Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Flails for the rough stuff  (Read 4774 times)

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Flails for the rough stuff
« on: February 04, 2017, 10:21:54 am »
Hi,  Not having any experience of using a PTO driven flail, I am pondering which 'duty' build standard - 'standard' duty, 'heavy' duty etc - I should go for.  Inclined to play safe and go for heavy duty gear-box and 800 gram hammers (with extra cost of course).   Am wondering though how others might have fared using a 'standard' duty flail (with, say, 400g hammers) to clear really rough stuff.  By rough stuff, I mean mix of dense bramble, dense bracken, rush and, worst of all, well established grass tussocks which are so old that they have become mini-mounds.  Latter will take some chewing up and the box-grader will almost certainly have to be employed for final leveling to avoid wrecking the flail. Not much really woody stuff in the mix as I will deal with any old gorse manually.  Any thoughts please?

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2017, 11:34:48 am »
When we moved here one of the hilly fields had been left for at least a dozen years. Not so much bracken or bramble in the middle but certainly tussocks like a ski slope mogul hill. My tractor wouldn't have been up to it...nor my hill driving skills.. but local real farmer hired a heavy duty topper (rather then use his own) and mulched the lot with a 90horse john deere. We're talking ordinary blades rather than flails.

For dealing with edge encroaching brambles and blackthorn i just reverse my 6ft connor topper at them (43HP tractor).. partly raised.. then repeat lowered. Only time that's caused trouble is if there's an old log or rock in there whicj once cost me a new blade carrier.

For your sort of one-off job just hire whatever kit you choose.

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2017, 06:30:24 pm »
Thanks for input pgkevet.  Temporary hire option hadn't crossed my mind.  I'll look into that. 
However, thinking ahead of such investigation - rocks and equipment damage!  Did I mention rocks (?!) which will require care as the level of growth is gradually lowered a swipe at a time until I can see what lurks beneath.  Apart from very over-grown field edges (2 fields over 2 ha) the primary target is another 1 ha field that has never been improved.  Obviously too much effort in olden times and not worth the effort, later, when part of a larger farm block, but I'm not about to waste a third of my recent freehold (even if I plant trees around some of the larger rocks).  I somehow think this is going to involve a gradual approach rather than a one-off brute-force fix.  BUT, still worth looking into the hire option (thanks for the thought).
In my circumstance, I reckon a flail mower rather than a rotary topper - much care obviously still required though.

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2017, 09:03:12 pm »
If you think the ground is really rocky with big-uns then also consider a contractor... let him damage and pay for his kit on a fixed fee.. and he'll likely do it all in one hit. My steepish 35 degree hillside was 5ha and took about 3hrs - mostly due to terrain.
I manually did some 200yrd length about 8feet wide planted with 12yr old trees along a boundary using a heavy duty push rotary 18" wide jobbie.. similar tussocks between the trees. It took a while mostly cos it kept stalling  while cutting the thick wet tussock bases. It was an old machine left here and I did finally snap the shaft to the cutters but local agri guys extracted and replaced that bolt for not much. Once done it was easy to keep it cut afterwards

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2017, 11:01:53 pm »
Thanks pgkevet for your further comment.  I have, however, just negated discussion by placed an order for a heavy-duty flail mower.
I did actually start looking into the hire option, but didn't get any good hits on the web.  "Ah well"  I thought  "I'll ring around after the weekend".   But then spotted a purchase item that looked interesting.  Bashed off an email yesterday to double-check compatibility with my 35HP AGT tractor:  much to my surprise, received very informative email today (Sunday).  Company rep' had even looked-up my tractor on the web to check compatibility and the off-set cut I would achieve and also suggested a cheaper (but still pretty beefy) alternative that I might like to consider as well (not being aware that my wheel spacing is wider than standard).  Order placed this eve!
I am a little embarrassed by my choice of supplier:  I prefer to buy from British suppliers (even if they have sourced from elsewhere), but I just couldn't pass it up.   All being well, I shall receive my Bowell MFZ-135 hydraulic offset flail in a week (or so) from Germany.  More than I need probably, but it's a pretty decent deal.   Perhaps I should start advertising rough stuff flailing services  :-\ :)
« Last Edit: February 05, 2017, 11:14:07 pm by arobwk »

docsal

  • Joined Feb 2017
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2017, 12:27:06 pm »
This sounds very much like my own fields.
How did you get on?

Hamish Crofter

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • Isle of Skye
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2017, 05:45:39 pm »


Yes, I'm interested to know how you got on as I have a similar problem to tackle

Drummournie

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Cawdor - Nairnshire
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2017, 04:27:56 pm »
I'm interested too, how did you get on chap?

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2017, 12:14:26 am »
Regrets for delay in responding to "how you get on with" type Qs: 
The short answer is - I haven't yet managed to address the rough field and its tussocks with the flail.  Just too many other things to do on my two "usable" fields and I also needed to feel confident using/manipulating the flail (as a novice) and about tractor/flail balance before venturing onto the rough. 
There was also a long head-scratching period about what length to cut the cardon shaft - it sounds easy, but it took repeated unconnected alignments of shaft-halves in all positions - up/down, right/left, upper/lower hitch points and top-link float - to be finally confident with the hack-saw.  Farmer Pete, who turned up during the measuring, also threw me by querying whether I should consider a slip-clutch/shear-bolt arrangement - I decided in the end that a flail mower is probably forgiving enough to forego either, BUT I shall definitely do a very thorough trawl over the rough field with tractor alone and a good arm-full of bamboo canes to mark out any "very hard" points! 

What I can say for now, though, is that my Bowell flail's 1.5kg hammers made mince-meat of blackthorn (about 1"-1.5" stems) that had encroached around some field edges.  Tractor/flail balance also seems OK particularly as my "alpine" type tractor is weighted forwards over the front axle.  (Having eventually received tractor Cert' of Conformity, I now understand it produces some 30HP at the PTO which I find is very adequate for the flail. 

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Flails for the rough stuff
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2017, 03:48:40 pm »
I've done a tussock trial.  Checked a couple by ramming a crowbar into them (to make sure they were not hiding rocks).  Then lowered flail over them while stationary:  it chewed them up no problem, roughly to ground level by which point their cores were pretty much like a firm peat.  I have no idea whether the tussock attack made the flail's (3x) belts slip at all.  I'm deliberating though whether it will be possible to chomp tussocks on the move even at very slowest ground speed - my ground is so uneven that flail will be bobbing up and down as tractor moves forward. 
The 2.5 acre moor field is gonna take a while, but I'm in no rush - it is a long term (spare time, minimal cost) project! 
« Last Edit: July 18, 2017, 03:51:35 pm by arobwk »

 

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