L3800 HST and Caroni 73" Flail Mower

[Who is John Galt]

OK Fellers, I know some of you have been curiously awaiting my experiences with my Caroni flail mower. I will be removing the backhoe and installing the flail mower today. I got delayed because I had to order a new cross for one of the PTO shaft u-joints and the PTO shield parts for the tractor end. Because it is a Eurocarden PTO shaft it took some research to find the parts and then to figure out how to get the shield parts to go together correctly . . I got the cross and the 3 parts that make up the shield from AgriSupply. Everything was reasonably priced, the cross was $24 plus shipping and the 3 parts that make up the tractor end PTO shield cost less than to ship them.

Anyway, this is gonna be a bunch of "firsts" for me; removing the backhoe, installing all the 3-point hitch components, hooking up the mower and shortening the PTO shaft, prolly take me all day . . being an engineer, I tend to overthink everything and am very meticulous . . it's a curse I have to live with (along with being a Scot).

I will be posting pics along the way today so keep checking back. Probably won't get to try the mower out till tomorrow. I hope to post up some video of it in operation.

 

[gpreuss]

I'll be waiting. And don't be so apologetic - many of the Scots I've known were engineers.. Seems to be a national trait.

 

[Who is John Galt]

OK . . it was a long day . . got the backhoe off . .







Got the Caroni flail mower on . .







I tried a test cut on the front yard to see where things were at . . roller and skids were set to their lowest settings . . . as you can see it was cutting maybe a 1/4" - 1/2" into the turf . .





So I adjusted the roller and skids down two bolt holes. (about 3") then I tried it out in the field behind the house. Worked good in 12" - 18" hay. One thing became immediately clear . . the mower needs to be tilted backwards a bit so that the skids do not make little ruts in the turf. According to the manual (sorta like those Chinese translated manuals . . pretty pathetic) the skids should be adjusted along with the roller height . . . if the mower has a slight backwards tilt then the skids will seldom contact the ground. I was unable to adjust the top link to accomplish this. So I put on my engineering hat to figure out why. It seems that Caroni does not follow the North American standard for the height of the center 3 point attachment point. The Caroni is at least 4 inches higher. So my top link from Kubota is maxed out on length and the flail mower is pretty much level. Tomorrow I will move the skids up one bolt hole so they will not contact the ground unless it is fairly uneven, The bulk of the weight will be on the rear roller. If I can find a slightly longer top link (only need about 3 or 4 inches) then I think I wil be at a good compromise.

I will keep y'all posted . .

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

On the Fail move the top link to the bottom hole, and on the tractor move it to the top hole.

 

[quazz]

You live in nice country.

I am interested to see the pictures of the mower in action.

The backhoe looks like it should be harder to get off and on but it is very simple isn't it.

 

[Who is John Galt]

On the Fail move the top link to the bottom hole, and on the tractor move it to the top hole.

Thanks Wolfman . . I currently have the link in the bottom (slotted) hole on the mower and in the bottom hole on the tractor. The Kubota manual says to use the bottom hole for a rear mower but that does not take into acount that the Caroni center attachment point is taller that the North America standard. I will move it to the top hole this AM and see how that works out.

 

[gpreuss]

More often than not, I just use a piece of chain and a couple of shackles for the top link, with a bit of slack. That way the mower rides between the lift arms and rear roller, but you can still pick the mower up. Most of the newer brush hogs have an articulating top link connection that allows for slack. With the top link rigid the tail wheel or roller is forcing the 3ph to move up and down to maintain the mower level, rather than having it follow the terrain. Before I went to chain, it bent up the mower 3 point connections.

 

[Who is John Galt]

What a long day, just got back home . . the property is 17 miles SW of here. Drove the tractor there.

Did not get video, maybe tomorrow . . . This flail mower is the Schiznit, the Cat's Meow, The Bee's Knees, the Mutt's Nuts . . As my Gramps used to say; " slicker than t*ts on a mudworm" . .

The L3800 HST hardly even noticed that it was there. Only on some of the larger brush . . 1 1/2" did it drop a couple hundred RPM. Stalled the tractor once when it yanked a dead brush stump out of the ground and wound it up in the rotor. Took me 5 minutes to clear it. Ran for 5 hour at 2400 RPM (540 PTO RPM) and used a little less than 1/2 tank diesel (according to the gauge). I ran all day in medium range about 1/4 - 1/2 speed.

I am very pleased. The mower gearbox and belt cover ran hot, The belt cover was uncomfortably hot (not blistering) the gearbox was hot but not uncomfortably hot. According to what other users are saying over on TBN, this is normal. The Caroni does appear to be hard on the drive belts . . but you can actually ~feel~ the shock absorbing nature of the belts when it starts to work hard or encounters a stump, etc . . . I would rather replace a $30 set of belts than a gearbox . . I will check the belts and grease all the zerks tomorrow before another days work. Did I say the manual is a poor translation from Italian and basically SUCKS??

MUCH quieter than a rotary cutter . . maybe 1/2 . . and no missiles launched into low earth orbit out from under the mower . .

Mrs Who is John Galt snapped a couple pics when she came tp help out . .



There is a 2 acre Verizon cell site on our 54 acre property. They have an easement for the access road, it's a good deal . . it is basically a 2400' driveway on our property that they maintain . .



I will post more and better pics tomorrow . .

