Flail Mower Tell About Your Flail Mower---Caroni, Woodmaxx or Novatractor

morpheus · Dec 24, 2018

Greetings from Montana, about 30 miles south of Canada. I recently bought a 4000sq ft. metal building that had 12 acres with it. I am going to store all my "stuff" in it along with a wood shop and room to live in. It has three offices I am going to turn into living area and me and the two dogs that let me take care of them are going to live in it. The property has no trees, just native grass and is flat. I plan to mow 2 acres as a "lawn" and the other 10 as pasture.

I bought a Kioti CK2610
Land plane
pallet forks

The property has a large area that is covered in gravel with weeds coming through it. I plan to use the land plane to bring it back. The pallet forks are for moving my wood working equipment from my rent house to the "big red Barn".

I have been looking at flail mowers until they are all running together. My understanding is that the Caroni is made in Italy and is a good quality mower. Agrisupply that them shipped to me for $2600 and change. The Woodmaxx is $2500 and the Novatractor is $1749. $1749 is the most appealing, but not the only consideration.

If you have a Caroni or a Woodmaxx or a Novatractor, I would appreciate your opinion.

Thanks,

feasant · Dec 24, 2018

i have a woodmaxx FM62H with duckfoot cutters and it works really good as long as you keep it off the rocks. i also have top n tilt and find that helps it follow terrain. hitting rocks will dull the cutters pretty fast.

i feel build quality is pretty good with woodmaxx

ericm979 · Dec 24, 2018

Do you use the top and tilt valves in float position?

Billrog · Dec 24, 2018

I have a woodmaxx with the blades mowed 10 or 15 acres of light brush and grass with it last spring seems like a solid fairly well made mower.

leonz · Dec 25, 2018

Hello Morpheus,

Their are a couple of things you need to know before you spend any of your hard earned money. Your going to be limited to a flail mower with a 4 foot cutting width in order to utilize the full power of your current mule at the power take off.

It would be worth your while to check with the Vrisimo folks in California and ask about one of their 48 inch PTO flail mowers.

It will take 6-9+ weeks from the time of ordering a 48 inch Caroni flail mower from Agrisupply to have it arrive at your place.

It will take much less time to have a 48 inch offset Virsimo flail mower delivered from the Vrisimo factory in California to your place after you place your order and pay for it.

The minimax is being sold for $3,795.00 +tax and freight cost now but the Vrisimo folks are annual running sales on their flailmowers so it would be worth your while to see if they are on sale now too as it is winter time.

morpheus · Dec 25, 2018

Leonz, Thanks for the reply. Question: The Kioti has 21 pto Hp. The Caroni 59" and the Woodmaxx say that 18 to 20 minimum hp in their brochure. I understand that more hp is always better, but would the Hp of the Kioti 2610 be enough? Right now the Big Red Barn I have purchased has some tall weeds, but once they are knocked down, it would be just a maintance thing, once or twice a month. Stuff doesn't grow fast up here with a 12" annual rainfall.

The tractor width is 55 inches so I was hoping to be able to run a mower that would at least cover the tire tracks. Does it matter that the 48 inch mower would be less than the width of the tractor?

Morpheus

feasant · Dec 25, 2018

i run the tilt in float and sometimes the top. if short on HP, you can run with cutting height high and then make a double pass lower

bkrgi · Dec 25, 2018

I agree with feasant on his comments
Here is my FM62H(same as feasant's) at work behind a Kubota B26TLB with 19.5 rated PTO ponies
You can decide based on what I was cutting if it will serve you needs
2 videos

B26TLB Flail Mowing Part 2 - YouTube

morpheus · Dec 25, 2018

bkrgi Thanks for the videos. The stuff I have to mow isn't near as "tough" as what you mowed. No brush just prairie grass and a few weeds that when I knock them down, I will be able to keep them under control. I have looked all day at flail mowers and I mean all day. The pto hp of your tractor and the one I will be getting when the implements get in are close, so looking at you videos I feel more confident ordering it.

Again Thanks, Morpheus in Montana

audsp98 · Dec 26, 2018

I have the NovaTractor MFZ175 and it does a very good job. Got it late in the season so didn't get a lot of opportunity to use it this year but plenty of plans to use for a long time. I spoke with the designer/builder quite a bit. His name is Jack and he's a regular on the forums.