Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[arto98607]

Hello all, my first post. I have read most of this thread and only seen a couple mentions of Mathews flail mowers.
I found one at the local Kubota dealer for a reasonable price, (for the north west anyway) haven't gone to look at it yet. My concern is availability of parts when it needs repair.
Also any opinions on Mathews flails.

This is a great sourse of information!

It looks good in the photo but I am not familiar with this brand and have a suggestion & couple of questions.


Please post photos of the most expensive wear parts i.e. the rotor, lugs for the flails & hangers (if it has hangers?). Some designs use loop hanger, others do not.

Also photos of the belt drive showing pulley and idler condition would be helpful in answering you.
Gearbox oil condition should inddicate if it's OK or not (i.e. how much water or metal contamination?).


A simple item like a small (4 inch diameter) flat idler pulley in the photo below could become a problem if it is one of a kind and no generic replacement is available.



The above idler pulley was supposed to be $25 item from a well known large dealer, except it was false/outdated information.
The idler was discontinued some time ago and there are no suitable replacements to be found!
Unfortunately the bearing is not readily replaceable due to the design.

I will make a new idler no problem, but it will certainly cost a bunch of time & money.



How comfortable are you doing repairs like this yourself?

 

[Industrial Toys]

There is hardly anything that couldn't be made if push comes to shove, but I have a hard time believing that idler is hard to replace. Heck I just went on E-Bay. 800 hits for a 4" flat idler pulley.

 

[TheFarmerInAdell]

The two main things to concern yourself with are the rotor and the roller. Those will be the expensive parts to replace if bad. Spin the rotor, does it spin straight? Are the bearings loose? Do the same with the roller. Beyond that, the rest of the unit can be repaired with minimal investment. If the rotor is bent, walk away. That will cost as much as the unit. If the roller is bent, that won't be as bad, but still an investment. Blades and bearings are replaceable. Check the gearbox as well. That can be expensive if bad. It seems rare that the gearboxes go bad from what I've seen.

 

[arto98607]

There is hardly anything that couldn't be made if push comes to shove, but I have a hard time believing that idler is hard to replace. Heck I just went on E-Bay. 800 hits for a 4" flat idler pulley.

Yes I thought so too, but it's a double wide 4" flat idler.

I will fix it since I have a shop.

 

[Industrial Toys]

For what it's worth. My Dad once smoked the belts off my 917, thinking it was a harley rake! I cheaped out getting seperate belts, but quickly found out, I needed the double belt.

 

[TheFarmerInAdell]

For what it's worth. My Dad once smoked the belts off my 917, thinking it was a harley rake! I cheaped out getting seperate belts, but quickly found out, I needed the double belt.

When I first got my 917 it was missing the rear roller. There were a few times it turned into a harley rake. :laughing:

 

[MikeZQ]

I'm going to go look at it this coming Friday.
My take away from all the good advice is bad roller or bad rotor... walk away.
Everything else is something that can be repaired.

Thanks to all for the advice.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I sold my Regular 917 to a friend. Probably shouldn't have. It was so abused that the flanges on the drum were bent over, (probably from Harley Raking) and in some cases making blade replacement difficult. And not an easy thing to straighten out.

 

[JWR]

The two main things to concern yourself with are the rotor and the roller. Those will be the expensive parts to replace if bad. Spin the rotor, does it spin straight? Are the bearings loose? Do the same with the roller. Beyond that, the rest of the unit can be repaired with minimal investment. If the rotor is bent, walk away. That will cost as much as the unit. If the roller is bent, that won't be as bad, but still an investment. Blades and bearings are replaceable. Check the gearbox as well. That can be expensive if bad. It seems rare that the gearboxes go bad from what I've seen.

Agreed -- but some other things can be fairly expensive too. I replaced roller bearings in my aged Alamo SHD88 and it was $305 for the pair. Sold only with the heavy housings they are pressed into. Other things like knives are dirt cheap. Have yet to get into drum bearings and hope I never do.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I'm going to go look at it this coming Friday.
My take away from all the good advice is bad roller or bad rotor... walk away.
Everything else is something that can be repaired.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Ask your dealer if they will hook it up to one of their tractors and run it for you? Offer them $$ for their 30 minutes of labor, to do so, if they won't just do it.

You can easily hand turn the roller but not the rotor.

 

[TheFarmerInAdell]

I'm going to go look at it this coming Friday.
My take away from all the good advice is bad roller or bad rotor... walk away.
Everything else is something that can be repaired.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Bad roller you can deal with if you know a machine shop. Probably won't be cheap. All depends on the price of the unit. My roller is pretty beat up, but still functions. You should be worried about if it doesn't roll even. That will give you a wave in your finish cut.
Bad rotor, walk away.
Bad gearbox, check replacement price. There will be some backlash in the gears, but it shouldn't growl or be real sloppy.

Also check that the gearbox is for 540pto, not 1000pto. Someone on here bought a 5 foot mott last year that ended up being 1000pto. You should get about 4 rotor rotations out of every pto shaft rotation I believe.

Agreed -- but some other things can be fairly expensive too. I replaced roller bearings in my aged Alamo SHD88 and it was $305 for the pair. Sold only with the heavy housings they are pressed into. Other things like knives are dirt cheap. Have yet to get into drum bearings and hope I never do.

