Flail Mowers?

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curtis cutter
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Re: Flail Mowers?

Post by curtis cutter »

Thanks. I like that the skids are adjustable.
Gregg
Just let go of it, it will eventually unplug itself.
TomB
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Location: Southern VT

Re: Flail Mowers?

Post by TomB »

The ski mountain I use to own required a Flail mower. There was no other choice. When were mowing with brush hogs we would go through 3 machines a year where each died from bent blades, shattered housings and broken drive shaft ends. I did not mow or maintain, just paid the crew and bought new machines. When we went to the Flail mower we bought a well used Abie mowing tractor and an equally well used Reid Flail. It worked well for about two days then we had to repair it. That typically took a day and a lot of welding if problem was in flail or 2 days of wrenching if problem was in Abie. The Abie was neat , really low to the ground, good tires for climbing hills and 100% stabiliy even when you were cutting diagonally on a steep hill. We were able to mow almost all the ski trails 2 or 3 times per summer for 2 years with the old Reid flail. Then we traded it in and I got out of the ski area management business. I believe the flail is still in use after 4 years. It mows to about the same look as golf course rough.

When we got the first machine it came with a roller so that you could put down nice patterns in the grass. After a year the roller's bearings broke and the roller was removed. I believe the new mower4 still has it's roller as when I look at the mountain from the parking lot I see the patterns.
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liveaboard
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Re: Flail Mowers?

Post by liveaboard »

I'm interested in the roller part; I saw a catalog where a big deck similar to mine has front + rear rollers.
I don't care about the pattern, but would like to flatten mole hills instead of hitting them with my blades. And I think that over time, my mowed area would get flatter instead of the ruts that seem to be forming from driving the heavy tractor + mower up and down.

I'm just a bit concerned that the roller will fold over the vegetation and much of it won't get properly cut.
I don't want to do all that fabrication and then find out it's useless...

So TomB, you seem to be saying the roller didn't have a deleterious effect on cutting performance, on rough material at least?

My ground is flat and very sandy.
TomB
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Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:49 pm
Location: Southern VT

Re: Flail Mowers?

Post by TomB »

liveaboard wrote: Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:14 pm I'm interested in the roller part; ...
So TomB, you seem to be saying the roller didn't have a deleterious effect on cutting performance, on rough material at least? ...
The roller was behind the flail such that the grass and weeds went through the flail and then the cut grass was rolled flat. In our setup the flail and roller were mounted in front of the tractor orientated such that from front to back the order was Flail, Roller, Tractor.

Tom
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liveaboard
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Re: Flail Mowers?

Post by liveaboard »

Thanks Tom.

My mower is behind; sometimes I work it backwards but that's hard on my neck.
A pal of mine out in Montana turned the seat and controls of a tractor backwards to solve that problem... He used it as a loader.
Back end loader.

The 'roller mower' I saw in a catalogue has roller tubes front and back.
Over on 'mytractorforum' everyone's a mower nut, but so far, I've yet to find anyone with experience of using one.
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