Fallon
Super Member
Yes I have read the entire 300+ page flail thread
I have a Kubota L3200, LandPride 1260 (5' rated to 1" stuff) rotary cutter & an ancient beat up Ford 917 7' flail with the side slicer grass knives on it. I do a bit of side work with the tractor, maybe a job every week or 2, mostly mowing stuff. It helps buy toys & keep me entertained, but I don't rely on it to pay the bills. It gets a little tighter paying the note on the tractor, but I can still rely on my day job to cover it for purely work around the property. I don't expect to mow anything over 2" or more than 2 jobs a week tops, probably 1.
I'm probably upgrading to a cabbed L4060 here in the not to distant future. I expect the 5' mower will go off with the L3200 or get sold off separately as the track on the L4060 is about 72" instead of my current 60". My 917 currently has a blown bearing, but I'm planning on keeping it & fixing it yet again. I paid $100 for it & $300-400 in parts plus a few weekend work got it alive again. It's still old & beat up, but I far prefer it to the rotary for many reasons.
Recently when using the flail on a job with a bit of brush (mostly grass & weeds, but some finger sized woody stuff) I speared 2 tires & the rotor bearing died. I'm assuming the punctures might have been because the side slicers cut rather than pulverizing & fraying like a rotary cutter would have. Not sure if I beat it up to much for the bearing, or it just happened to give out after 30 years or whenever it was last replaced. So I'm probably not going to use the flail for much light brush anymore for it's health & my tires. So for future brushy stuff I'm assuming I should stick with a more appropriate mower. I was assuming I'd find a decent used 6-7' rotary cutter, but haven't seen one in a few months (well there is a cheap 7' with no PTO & half a gear box). I'd love to find another flail, but in the past 2.5 years there have been precisely 5 on Craigslist in the state of Colorado, 1 of which I now own (and got before I figured out why a $100 flail wasn't a good find, it was an insanely great find because flails kick ***).
What would you do or recomend for something medium duty to go with the new machine? I can continue to use the 917 for mostly grass once I resurect it again so cut quality is kind of secondary.
Option A) I'd prefer used, which really means rotary but don't see much out there in the size I need & even then it's probably on the lighter side, I really should have a medium duty. Driving a ways for a decent used one is a posibility, especially for a flail, but it's a lot of time to gamble on something that may or may not live up to the advertisment & lower on my preference list.
Option B) If I get new LandPride rotary or flail, I can get it rolled into the 0% financing on the tractor. As far as I can see, LP flails are going to be in the $5-7k range, but prices online are hard to find. Probably more than I can justify for the amount of use it would get. A Land Pride RCF2072 seems to be just under $2k & rated to 2" stuff & is justifiable.
Option C) would be to wait for a used something to show up
Option D) would be to get a some other brand of flail, probably chinese or italian afterwards at half the price of a LP flail (ever popular Caroni Flail is around $2k, heavy duty Value Leader with hammers & hydraulic offset is around $3k)
Looking for suggestions, comments or thoughts.
I have a Kubota L3200, LandPride 1260 (5' rated to 1" stuff) rotary cutter & an ancient beat up Ford 917 7' flail with the side slicer grass knives on it. I do a bit of side work with the tractor, maybe a job every week or 2, mostly mowing stuff. It helps buy toys & keep me entertained, but I don't rely on it to pay the bills. It gets a little tighter paying the note on the tractor, but I can still rely on my day job to cover it for purely work around the property. I don't expect to mow anything over 2" or more than 2 jobs a week tops, probably 1.
I'm probably upgrading to a cabbed L4060 here in the not to distant future. I expect the 5' mower will go off with the L3200 or get sold off separately as the track on the L4060 is about 72" instead of my current 60". My 917 currently has a blown bearing, but I'm planning on keeping it & fixing it yet again. I paid $100 for it & $300-400 in parts plus a few weekend work got it alive again. It's still old & beat up, but I far prefer it to the rotary for many reasons.
Recently when using the flail on a job with a bit of brush (mostly grass & weeds, but some finger sized woody stuff) I speared 2 tires & the rotor bearing died. I'm assuming the punctures might have been because the side slicers cut rather than pulverizing & fraying like a rotary cutter would have. Not sure if I beat it up to much for the bearing, or it just happened to give out after 30 years or whenever it was last replaced. So I'm probably not going to use the flail for much light brush anymore for it's health & my tires. So for future brushy stuff I'm assuming I should stick with a more appropriate mower. I was assuming I'd find a decent used 6-7' rotary cutter, but haven't seen one in a few months (well there is a cheap 7' with no PTO & half a gear box). I'd love to find another flail, but in the past 2.5 years there have been precisely 5 on Craigslist in the state of Colorado, 1 of which I now own (and got before I figured out why a $100 flail wasn't a good find, it was an insanely great find because flails kick ***).
What would you do or recomend for something medium duty to go with the new machine? I can continue to use the 917 for mostly grass once I resurect it again so cut quality is kind of secondary.
Option A) I'd prefer used, which really means rotary but don't see much out there in the size I need & even then it's probably on the lighter side, I really should have a medium duty. Driving a ways for a decent used one is a posibility, especially for a flail, but it's a lot of time to gamble on something that may or may not live up to the advertisment & lower on my preference list.
Option B) If I get new LandPride rotary or flail, I can get it rolled into the 0% financing on the tractor. As far as I can see, LP flails are going to be in the $5-7k range, but prices online are hard to find. Probably more than I can justify for the amount of use it would get. A Land Pride RCF2072 seems to be just under $2k & rated to 2" stuff & is justifiable.
Option C) would be to wait for a used something to show up
Option D) would be to get a some other brand of flail, probably chinese or italian afterwards at half the price of a LP flail (ever popular Caroni Flail is around $2k, heavy duty Value Leader with hammers & hydraulic offset is around $3k)
Looking for suggestions, comments or thoughts.
