Re: Flailing away!

Posted by Gene Davis (Ga.) on May 27, 2004 at 12:44:58 from (66.82.9.46):

In Reply to: Flailing away! posted by Indydirtfarmer on May 25, 2004 at 09:48:29:

I have been using a flail mower to cut most of my my yard and 2 acre lot with for more than 20 years. I first had a Mott CLB60 3 pt hitch model mounted on a 154 Cub LoBoy. Great mower on a pitiful excuse for a tractor. Couldn't get rid of the tractor except by selling it with the mower,so I let it go and hunted another setup. i bought a used 650 John Deere diesel(Yanmar built)compact that was about the same hp as the Cub. It came with a JD216 finish mower and it was a very poor cut compared to the smoothness of the Mott. So I searched till I found another 60" mott and then sold the JD finish mower and the buyer and I both were happy. I then set out to modify the flail mower to make a good thing better. I built a set of caster swiveling gauge wheels for the front and used 1" set collars on the stem to raise or lower the height by moving spacers from top to bottom of the pivot stem usually stays set at 2 1/2 " height, the back side of the mower rides on the rear roller. I then built a pivoting link connector that moved the pin the top link hole of the hitch on the mower 8" toward the tractor. These modifications allow the mower to float completely and follow the contour of the ground and give a very smooth cut and not gouge. By extending the hitch pin holder on the mower frames 8" I lengthened the distance between the mower and the wheels so it can move up and down with the terrain easier. Actully the mower is free to float up and down as needed. My wife keeps her flowers & trees with a 6'spacing and it works well. I used 1/8" vinyl flexible belting to make a full width flap that hung down about 6 inches in front of the mower housing and another piece to make a full with flap for the rear that is long enough to touch the ground and is actually a couple of inches longer and that way spreads the grass clippings as the fall out the back and also stops any thing that might be thrown out the rear. The secret to making a Mott flail mower cut smoothly is to be sure that the drum is spinning at 2,200-2,400 rpms turning towards into the direction of travel, when you hear the drum and kinves whistling it is ready to cut clean. Also you need to sharpen the cutters occasionally. I try to remember to sharpen mine once yearly. I have the heavy duty blades on mine. Mott got bought by Alamo Industries and when I tried to correspond with them they told me they mostly sold to Municipalities and Goverment sales. There is a company in Tennessee called Flailmaster that sellls parts for a lot of different makes of flail mowers, and their prices seem to be in line. I did a comparison test on power required to cut with a flail type compared to a rotary mower and I found It took about 1/4 less power to do a neater job in the same grass with a flail type mower. I could actully move up from 3rd to 4th gear. I had a sliding glass door shattered from a rock thrown from the rotary mower on my lawn mower and it was not from the discharge side either! Kiss that $200.00 good bye! The worst enemy a flail mower is stuff that will wrap around the drum. If I am cutting dense grass or unknown areas, I raise the mower up pretty high and back into the weeds or brush,cutting the top part of the weeds and brush up tp 1-1/2" saplings and then come back the next time to cut lower where I can see what I am cutting. Here is an interesting thought for you! I have an aluminun housing flail type PUSH MOWER powered by a Clinton engine if anybody wants to get serious! In closing i will say in the pro and con dept, flail mowers are something you either love or hate! I love mine,I am going to get almost 18 years out of my blades, but at $300.00 per set I should hope so.

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