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

[morpheus]

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]

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]

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

 

[Billrog]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[morpheus]

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.

I have looked at the Novatractor and did some research on it. Appears to be a good unit.

bkrgi: Which quick hitch do you have? That is another confusing purchase. From $99 to $500 and they all look the same? I had the Pats Easy Connect on a previous tractor and it worked, I was not impressed for the price. You had to keep the "rod" connected to be able to change implements and if you forgot to remove it, which I did, the movement of the implement bent it.

 

[feasant]

buy the harbor freight quick hitch. use the 20% off coupon. it's cheap but should work/last a good while. get ken's extended hook. also order the RanchEx Quick Hitch Adapter Bushing Kit from walmart.com

if you get the hyd side shift, you will need a rear third function valve

 

[PaxMan]

buy the harbor freight quick hitch. use the 20% off coupon. it's cheap but should work/last a good while. get ken's extended hook. also order the RanchEx Quick Hitch Adapter Bushing Kit from walmart.com

if you get the hyd side shift, you will need a rear third function valve

The RanchEx Quick Hitch Bushing Kits are on sale right now on Amazon for $10 a set.
Search: RanchEx 102074 Bushing 102074

 

[leonz]

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

==========================================================================================


Hello Morpheus,

No worries, The 48 inch Vrisimo has an offset that will cover most or all of your tire tracks. If you start messing with a 5 or 6 foot flail on that small a mule you will be dealing with not having enough power plus the added weight.

Call Vrisimo when you have some down time and chat with them about their minimax 48" flail mower.

The other thing is you do not have enough HP at the PTO for a 5-6 foot flail mower because of any brand so keep that in mind, I know I have been owning and using them for 40 years when your ready to buy a snow blower send me PM.

 

[bkrgi]

bkrgi: Which quick hitch do you have? That is another confusing purchase. From $99 to $500 and they all look the same? I had the Pats Easy Connect on a previous tractor and it worked, I was not impressed for the price. You had to keep the "rod" connected to be able to change implements and if you forgot to remove it, which I did, the movement of the implement bent it.

SpeeCo QH

 

[Billrog]

I mowed using a 5' Howard Flail with a 19 HP 1130 case tractor for 25 years on a mt. side with no ill effects some grass and lots of brush. Aprox 20 acres every spring and fall. I now have a Kioti and a 5' woodmaxx which has 10% less knives than the Howard and as far as power goes any difference is not noticeable.

 

[vvanders]

Yeah, about the same here. We ran our 54" Caroni on a 19hp ford for a few years. The only stuff I couldn't cut was so dry it would just wrap around the shaft which was probably more down to the blade sharpness than anything else.

They come with an offset too so now even with the L4760(72" implements) I can still cover the read wheels on the cutting side.

 

[doneill127]

I have a 54 inch Woodmaxx on a 22 hp Mahindra, 16 pto hp and have never had any issues with lack of power. Overall pleased with it seems very well built and they upgraded to nsk bearings. I did a review on it in this forum back in May

 

[skipperbrown]

I had the caroni 60" that I pulled behind my 3940. I found I could only mow at about half the speed as I could a rotary and it had a tendency to just lay over the grass rather than cut it. The only advantage was it was easier to transport as it didn't stick out nearly as far on a trailer. I sold it and went back to a rotary.