I had viewed flail mowers as more like brush cutters and for really tall grass. What i would be needing is a finish (not finnish) mower to change the grass from say 5" to 3" like my lawnmower does.
/edit - what's the biggest flail or finish mower I could haul? 7610 has 18 pto 23 engine hp.
and about how fast on flat like a table, unobstructed lawn?
Mowing speed depends on the ground conditions and the grass hieght, I move along with our motorised unit at 3-5 miles an hour on good turf and don't have to worry about scalping or missing with grass strips as I always mow in a spiral AND mowing in a spiral takes less time BECAUSE you are not stopping to turn around and backing up to realign the mowers pattern and you use less fuel and the grass looks beautiful with no stress issues.
You just have to go back and run over the circle of uncut grass that is the center of the spiral and it still looks great. No stomping the left or right brake pedal on yours as the wheel and roller may tear the sod if you are not driving slowly.
No, the flail mower is used for turf grass as well with no issues at all.
The Caroni 47 inch flail mower with the finish mower rotor (four rows of grass slicers) will work well for your tractors power as the rotor is passive and delivering massive torque via the belt drive
The flail mowers rotor speed is what determines how well it slices turf; if you travel too fast it will cut poor and the same applies to a belly mower or rear finsh mower
About mowing speeds-
Its not the issue with ground speed that you need to worry about-
You must maintain the 540 RPM engine speed setting to deliver the proper torque to operate the finish mower rotor or any flail mower rotor at the proper rotor rotation speed to mow with it.
The more you mow to achieve the final turf grass blade hieght you want,
the less work is required to mow with a flail mower and the turf is stressed less as well.
The same applies with a missed mowing-as the slower you travel the better the finish.
Mowing in a spiral works very well and the turf still looks great two weeks later in my case.
The flail mowers rear roller is used as the hieght adjustment and has several hieght positions, the skids in front of the rear roller prevent the mower from scalping the turf and allow you to leave the mower upright when it disconnected from the tractor.
Changing knives on a flail mower is much easier than dealing with a belly mower as you simply unbolt the knive and flip it over to the opposite cutting edge if it needs a new cutting edge or replace it if it is broken.
The only real cleaning you have to do with a flail mower is the dry built up grass on the gear box and flat weldments in front and occasionally clearing the rear roller if you have no scraper on the rear roller.
