Wheeled flail mower

[imarobot]

Paul has posted some great posts with the creation, progress, videos and functionality of his flail mower.
Not to send his excellent updates off track I’d thought I’d post this as a new post.
I’m wondering why wheels on all for corners of a flail mower wouldn’t work. I know the roller provides even clearance over terrain fluctuations, but if the ground is fairly level why wouldn’t wheels work?
The reason I ask is because I have a DelMorino flail mower and have to lift if when turning. My fields are fairly flat and when I was cutting with a 4 wheeled finish more had no issues. It would be nice to remove the roller and have wheels.

 

[NCL4701]

As someone who doesn’t have a flail, has/am seriously considering getting a flail, I have to ask: You really can’t turn a flail without lifting it off the roller?

 

[mikester]

Paul has posted some great posts with the creation, progress, videos and functionality of his flail mower.
Not to send his excellent updates off track I’d thought I’d post this as a new post.
I’m wondering why wheels on all for corners of a flail mower wouldn’t work. I know the roller provides even clearance over terrain fluctuations, but if the ground is fairly level why wouldn’t wheels work?

Go ahead and put wheels on. If you are happy with the cut finish then great! If you are unhappy then the engineers at De Morino were onto something.

 

[Paul Allwood]

Paul has posted some great posts with the creation, progress, videos and functionality of his flail mower.
Not to send his excellent updates off track I’d thought I’d post this as a new post.
I’m wondering why wheels on all for corners of a flail mower wouldn’t work. I know the roller provides even clearance over terrain fluctuations, but if the ground is fairly level why wouldn’t wheels work?
The reason I ask is because I have a DelMorino flail mower and have to lift if when turning. My fields are fairly flat and when I was cutting with a 4 wheeled finish more had no issues. It would be nice to remove the roller and have wheels.

That's interesting that even with a tractor that's much bigger than mine you still have to lift the roller to steer. Are you running the flail at the front or back ?

Thanks too for your kind comments.

 

[imarobot]

It's a rear mount. The problem is not steering but it will dig up the ground as it slides around the ground sideways.
Small curves are ok, but with tighter turns it needs to be lifted.

 

[imarobot]

Go ahead and put wheels on. If you are happy with the cut finish then great! If you are unhappy then the engineers at De Morino were onto something.

Engineers at Del Morino know what they are doing.
I'm just wondering why a flail mower in general couldn't have a version of a mower instead of a roller. I have a 7' finish mower with wheels, and it cuts and turns fine without a roller.
Probably a real reason, I was only asking for a reason why.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Knowing nothing about flail mowers, I thought the reason for using a roller was to contain debris (and maybe broken blades?) from hitting the tractor and operator, as well as anti-scalp. Maybe guard chains or a flap would work.

Heck, I don't even know which direction the drum turns, but that thing Paul has made is the bomb.

 

[imarobot]

My understanding from what was explained to me, the drum turns clockwise when viewed from the left side of the tractor. Debris is cut, lifted, thrown forward, up over the roller and chopped again many times as it is thrown out the back of the mower. The mower has metal flaps on the front to contain the debris.; some does make it to the tractor.
The roller does not contain any of the debris, just rolls over if as it is spit out the back.

 

[Russell King]

Can you just carry the mower the whole time and just use the rollers to no scalp in dips and rises?

I recall a couple of people stating they would mow above the stated max height by carrying the mower on the three point. I believe one of them was @North Idaho Wolfman and the other is from east Texas but I don’t remember his name right now.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Engineers at Del Morino know what they are doing.
I'm just wondering why a flail mower in general couldn't have a version of a mower instead of a roller. I have a 7' finish mower with wheels, and it cuts and turns fine without a roller.
Probably a real reason, I was only asking for a reason why.

The main reason for the roller is to keep the drum and the blades from bottoming out.
the second reason for the roller is it's a stubble crusher.
And yes it also contains flying debris.
I have one of the Toro versions that floated on 4 casters on the corners, it still has the roller to keep the drum and blades from bottoming out.
So yes you could theoretically add the casters.
Toro got rid of the 4 caster version shortly after they used it.
It has inherent issues with turning the flail, This is a front mounted version.