Skid Steer Flail Mower (feedback wanted)

[SD51555]

Alright gang, new idea on the table. My brother has a Cat 246C skid steer. I've verified this machine has the hydraulic output to run this mower, and the 68" mower will pretty much cover the tracks. Might have to cheat over one way a few inches just in case.

Anyway, this is a significantly more affordable hydraulic flail mower than the very few other options I saw on the web. Can any of you machinery guys pick apart why this might be either a poor quality machine, or a lighter duty machine? For my purposes, this will not be a demolition mower that will hit stumps and rocks and 3" oak trees. This will be for smooth land high volume cover crop or canary grass mowing at most. This would be a cadillac mower for my purposes, but my brother may be able to get some side work to help buy down the cost of this mower.

What do you think of this?

Hydraulic Skid Steer Flail Mower Attachment | Titan Attachments

The Hydraulic Skid Steer Flail Mower is ready to help you maintain your land at a wallet-friendly price.

palletforks.com

 

[jsasker007]

Looks like a decent flail. Mine is pto driven on my tractor so it's apples to oranges there. I couldn't find anywhere that states what the horsepower range is for the mower? Maybe with hydraulic it doesn't matter? With pto driven you want to stay within the hp ratings or you risk putting too much torque into a mower that maybe can't hold up to the extra power or not enough hp to turn it in more severe cutting situations. If you machine has the flow capability you should be alright. Especially if you don't plan to push it's limits. Too bad you couldn't try it before you buy it just to be sure. Anywhere you could rent one for a day just to try it out?

 

[jsasker007]

Do you get an option on the style of hammers?

 

[jsasker007]

When they brag about mulching 3" material they are not talking about hardwoods. Maple or popple and you wouldn't want to that every day. You never want to lift it very high while it turning and if you do raise it up have it tilted so anything flying out of it can't come back at you. I used a rotary mower on a skid steer years ago and that one had a chain on it to limit how high you could raise it. I don't think you could raise it more than about 10" before the chain would stop it. If you can see the hammers turning while your running it you're doing something wrong.

 

[jsasker007]

I guess I mis-spoke about the "hammers" The solid flat cutters are hammers and the "Y" is a cutting blade. I have the "y" blades and love em. Don't know which would be best for mainly mowing. You'll be addicted to all the stuff you can clear out and maintain with a flail mower.

 

[SD51555]

 

[Foggy47]

Pretty sure you would be happy here. Flail mowers are the real deal.

 

[hillrunner]

I don't have any advice but I'll be very interested in your results if you get one. I've owned an HD rotary mower for a skid loader before. It was great for small trees but it kind of sucked cutting grass.

 

[SD51555]

I watched a shit ton of review videos on titan mowers last night. The feeling I got from all of them is they are good mowers, but they are light duty. Like anything, these machines have enough power to destroy themselves. The iron isn’t very thick anywhere on the machine so a guy would need to be mindful of not twisting it too much.

Seen lots of operators trying to side shift with it on the ground and you could just see the wear parts crying. Thankfully, the skid flail doesn’t have side shift or long connections like a 3pt to bend and twist. It’s held nice and tight to the machine.

I think if a guy stayed up on maintenance, and stayed out of rocks and demolition work, this mower would go the distance.


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[Foggy47]

I watched a shit ton of review videos on titan mowers last night. The feeling I got from all of them is they are good mowers, but they are light duty. Like anything, these machines have enough power to destroy themselves. The iron isn’t very thick anywhere on the machine so a guy would need to be mindful of not twisting it too much.

Seen lots of operators trying to side shift with it on the ground and you could just see the wear parts crying. Thankfully, the skid flail doesn’t have side shift or long connections like a 3pt to bend and twist. It’s held nice and tight to the machine.

I think if a guy stayed up on maintenance, and stayed out of rocks and demolition work, this mower would go the distance.


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^ That's what you said about the front mounted ATV flail mower. (was that too brutal?) grin.

Not sure what the price for a hydraulic powered flail mower is? Lots more than a PTO driven flail I assume.

