Flail mower around rocks

This flail mower I have is new to me. I used the mower the first time on a job today. I found it leaves some weed stems standing, may be my speed? I want to know if the flail mowers are a more forgiving around rocks. Since the blades are smaller will they just bounce off of the rocks? My 6 ft. Woods rotaty mower really connects with rocks, and lets me know. The field I was mowing today, had very few rocks. Stan

Flails have to be run at the 540 rated pto speed. On Motts the bend in the blade can actually stretch if they aren't run fast enough. As far as rocks, if they're big they will hurt any mower but with a flail they can't be shot out at hundreds of miles per hour. The whole idea behind a flail mowers safety is that the blades are free swinging and will just swing up when hitting an obstruction like a rock or something. Blades on a ring will also swing to the side, so yes they are more forgiving than a rotary and are ideal if there is some debris in the field being mowed. It's still best to walk an area first before cutting. Dave

Some flails are reversible. Normally you want the shaft to be turning in the same direction as your wheels; this will lift up the grass that's been flattened by your tires and give you a clean cut. The reverse direction is for mulching. If your flail is turning the right direction and the knives are reasonably sharp, it should do a far better job than any rotary mower.

As for rocks, some knife styles handle rocks better than others, but it doesn't take too many rocks to dull the knives. I've found that stumps are harder on my mower than rocks. Be careful at any rate, as flail mower parts are ridiculously expensive.

I have run Mott, Almo and JD Flail mowers. They get dull. when you hit rocks (you will hear it)but they are pretty forgiving. If you run over a stump or other large piece of wood, you are likely to loose
blades.
Two things to remember - you need to run a flail just about on the ground " pick it up 6" and you get a ratty cut.If too low on the RPMs you get a ratty cut also.
I hope this helps

Flail mowers are safer around rock then a rotatory type is since they will not shoot a rock out as far or fast. Yep ground speed is important with one so try a lower gear and see how it does. I pull a flail mower out of a fence row a few years ago and used it a few time. Does a good job but I don't mow all that much so a brush hog works better for me

Alamo bought Mott are they are the same. JD and Ford are cheap copies with different style blades and way thinner housings. Reverse rotation fine cut will give the best cut quality but they aren't nearly as common as forward rotation. Yup, they have to run at full pto rpm. A flail can rival the cut of any mower except a greens mower on a golf course. Dave

Reminds me of when my dad used to chop corn stalks with a flail chopper on my neighbor"s ridge field that was littered with flint field stone. It was like the forth of July watching that at night. Never seemed to hurt the chopper though. On the other hand, rocks tend to destroy bush hogs. Flail mowers don"t leave as clean of a cut line as a rotary, slower ground speed can help, you may have to go over it again (be sure to approach from a different direction though).

I have owned a Mott Flail mower for around 25 years and have found that they are far superior to any rotary type I have owned for cutting my 3.5 acre place. I am bordered on one side by a highway and people often throw trash out such as beer cans and bottles. The greatest thing about the flail mower besides the smooth cut is the fact it doesn't throw stuff like the rotary type does.Many years ago I was rough cutting an area in the lot behind us and a piece of wire flew out from under the rotary mower and stuck in wife's leg who was standing about 100 ft. away and she had a bad wound. Rotarty mowers are dangerous for that reason. I once talked with a tech rep at Alamo who told me that the drum needed to turn between 2,000-2,2000 rpm to give a clean cut. He said if it's not whistling it won't cut clean. I added a curtain on the front of mine to keep stray bits of grass and dust from coming towards the tractor. I run my drum rotation OPPOSITE from the wheels and find it gives a better cut because the wind blown from the drum stands the grass blades up for a cleaner cut and they are cut from bottom to top rather than top to bottom it cuts them cleaner. The curtain I put on the rear that covers the back roller leaves a smooth even distribution of the grass clippings. When you use a flail mower look at the last pass you made, if you see stems sticking up or bent twisted grass, your ground speed is too fast. If I am going to cut grass or weeds taller than 6 inches or so, I make one pass with the mower lifted slightly,then make the final cut from the other direction on the ground to get a smooth cut. There are many type of blades available for flail mowers. They make a special blade for rocky ground that has a "D" ring type swivel that lets it fold back when hitting rocks and therefore not shear the holding pin to the drum. There are also fine finish cut blades which I use. I take mine off occasionally((3-5 yrs) and sharpen them as I turn them around. I have gotten 15+ years out of the set on there now, but don't cut many rocks and hard stumps or curbing on walkways I added gauge wheels on the front and lengthened the 3 pt hitch connections by 7 inches, made a pivoting hookup for the top link pin and my 650 John Deere compact diesel tractor mostly tows the mower so it is free to follow the ground contour and since it is on front caster wheels and the rear roller it hold an even cut with out scalping. I only pick it up when making extremely sharp turns or moving over obstacles or changing locations.

I forgot to add that the one thing that really kills a flail mower is rope, vines or wire and fencing. They tend to wrap it up faster than you can hit the pto lever to stop it. Just have to unravel or cut it out then.
Also the Mott mower drum set up is reversible, just flip it around in the housing and flip the gear case over, but pay attention to the oil level plug so it can be filled and checked.The speed also can be changed gy using different pulley sizes.

A good flail like a Mott(Alamo) will cut 4 ft. high grass down in one pass if there is enough HP behind it and Mott flails use less HP than a rotary of the same size. The super heavy duty Motts with 4 1/2" Dia. cutter shaft come with the D rings standard. They are optional on the standard 2 3/8" shaft heavy duty model. As a kid I put lots of blades on Mott mowers helping my dad. He was biggest Mott Interstator distributor in the world when they came out in the 70's and very good friends with the the owner of Mott. The first time he demonstrated one to the city of Edmonton, their jaws dropped. My dad told their operator to put the mowers down, put the pto at 540 and go in first gear. One pass done! The grass was so tall that one of the big wigs, who was short, was almost buried in it. The tractor was a 6600 Ford with an 88" rear unit and 74" hydraulic side units. After that demo they were easy to sell. The big wig from the city told my dad that if anyone questions what a flail can do, to give him a call at the city. My dad was one of very few people who could show up at the city yard without an appointment. They knew that he wasn't going there to waste their time. In the 70's an Interstator was about $25,000 and the tractor was worth about the same or maybe a little more. They were almost bullet proof and several were in service for more than 25 years with thousands of hours on them. Dave