 

[Who is John Galt]

More often than not, I just use a piece of chain and a couple of shackles for the top link, with a bit of slack. That way the mower rides between the lift arms and rear roller, but you can still pick the mower up. Most of the newer brush hogs have an articulating top link connection that allows for slack. With the top link rigid the tail wheel or roller is forcing the 3ph to move up and down to maintain the mower level, rather than having it follow the terrain. Before I went to chain, it bent up the mower 3 point connections.

gpreuss, the Caroni has two top attachment points, one is just a hole . . the other is about a 4" slot . . so it sounds like that is the same thing you are referring to. FWIW I was hooked up to the hole, not the slot. I did not see any evidence of binding. Overall, everything seems to be working well so far . .

 

[gpreuss]

If that is a picture of how it mows, it is Terrific!!

 

[Who is John Galt]

If that is a picture of how it mows, it is Terrific!!

gpreuss, I will post some better pics tomorrow. You ain't seen nuthin' . . it is impressive. It is like a brush hog but almost a finish mower. It reduces 90% 0f the brush to . . mulch . .

 

[MagKarl]

That's an impressive setup you've got there, nice new gear for sure.

On the top link, it's nice to have the all three links roughly the same length and parallel so that the implement doesn't tilt too much when you make a lift adjustment.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

So safe to say I didn't steer you down the wrong road?

 

[Who is John Galt]

So safe to say I didn't steer you down the wrong road?

Yes Sir!! So far I am very happy.

 

[Who is John Galt]

OK, it's 8:15 PM, I'm exhausted, and I'm on my second Margarita . . .

I spent most of the day burning brush, I had 5 HUGE brush piles scattered over about 2 acres . . rained last night so it was sumbitch to get one of them lit up this morning. So after trying unsuccessfully with about a quart of K1 Kero to get her going . . I collected some relatively dry dead logs from in the woods . . put them in the pile after soaking them with a couple quarts of diesel, waited about 10 minutes then WOOSH . . I had me a proper brush pile on fire . . Once I got it going I was manually ( just because I'm an engineer don't mean I'm smart . . I just test well . . ) dragging brush from the other 2 closest piles to this one (didna' want to be multi-tasking on multiple burn piles) . . then I had a brain-swarm!! I have a tractor with a loader on it ~right - over - there~ . . So . .I got behind the nearest brush pile, put the bucket in float level to the ground and PUSHED that pile (taller than me on the tractor) to the burn pile . . pushed that bugger right into the fire . . let that one burn down a bit then on to the next one . . a couple of them were like herding cats to get them to the burn pile . . all the more reason to justify that third function kit and a brush grapple soon . . But got all the brush burned.

So anyway, I took a couple pics and a couple videos . . forgive the video quality . . I had a hard enough time getting the Canon still camera into movie mode . . unfortunately it was in the lowest quality video mode. I promise I will get better video later this week.


A good idea of before and after . . and this is the easy stuff . .



More before and after, easy stuff.

 

[MagKarl]

I find mowing to be pretty satisfying work. Easy to see how much you've done, and it always looks way better once it's done.

 

[gpreuss]

Thanks for the photos! It is a more "finished" look than the brush hog does. So now I'm watching CL for a good deal...

 

[Who is John Galt]

Well I have about 15 hrs of hard working on the Caroni. The belts have held up great! I was working her pretty hard yesterday, being a little more aggressive with the brush I was expecting her to eat . . I was rolling slowly over a medium sized Hawthorne (Thorn Apple) . . 4' tall and maybe 1" plus diameter, but they kinda sprout in multiples . . this one bunch had three or four .. the Caroni chopped it up fine but immediately after I noticed a vibration in the mower. Thinking that something had wrapped around the rotor (happened several times over the last couple of days) I raised the mower and shut the tractor down to take a look . . nothing wrapped around the rotor but I did notice several shackles (clevis's) broken and some blades missing. So I called it a day and drove the tractor home so I could get the mower in the air and assess the damage, and order parts.

Got her home, off the three point then using the hooks on the bucket with a chain, got the mower set up on the rear edge. Found that I had four broken shackles and eight blades missing. Went back to the property and found 4 blades right near where the vibration started. So I'm thinking I shed the other blades earlier in the day but did not notice until I had the vibration. The broken shackles were all in the center of the rotor.

I was working the Caroni pretty hard and I think I found the limits. So I will be backing off. Most of the heavy brush whacking is done, now it will be pretty much just a mower.

The bad news is that I could not find any clevis' that would work except the Caroni clevis' from Agri Supply at $6.99 each . . . ouch. I ordered 10. I did order blades from Flailmaster in Murfreesboro TN at 1/4 the cost of the Caroni blades.

http://flailmaster.com/

 

[Who is John Galt]

OK, while waiting for replacement blades and clevis' I removed and sharpened all the blades on the mower, put the blades in a vice and used a 6" hand grinder. Then I painted them sumbitches bright yellow . . so I can find them if/when the clevis' fail again . . . I love it when a plan comes together!!!! Somebody Stop Me!!

 

[ShaunRH]

OK, while waiting for replacement blades and clevis' I removed and sharpened all the blades on the mower, put the blades in a vice and used a 6" hand grinder. Then I painted them sumbitches bright yellow . . so I can find them if/when the clevis' fail again . . . I love it when a plan comes together!!!! Somebody Stop Me!!

Sounds like it cuts bonzo style, I like it!

Any bets as to how long anyone thinks that yellow paint will be on those blades?

Maybe you could hook up some magnets on the back of the mower to grab any materials that fly off!

Most I've ever tackled with my rotary is about ½" mesquite saplings...