Titan Attachments 57" Ditch/Bank Flail Mower failure.

[mcmxi]

I got around to trying a repair on one of the flail hammers this weekend. I used some 7018 remnants from another welding project. I didn't do a great job but if it works, it works. It took about 10 minutes to complete this repair, maybe less. I'll be using the flail this week to cut down about 10 acres of alphalpa before plowing. Not much of a test but there you go.

I also replaced the steel "flap" support rod that was damaged during shipping, pressure washed the underside of the flail, sharpened the other 23 hammers and greased all 12 zerks locations. I continue to be impressed by the quality of this Del Morino flail.

 

[nebsteror]

Hey, we have the same flail and almost the same tractor.

How did you sharpen your other 23 blades?

I don't have the repair skills you do, so I'm thinking I'll have to shell out $30/blade to replace some of mine that I mowed rocks with. (I've mostly finished mowing up the rocks, so the next set should last a lot longer.)

Where did you order, or how did you fabricate, your replacement flapper steel rod? I am finding that there is a bit of a design flaw/motion issue. If the mower is in the 90-degree rotated, vertical position, and you bring it back down too quickly, sometimes one of the flaps gets caught on one of the arms and then the rod gets bent almost instantly. I've done it twice now!

 

[mcmxi]

Hey, we have the same flail and almost the same tractor.

How did you sharpen your other 23 blades?

I don't have the repair skills you do, so I'm thinking I'll have to shell out $30/blade to replace some of mine that I mowed rocks with. (I've mostly finished mowing up the rocks, so the next set should last a lot longer.)

Where did you order, or how did you fabricate, your replacement flapper steel rod? I am finding that there is a bit of a design flaw/motion issue. If the mower is in the 90-degree rotated, vertical position, and you bring it back down too quickly, sometimes one of the flaps gets caught on one of the arms and then the rod gets bent almost instantly. I've done it twice now!

Those hammer blades are getting quite expensive so I'm trying to make the ones I have last as long as possible. I rotate the cutting head to the vertical position and dress the hammer edges using an angle grinder with a flap disc or similar. It's really quick and kind of easy. Any really bad hammers get 7018 rod and grinder treatment. More work but worth the time and effort I think.

I straightened the bent rod as best I could but Courtney at GoodWorksTractors shipped me a new rod eventually. I haven't experienced the issue you mention with a hammer getting caught up on a flap and bending the rod, but then again I haven't ran the flail in the vertical position since I don't have hedgerows or similar to cut back.

 

[nebsteror]

Those hammer blades are getting quite expensive so I'm trying to make the ones I have last as long as possible. I rotate the cutting head to the vertical position and dress the hammer edges using an angle grinder with a flap disc or similar. It's really quick and kind of easy. Any really bad hammers get 7018 rod and grinder treatment. More work but worth the time and effort I think.

I straightened the bent rod as best I could but Courtney at GoodWorksTractors shipped me a new rod eventually. I haven't experienced the issue you mention with a hammer getting caught up on a flap and bending the rod, but then again I haven't ran the flail in the vertical position since I don't have hedgerows or similar to cut back.

Thanks, yeah they sure are expensive! I will try the grinder approach on a few of them.

The issue with the flaps catching isn't that they get caught on a hammer, they just get caught moving slowly/on themselves a little, and with the speed the hydraulic can level out the mower (I need a flow restrictor!), it can come down before the flaps are "ready" and hanging vertically again. It's something to watch carefully on the rare occasion when we do bring this flail vertical for maintenance... just lower it slowly and ensure the flaps are leveling out before committing the whole range of travel.

I've put in a request for yet another rod!