SICKLE MOWER VS FLAIL

[Brimfield]

I have a [AFFILIATE=1, nofollow=true, newwindow=true, title="Kubota"]Kubota[/AFFILIATE] L3800 and I am looking for a side mower. This is for cutting wild rose bushes and small saplings. along the driveway. I can find posts on flail mowers but not on sickle. Also what brand mowers are good? I have Titan log grapple, forks and a bucket so I am thinking of buying from them.

 

[leonz]

You may be better off buying a small farm disc mower to do that as
the disc mowers discs ride on the ground and each disc has 3 or 4
single blades on it and there are no sickle teeth to break and mend/rivet.

 

[redman135]

A sickle bar mower is for hay cutting. Doing the job you describe will destroy it. You need a flail mower, it is designed for jobs like yours

 

[ovrszd]

A sickle mower will not like cutting saplings. But I guess if you can get them cut and then keep them cut low it'll handle the job. A sickle mower that is belt driven is great for cutting road banks where the slope angle varies. That's what mine gets used for. Or cutting along a waterline of a pond/lake. My Flail trails behind me. But it leaves the best looking cut.

 

[diesel85]

You should use a flail mower like folks have mentioned.

 

[ericm979]

If you want a side mower for small saplings you could get a ditch bank flail mower.

I'd check reviews of the Titan flails. Not all that great and no spare parts. They're common EF style Chinese flails so maybe someone else's parts would fit but many manufacturer make changes to the design so you'd have to figure it out on a part by part basis.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

We used sickle bar mowers to cut hay back in the 60's-70's growing up on the farm. Lord help the one of us that used one to cut brush or small sapplings. That would get Dad's leather strop off the nail hook and warmed up on our backside.

Either an offset flail, or an offset rotary should do the trick.

The sickle bar style mower just isn't robust enough for that kind of steady use.

 

[LouNY]

Less then 3000 pounds and 39 Hp on the pto;
the small offset flails may work.
Depending on the size of the saplings I would not be afraid to use a sickle mower.
One inch and under green saplings and brush and briars the sickle would have no problem with
and it is much lighter then a flail.

Here is a suggestion it is chinese made;

We haven't used our sickle bar mowers for hay for many years, they do get used for fence line and roadside triming.

 

[Brimfield]

yea I saw that sickle mower. I am leaning to the flail to eat up the roses. Will I need an enclosed cab for safety? Brush hog mentioned it. I have dug up rose bushes for years with a back hoe and they grow back in no time. Is there a brand of flail mower that is not made in China? Or at least has spare parts. If I wanted to build a survival bunker I would plant wild rose hedges for cover. No one could get through that quickly and not be cut up.

 

[LouNY]

They are a formidable obstacle.