Rotary or Flail mower..

[A.O.]

Well I just pulled the trigger and ordered a 73' Caroni from Agrisupply this morning, should be here in about a week he said..

 

[vvbigbb]

I agree with Wolfman, I have been keeping 15 acres clear with a 84" Woods rotary cutter for about 25 yrs and I believe the flail would not be bothered with the uneven ground and rocks.

 

[A.O.]

Answers to questions in no particular order.

The 6***8217; Caroni is adjustable between a little offset and a lot of offset. I bought mine well used. When cutting thicker stuff I do it the same as I do with a rotary. I***8217;ll back over the big stuff first. Mostly to protect the tractor. I don***8217;t want to knock any of the hydraulics of the bottom of the tractor. Another option with the flail is to drive the ***8220;offset***8221; over the big stuff, never touching it with the tractor at all. I shot a little lame video of the offset method to try to give you some idea. If I was going to do this a lot I'd move the brackets to the max offset. I***8217;m sure there***8217;s better vids all over youtube and such.




http://vid539.photobucket.com/albums/ff352/FLINCHIST/MOV01549_zpszcx0pmrn.mp4


My top link is mechanical. The flail is no harder to attach than a box blade. The Caroni has a couple options for hitching up. The hitch arms can swing vertically or be pinned solid. If your ground is nice and smooth you can lock the arms, put the top link pin in the slot, set the 3pt arms at a specific height and let the mower pivot on the lower 3pt arms. My ground is far from smooth and level. I put the top link pin in the hole, let the mower hitch arms swing, drop my 3pt all the way and let the mower ride the terrain, moving horizontally independently of the tractor. A couple pics will likely explain it better than I can.




As much as I like my flail, if I had to cut a LARGE amount of heavy brush/saplings/small trees, and could only have one cutter, I***8217;m not sure that I***8217;d choose the flail over a rotary. The flails advantages, it seems to me, are safety, easier on the tractor, easier handling (keeping the offset in mind) and the finer cutting (more like mulching than a rotary).

Ultimate solution: One of each. Slightly less ultimate solution: get a heavy rotary to knock down the big stuff the first time and then sell it and get a flail to maintain the ground regularly.

So I got my mower today, as per the instructions I think your top link mount is on backwards, the slot should go for and aft not up and down.. just an observation..

I'll take a pic of that tomorrow..

So here is the way the manual shows it, FWIW

 

[A.O.]

So my Gen-U-Wine 73 inch Caroni flail mower finally arrived today... and it doesn't work!! I'll get to that in a minute..

So I'm working about the place today trying to clean some stuff up, get some posts in the ground and get a dog fence up... beat myself up a bit and then the delivery guy calls, be there at 2 with the mower..WHOOHOO!! ITS HERE ITS HERE...

So to unload it I have to put it together first so I can chain it off the truck, the driver is real nice and says no problem, do what you need to do. So I get the top link part of the 3ph attached so I've a way to pick it up. off the truck it comes, set it down and hook it up to the tractor and off to the barn to finish up.

Get everything torqued down, fill the gear box, grease all the fittings (they've put holes in the covers to accommodate this now), go to install the PTO shaft and its about 2 inches too long (remember the it doesn't work thing above, this is why). Not a real big deal, I'll need to cut it down 5-6 inches. Really really wanted to do it today to see how it mows, but I was beat, had a vet appt for my dog and had to get cleaned up...so it will just have to wait till tomorrow.

Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it goes..

Here's proof!

 

[D2Cat]

A.O. you say, "... and it doesn't work!!"

Well, you haven't finished assembly. Once you get the shaft sized to fit your tractor you'll be ready to mow.

It only "wouldn't work" if the shaft came too short because you'd then be moaning, groaning, bi******, calling complaining, and waiting for new parts. You're just too anxious!

Does look nice though.

 

[Beanboy]

I am in the market for a new cutter and have my eyes on a used woods BBX84 rotary mower. My needs are primarily mowing food plots once a year due to distance from home. I have about 12-13 acres that gets knee to waist high, mostly Bahia and nutgrass but also scattered sedge, blackberry, and occasional volunteer pine trees. I also get a wild hair from time to time and cut new trails between the planted pine rows where stumps go to hide. Cutting thick grass often results in clumps and windrows of cuttings making disking difficult, as again due to distance and limited time we often have only a couple weekends to spray gly to kill the grass, then return and mow 2 weeks later then disk and plant the following weekend. I plan to get a Woods PSS84 min till drill to avoid the discing, but would still need to mow the tall grass. Would a flail mower help by giving a cleaner cut and less residue? All the pics I've seen appear to show everything pretty well mulched into small pieces but I've not seen pics of mowed thick hayfield like plots. What is your opinion of the better cutter for my needs?
Would the flail mower allow similar or hopefully faster ground Speed?

 

[A.O.]

I am in the market for a new cutter and have my eyes on a used woods BBX84 rotary mower. My needs are primarily mowing food plots once a year due to distance from home. I have about 12-13 acres that gets knee to waist high, mostly Bahia and nutgrass but also scattered sedge, blackberry, and occasional volunteer pine trees. I also get a wild hair from time to time and cut new trails between the planted pine rows where stumps go to hide. Cutting thick grass often results in clumps and windrows of cuttings making disking difficult, as again due to distance and limited time we often have only a couple weekends to spray gly to kill the grass, then return and mow 2 weeks later then disk and plant the following weekend. I plan to get a Woods PSS84 min till drill to avoid the discing, but would still need to mow the tall grass. Would a flail mower help by giving a cleaner cut and less residue? All the pics I've seen appear to show everything pretty well mulched into small pieces but I've not seen pics of mowed thick hayfield like plots. What is your opinion of the better cutter for my needs?
Would the flail mower allow similar or hopefully faster ground Speed?

Hey Beanboy, seeing as I've had a flail all of 2 days I cannot answer your question.. but here is a great thread on flail mowers. This is what convinced me to go flail, I'm sure you can find what you are looking for there..

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/118882-lets-talk-flail-mowers.html

 

[Bulldog]

Beanboy, I would suggest looking at a twin rotor cutter like the Bushhog 3008 instead of a 7' single rotor.

 

[Galtsgulch82]

Hello, New to the site and the L3800 is only 5 months old. I have been looking to get the same flail mower from Agri Supply. Have you had a chance to do use your new mower yet? If so how do you like it?

Thanks

 

[Russell King]

This link will show you what the Caroni flail that AO bought works like.

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18559

 

[A.O.]

Hello, New to the site and the L3800 is only 5 months old. I have been looking to get the same flail mower from Agri Supply. Have you had a chance to do use your new mower yet? If so how do you like it?

Thanks

I like it a lot, take his link and go have a look. Real hard getting used to the way it sticks out the right side though, I do understand that it will work real well for mowing tight to stuff like a building or a fence but I think I would like it centered better.