You can find them, you just need to know where to look. Flailmaster had the full unit (bearing and housing) for less than $100, bearing only for around $60. Otherwise if you do some measuring you can go to Motion Industries, McMaster-Carr, Grainger, or something of that nature and find the bearings. They use standard bearings, the just don't tell you that.

Ask your dealer if they will hook it up to one of their tractors and run it for you? Offer them $$ for their 30 minutes of labor, to do so, if they won't just do it.

You can easily hand turn the roller but not the rotor.

You should be able to turn the rotor by hand using the PTO shaft. It will take a little effort, but if it doesn't turn, that could be a bad sign. If there is no shaft, try to turn the rotor by hand. I can rotate my rotor by hand when the PTO is hooked to the tractor. It's more difficult when it's hooked to the tractor, but can be done.

 

[leonz]

Hello MikeZQ,

Do not worry about parts, The Mathews Company is still in existence
and they have a chain of dealers that you can buy parts from for this
flail mower.

 

[Dan in MN]

I haven't posted in here in a long time, but just uploaded a video of my John Deere 3038e and Alamo SHD88 flail that might be appreciated..

John Deere 338e mowing with an Alamo SHD88 flail mower - YouTube

Dan

 

[dieselscout80]

I haven't posted in here in a long time, but just uploaded a video of my John Deere 3038e and Alamo SHD88 flail that might be appreciated..

John Deere 338e mowing with an Alamo SHD88 flail mower - YouTube

Dan

Dan, what type knives/blades do you have on your SHD88?

It looks like your 3038e pulls it good. :thumbsup:

What speed are you doing in the video?

 

[K5lwq]

Ran my first flail mower today and I must admit it ain't half bad. :thumbsup:

 

[MikeZQ]

I went and took a look at the Mathews flail mower Friday. I decided to pass on it. It appeared that all the bearings were sealed, the gear box had a couple bolts missing, I couldn't even find a model number on it.
And there wasn't anybody at the dealer that knew anything about the mower. Also I would prefer to find one that I can offset to one side. I will say, that thing was built like a tank.
I may have to just take the plunge and get a new one, not much available in the used market around my neck of the woods. Caroni or a Woodsmaxx, they both seem to have a good reputation on here.

 

[lostcreekranch]

I went and took a look at the Mathews flail mower Friday. I decided to pass on it. It appeared that all the bearings were sealed, the gear box had a couple bolts missing, I couldn't even find a model number on it.
And there wasn't anybody at the dealer that knew anything about the mower. Also I would prefer to find one that I can offset to one side. I will say, that thing was built like a tank.
I may have to just take the plunge and get a new one, not much available in the used market around my neck of the woods. Caroni or a Woodsmaxx, they both seem to have a good reputation on here.

Don't blame you a bit. Too many unknowns on that one. Good luck with your hunt.

I'm inclined towards the WoodMaxx FM-78H and the FM-88H.

 

[JWR]

I went and took a look at the Mathews flail mower Friday. I decided to pass on it. It appeared that all the bearings were sealed, the gear box had a couple bolts missing, I couldn't even find a model number on it.
And there wasn't anybody at the dealer that knew anything about the mower. Also I would prefer to find one that I can offset to one side. I will say, that thing was built like a tank.
I may have to just take the plunge and get a new one, not much available in the used market around my neck of the woods. Caroni or a Woodsmaxx, they both seem to have a good reputation on here.

Mike -- I don't know where you are but farm equipment and other equipment auctions often carry flail mowers. I got one here in Southern MD a couple of years ago for almost nothing. Put a few bolts, a return spring and a belt on it and turns out to be a great tool. Looks do not count. It was an old state road machine (probably, no way to know) and is an Alamo SHD88. Like you say, built like a tank. I later had to put roller bearings in ($305 for both ends with cast housings) and have replaced a few knives. The knives are cheap and available at places that cater to the road right of way people (happens to be a JD dealer in north central WV.) Anyway you have to pay close attention but this has been a dirt cheap way for me to get into flail mowing and worked really well.

 

[Dan in MN]

Agreed -- but some other things can be fairly expensive too. I replaced roller bearings in my aged Alamo SHD88 and it was $305 for the pair. Sold only with the heavy housings they are pressed into. Other things like knives are dirt cheap. Have yet to get into drum bearings and hope I never do.

Regular grass knives. No speedometer but ~3mph? A couple of small parts of the video almost look like I sped it up bit I didn't, might also be affected by the wide angle lens being used. At that height of grass I can move along pretty well, but you can see even in the 6 ft tall stuff at the end it goes through quite well. The only time I've really had trouble is one area where the owner has wanted me to leave it until later in the year as they mow trails through for the kids, but by the time I've mowed that late summer the past two years I think the winds have twisted the grasses together. I've had to go down to ~1/2 width passes and still constantly bogging the tractor down to a near stall, so this year I said no way it's getting flattened early on... :thumbsup:

 

[leonz]

Hllo and good afternoon K5Iwq,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the "Flail Mower Nations" from the Great State of Texas, Mineola branch.

If you decide to recut it in a few days ypu will find that the clippings will mulch that much faster for you. I always suggest to the members that they can mow in a spiral pattern to avoid having to stop back up turn around and then return on the next pass as it saves fuel time and labor when mowing.


Happy Mowing

Ran my first flail mower today and I must admit it ain't half bad. :thumbsup:

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