 

[Tree Spud]

I watched a shit ton of review videos on titan mowers last night. The feeling I got from all of them is they are good mowers, but they are light duty. Like anything, these machines have enough power to destroy themselves. The iron isn’t very thick anywhere on the machine so a guy would need to be mindful of not twisting it too much.

Seen lots of operators trying to side shift with it on the ground and you could just see the wear parts crying. Thankfully, the skid flail doesn’t have side shift or long connections like a 3pt to bend and twist. It’s held nice and tight to the machine.

I think if a guy stayed up on maintenance, and stayed out of rocks and demolition work, this mower would go the distance.


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SD ... I am by no means knowledgeable about flail mowers, but worked with a lot of industrial welded components when I was running my company. The fabrication did look "light duty" as you stated. Didn't see any gusseted areas where they would be continual stress. Maybe not an issue for how it's supposed to be used, but worth noting when comparing with other designs.

 

[SD51555]

^ That's what you said about the front mounted ATV flail mower. (was that too brutal?) grin.

Not sure what the price for a hydraulic powered flail mower is? Lots more than a PTO driven flail I assume.

Not too brutal. I earned my experience with that one.

The 68" mower is $3900 before the rest of the costs. They've got a 36" side shift hydraulic skid flail as well. There's two upsides to that smaller one, one being cost, the other being the side shift. But seeing how much their three pt models bounces and flex, I'd image I'd bend the shit out of the side shift in no time.

 

[Foggy47]

Not too brutal. I earned my experience with that one.

The 68" mower is $3900 before the rest of the costs. They've got a 36" side shift hydraulic skid flail as well. There's two upsides to that smaller one, one being cost, the other being the side shift. But seeing how much their three pt models bounces and flex, I'd image I'd bend the shit out of the side shift in no time.

Couple thoughts. I have a side shift.....and I do like a few things about the side shift.....however going from center to side makes for a big difference in the way the machine tilts....due to weight. I need to compromise my set-up a bit when operating in different modes. I get along with it.....but having a tilt cylinder for the 3 point would be the real deal. I do like the side shift for some trail maintenance and around my buildings, etc.....but I could get along without the side shift too.

The width of cut is a factor.....but often I will either slow down or go faster depending on the load when cutting. Thick stuff takes some time to get through. So you can somewhat offset the width by the rate of travel with a smaller machine. My flail mower fits the width of my tractor tires....which is just about perfect for me.

 

[SD51555]

Couple thoughts. I have a side shift.....and I do like a few things about the side shift.....however going from center to side makes for a big difference in the way the machine tilts....due to weight. I need to compromise my set-up a bit when operating in different modes. I get along with it.....but having a tilt cylinder for the 3 point would be the real deal. I do like the side shift for some trail maintenance and around my buildings, etc.....but I could get along without the side shift too.

The width of cut is a factor.....but often I will either slow down or go faster depending on the load when cutting. Thick stuff takes some time to get through. So you can somewhat offset the width by the rate of travel with a smaller machine. My flail mower fits the width of my tractor tires....which is just about perfect for me.

That's the hardest part sizing these mowers. They seem to only be built to barely cover the tires. Anything wider and you're risking being underpowered. I figured I'm going to be mowing the highest volume of biomass these machines are made to handle, so I can't get loose with power. Having pushed the billy goat through something like this last year, I'm gonna need as much power as possible to be able to get stuff like this eaten up. I'm gonna try crimping this plot and my road plot to see how they respond. I'm going to try one next weekend to see what I get. If it lays down nicely, I'll do both.

 

[Foggy47]

Funny what takes power to cut. IME it takes far more power to cut heavy grass than brush. That grass can really gobble up the power requirements. The nice thing with hydrostatic drive is that it's easy to vary your travel speed based on the machine needs.

I'd want to cover my tire tracks for dang sure. You dont have such a large property to be too concerned with width.....IMO. You can get allot done in a few hours. I sometimes wish I had a small mower for around my building site. It's hard to use a big machine in tight quarters.

One thing I noticed is that the Titan mower I saw in a video.....had the motor and hose connections sticking out the front. You would think it would be vulnerable to damage hanging out there in the middle of nowhere. Seems to me I'd whack that with a tree before long.

1/4" steel in that Titan sounds pretty good. There are lots of Youtube reviews on those machines.