooling air intake cleaner.

I have no idea how long that clutch will last but for what its worth the centrifugal Hilliard clutch I have on mine is 38 years old and has not required any repairs or replacement. Any type of ball clutch will wear over time but keeping it clean is a must.

Yeah, that's what I had in mind. Screen. Cage in my mind also let air through. I have some screen mesh, I'll experiment with it.
Funny enough, the way it goes, I'm likely to mow maybe 5 more times till fall. Spring was very dry, grass already starts turning grey. Summer time I mow maybe once in 4 weeks, it burns out.
OK, good to know on clutch.
Thanks, man.

 

[Kscessnadriver]

I picked up about 20' of barbed wire in the 1st 10 minutes of use, had no idea there was anything there, made a bunch of noise but other than that no harm.

I picked up probably 2 feet of high tensile steel wire. Thought I got it all out last fall. Came to get the mower ready to go this spring and it wouldn't do a **** thing. Ended up tearing it all the way down to the the point I could take the main rotor out, sure enough, somehow ended up with wire inside the rotor, wedged up against next to the bearing. Much fun was that cleanout.

 

[ukrkoz]

Question to The Flail Mower Nation folk.

Have you switched between Y blades and hammers and what does better on grass, meadow type? Maybe with some blackberry young sprouts. No shrubs.

Betstco told me Y blades mow better. Hammers though appear to be more durable, I have rather rocky soil. Flail picks them very easy, blades get dinged quite a bit.

I was thinking about maybe doing half and half - 50% hammers in every other order? Every time I see European flail commercials, they have hammers.

 

[sodamo]

Question to The Flail Mower Nation folk.

Have you switched between Y blades and hammers and what does better on grass, meadow type? Maybe with some blackberry young sprouts. No shrubs.

Betstco told me Y blades mow better. Hammers though appear to be more durable, I have rather rocky soil. Flail picks them very easy, blades get dinged quite a bit.

I was thinking about maybe doing half and half - 50% hammers in every other order? Every time I see European flail commercials, they have hammers.

IMHO probably depends on the grass. I have used both, started with hammers as I was also using to level out some pig rootings.
When time came to replace that very worn set I opted for the Y blades. Wife often complained about the stragglers, otherwise cut was good. Went back to hammers. Have often thought about some sort of combo setup, using the scoop blades.

Interesting thought on your mixing types. Will have to look as to maintaining balance.

 

[ukrkoz]

Well, thing is, Y blades do not cut dandelions. They simply bend them down and they sprout back up. Rotary mower cut stems. And we have **** load of them. So wife likes smooth mowed surface but pointed out those uncut stems and she's right. So I figure, if I mix them in chess board order, that should cut them due to hammer blad being horizontal.
Honest, wish I had spiral mower, but they are so expensive. By spiral I mean blades are in a spiral arrangement, no in chess board, like I have.
I think I'll go for it, for mix n match Y blade/hammer.They are not that expensive.
What I do like about Y blades is that you can flip them around when leading edge is beyond sharpening. They are double edged.
As of them "going bad". I sharpened mine right on the rotor. Angle high speed grinder. Rather easy to do.

 

[TheFarmerInAdell]

I had scoop type blades (airplane wings, actually) and I switched to Y blades to have a heavier duty blade (I got some super duty blades). I plan on taking back a large area from the brush so I needed a heavier blade. I might go back to the wings when these all wear out and the fields are back to just grass. The scoop blades will give you a better finish than either the hammers or the Y blades. They are lighter duty than the hammers (no heavy brush cutting!). There are different weights of the Y blades. The wings/scoops are about the same as a standard duty Y blade as far as strength. The wings and scoops will also create a better lift when cutting grass more than the Y blades do.

I wouldn't mix blades as if there is an imbalance you will really cause some havoc to your mower. You will also need to check your mounts. Most hammers will not mount where Y blades will. Generally the Y blades and scoops/wings can be swapped if you do all at once. If you are looking for the scoops or wings check for John Deere 25A blades (scoops) or Ford 917 blades (wings).

 

[ukrkoz]

They will mount.

EF125 Mulching Blade Set |

Not sure about imbalance though. It may or may not be an issue. As far as I am staying with 50/50 and they are spread equally, that should be balanced, right?

 

[Fallon]

I picked up probably 2 feet of high tensile steel wire. Thought I got it all out last fall. Came to get the mower ready to go this spring and it wouldn't do a **** thing. Ended up tearing it all the way down to the the point I could take the main rotor out, sure enough, somehow ended up with wire inside the rotor, wedged up against next to the bearing. Much fun was that cleanout.

I raise you maybe 100' of high tensile strength wire rope. My bolt cutters couldn't cut it as it squished a bit. That was not fun to get out. Thankfully there was no damage to the mower beyond paint.

 

[Fallon]

My old retired 917 has Ys & my new Peruzzo has heavy hammers. A bit of an apples to oranges comparison as the Peruzzo is in a different class... But for field & pasture work I cant see much of a cut quality difference. Both mow grass & weeds just fine. I never sharpened either & the knives on the 917 were reasonably worn, but that never affected their performance or cut quality.

The hammers do way better on material bigger than finger sized, as you'd expect. But it takes more power to spin. 7' vs 8' mower, a lot more weight & double the number of belts, so still not an even comparison though. I'd imagine all scoop & hammer knives have a but more wind resistance, but not sure how noticable that is in reality.

 

[Kiotidriver]

Anyone from California owning a Caroni Flail mower? I bought mine from AgriSupply Company four years ago. I needed to replace the skids. However, ASC in North Carolina (the sole US distributor for Caroni) will not ship parts to California. They do not want to comply with CA Prop 65. The skids are just steel parts and do not contain chemicals. This is ridiculous.
Anyone has encountered a similar issue?

 

[hunt4570]

Anyone from California owning a Caroni Flail mower? I bought mine from AgriSupply Company four years ago. I needed to replace the skids. However, ASC in North Carolina (the sole US distributor for Caroni) will not ship parts to California. They do not want to comply with CA Prop 65. The skids are just steel parts and do not contain chemicals. This is ridiculous.
Anyone has encountered a similar issue?

Well kinda along the same lines, I'm in South Carolina and I've also had my Caroni 4 years and the only problem I've had with it is the skids. Seems like they are made of too soft of a metal as they keep bending. Been thinking of taking them to a welder and putting some sort of support on them to keep them from bending.
So what problem do you have with your skids?

 

[troverman]

Question to The Flail Mower Nation folk.

Have you switched between Y blades and hammers and what does better on grass, meadow type? Maybe with some blackberry young sprouts. No shrubs.

Betstco told me Y blades mow better. Hammers though appear to be more durable, I have rather rocky soil. Flail picks them very easy, blades get dinged quite a bit.

I was thinking about maybe doing half and half - 50% hammers in every other order? Every time I see European flail commercials, they have hammers.

I have run both on my Vrismo. In my opinion, the hammers leave the nicer cut, even on field grass. The Y-knives would leave some small stems, even woody stems, standing and I thought that looked pretty poor. In other areas they left a nice cut. The hammers take a beating if you hit rocks and will break easier. The hammers also handle brush better. Frankly, I see no advantage to the Y-knives and will never buy another set again.