Flail Mower vs Finish mower

[WNYBill]

Been looking at a 84 inch Sicma finish mower to mow our 3 acres of lawn. Some say to get a Flail mower, so
looked at a 85 inch Sicma Flail mower. More money! The State uses flail mowers to mow shoulders and is
seems like they go awfully slow. I can mow at 5mph with a 72 inch finish mower. Can you mow that fast with
a Flail mower? Is the flail mower worth the extra $2K? Is there a difference in performance?

Bill

 

[Traditional Farmer]

I have both rarely ever use the flail mower

 

[Phil Tibbetts]

i think the finish mower will give you a much nicer job on a lawn. IMO

 

[DR. EVIL]

It might not make much difference on a lawn you keep mowed but a flail mower pulls really hard on tall grass/weeds because it cuts every blade of grass or every weed several times while the rotary finish mower cuts stuff once.

 

[MJMJ]

Flail mowers have their place, but not for mowing your lawn.

 

[WNYBill]

Thank you, you saved me $2-3K.

 

[Richard G.]

My Dad tried a flail mower on his lawn about 45 years ago.
The top of the grass looked like you scraped it with a serrated knife.
Looked awful
We bought a Woods mower for my JD M and it did great.
Richard in NW SC

 

[ztrmowers]

flail style is for down tangled stuff, makes rough cut but it gets it cut where other mowers would have issues. that why county uses them in some cases, they never know what they will run into. your situation you want finish mower period, word of caution they do have some trouble in real tall stuff.

 

[John S-B]

84" is a lot of mower for just 3 acres. I've got a 54" Exmark and that's just fine for 3 acres, although 60" would be a little better. The other thing is if it's a side discharge and you have heavy grass, that's a lot to have go out the side, could be clumping issues. Heck, if you've got that much lawn, put 2 of them in hay or something.

 

[Faust]

(reply to post at 08:43:14 09/25/19)

Flails are used because of the liability of objects being launched into passing vehicles , rocks, tire fragments, ect, or on pastures near livestock. Cut quality is not as good as a finishing mower. If you don't believe me, go to a golf course and ask what they use on the fairways.