What is a flail Mower ?

[zach mignot]

Im trying to find out what a flail mower is and what it does. I tryed to search it and it would only show me photos of it and no disctiption on what it is mainly for. Thanks In Advance

 

[Anonymous-0]

It is a finish mower for lawns, parks, school grounds and such. It's principle features are that it does not make windrows of cuttings along the discharge chute, it does not get such bad blade and gearbox damage if it hits something really hard i.e. sewer main lid, and it does not throw items it may hit; thats a safety item for those mowing parks and such. The blades are individual knives that are mounted with pins or links that let the knives fold back if they hit something. It is not to be used for brush, saplings and the like as you will ruin the knives. I use a 6' Mott behind my WD45 to mow my lawn and along my lane. I have cut weeds as high as my tractor but you have to raise the mower all the way and top cut the stuff, let it dry a day or two and recut it a normal height.

 

[zach mignot]

Thanks. im buying a tractor that comes with on and that is just what i need for my big lawn !!

 

[Mike M]

In addition to what was said below you can cut the big stuff too. I had an older Ford Flail mower and put on the chains and blades from a John Deere flail and had no problem cutting saplings, rose bushes,tall weeds and grass. You just need enough HP to keep that rotor speed up.Heavy stuff takes alot of HP. I really liked them because of saftey ( not as likely to throw stuff or break when hitting stuff) and once you mowed it looked good with no wheel tracks left like a brush hog leaves.

So there are fine cut blades and ones for rougher cutting. Go to flailmaster.com and you can get parts cheaper and see the different types.

 

[Leroy]

The township used to run a Massey Ferguson 135 tractor with a Mott 6' flail mower to mow the roadsides. Was a lot nicer than the rotary mowers they are using now to mow the roads, there was no grass and weeds laying on the roads when they were done for to cause a car comming by to hit the stuf and have a tire slide on the cut grass and cause the car to loose control.

 

[johns48jdb]

one thing about using a frail mower is the width of the machine makes it rough to mow on small rises and down in ditches. it is so wide it doesn't follow the contour of the ground at all and you have to go over an area several times to make it look right if its rougher ground. if you have a flat surface to mow on then you'll enjoy using it. i actually found a grind stone that had a steel plate against one side and was able to use it and a rig that you would use on a lath or drill press to clamp the blade in turn the crank on the holder to where the blade came in contact with the side of the wheel and another crank moved the blade acroos the surface of the rock. i had a bottle of water that i used to squirt water on the wheel and blade to keep things cool. i made it where it turned fairly slow on the end of a jack shaft and made it where i could sit down and run the set up because it takes a long time to sharpen the blades. i had one that was an 80 inch cut. i added extra blades and holders (the same number on each run of blades) right in behind the rear wheel because it wouldn't pick up all the grass where it was mashed down by the rear tire. i was running a 574 ih with big tires on it.

 

[Don-Wi]

I agree with the last 3 guys- you can cut just about anything you want with one. They will eat small saplings and the like just fine. I would prefer a flail over a bushhog if we ever decied to get a mower. They do take a little more HP for big stuff, but for a lawn they probably use just as much as a regular finish mower. I did use one once or twice, and I've also use a bushhog, but the hog hung out so far and it was just plain big and bulky. The flail mower was lighter (atleast didn't stick out so far) and easier to manuver.

I disagree that they are too big and don't float- unless you're mowing a crown or ditch and driving with the hump or divot and not across it.

Donovan from Wisconsin

 

[johns48jdb]

sorry, i didn't mean to imply they want float. the ford and bush hog brands i've run have floating hitches for the lift arms and work real good to let the machine cut at the same height most of the time. going across a hump in the ground or down into a ditch at a ninety degree angle to the ditch or rise will make the blades dig into the dirt. its a matter of getting use to using it and knowing what will work and what want.