Flail Mower on Kubota KX71-3

[SalmonShark]

So I am looking into purchasing a flail mower for my KX71-3.

This is the one I am thinking about: http://www.usmower.com/products/excavator/ex30/ex30.html
It's what my Kubota dealer sells.

Who has run a flail on their mini-ex?
What's the maintenance on them generally?
Can you manually sharpen the knives or do they have to be replaced?
What's the average life span for knives assuming you are careful not to hit rocks and such?

Looking for anyone that has experience with one.

I have 10+ acres on a hillside and want to be able to maintain the areas between my roads going downhill where no mower can go. This looks the be the best attachment for something like this. My mini is already plumbed for the auger I have, so I should be good to go for the flail.

Thanks!
SalmonShark

 

[ak_snowbear]

The folks at US Mower are great and have always done good by us. We've had the 40 for five years and work it very hard. In fact we just brought it home from working 14 days straight. We usually replace the blades once a season. They are only like 7$ each. We bring a genny and grinder for sharpening in the field. We experience more damage from cutting heavy brush than hitting rocks. These things work on inertia. The back sides of the blades bang into each other when it encounters something they wont cut. Ruins the other cutting edge but we are used to that. The real damage comes from the stress to the ears that the blades are bolted to. We have rewelded most of them and check them all real good every winter. We also tend to push slash with the end more than we should. This caused cracks in the frame. You can see the added 'V' reinforcement we added in the picture. One other tip for the bolts that hold the blades, either peen the thread or spot weld the thread. They will eventually work loose if you don't

Our only b1tch is with Bobcat. The biggest problem is loosing aux hydraulic flow when any of the excavator functions are used. The excavators hydraulics are configured so that the excavator functions, slew, extend, etc. take priority over the aux circuit. As soon as you move the mower slows. The faster you move the more it slows. It takes a fine touch to balance the two. This is how the blades get damaged the most. Like when slewing while cutting, the mower looses too much power to cut and the blades collide. Prior to delivery they promised that this would not be the case. We took it to the shop at least six times, fought with them for a year and gave up. We will never buy another piece of equipment from bobcat.

 

[sheepfoot]

We run a us mower EX40 on a E50 bobcat with a long stick along with a rotary mower deck. Both have done well in the different cutting areas we work. The ex40 is heavy when stretched out with the long stick and you have to be careful of the tip factor. It shreds like above a lot of stubble and we sometimes put the bush hog deck on to clean it up rather than grinding the flails in the ground. Other than some touch up on the blades and grease 2 times a day it has been a supper unit. I would spend the money to put a cage/screen over the windshield since it will throw limbs/ rocks/ you name it will come at you in the cab bouncing off other brush or while chipping it down.
We are also looking at two other hyd cutters for our needs due to the locations we work around that requires material to be controlled discharged (huge safety issues) in row's that are overgrown between homes.

 

[pondo]

Hey guys.
AK_snowbear sorry to local bobcat drop ball on promise/service .
what model you running?

How is hydraulic temperature running flail mower? I was thinking might need 2ndary cooler? Or do u only run in cool weather?

 

[ak_snowbear]

Hey guys.
AK_snowbear sorry to local bobcat drop ball on promise/service .
what model you running?

How is hydraulic temperature running flail mower? I was thinking might need 2ndary cooler? Or do u only run in cool weather?

Hey Pondo, thanx. We have the 337 w/long arm.

We only cut in summer, snows to deep in winter and we think 70f is hot )) We only have the factory cooler. The only time we have temp problems is when debris plug the rad. The cutter puts a lot of stuff in the air and some gets drawn into the engine compartment. Not much of a problem in the spring but can be very bad in the fall. We made a little blower device that uses 1/4" copper tube that can be poked into the spaces between the rad, hyd cooler, AC unit.

 

[ValleyFirewood]

Your on here too?! haha.

The folks at US Mower are great and have always done good by us. We've had the 40 for five years and work it very hard. In fact we just brought it home from working 14 days straight. We usually replace the blades once a season. They are only like 7$ each. We bring a genny and grinder for sharpening in the field. We experience more damage from cutting heavy brush than hitting rocks. These things work on inertia. The back sides of the blades bang into each other when it encounters something they wont cut. Ruins the other cutting edge but we are used to that. The real damage comes from the stress to the ears that the blades are bolted to. We have rewelded most of them and check them all real good every winter. We also tend to push slash with the end more than we should. This caused cracks in the frame. You can see the added 'V' reinforcement we added in the picture. One other tip for the bolts that hold the blades, either peen the thread or spot weld the thread. They will eventually work loose if you don't

Our only b1tch is with Bobcat. The biggest problem is loosing aux hydraulic flow when any of the excavator functions are used. The excavators hydraulics are configured so that the excavator functions, slew, extend, etc. take priority over the aux circuit. As soon as you move the mower slows. The faster you move the more it slows. It takes a fine touch to balance the two. This is how the blades get damaged the most. Like when slewing while cutting, the mower looses too much power to cut and the blades collide. Prior to delivery they promised that this would not be the case. We took it to the shop at least six times, fought with them for a year and gave up. We will never buy another piece of equipment from bobcat.

 

[tays87]

I have a lipa (Italian) TLBE 90 flail mower (36") with hammers rather than y blades running on a Hitachi zx30 u2 (john deere or airman) and it runs it with no problems. I had to reduce the flow to slow the spindle speed back to manufactures specs. It was doing about 3200 rpm and should be doing 2000 rpm. It would go through a 5" or a group of 3 or 4" trees with no problems or slowing down. it now slows a little that I have reduced the flow when other functions are used but is very usable.

 

[cherokee101]

Hello: A lot of questions but I'd appreciate your reply and help.

I see you have a LIPA TLBE90. These have been in Australia for a day or two and they are trying to penetrate the US market. Somebody needs to get some price competition in here on these units. How is your machine holding up? Is there any balance problem? Do you use the hammer knives? I see you are running it with a ZX30 and I think the specs say that machine puts out about 40 lpm for the auxiliary pump. Is that about correct? Do you have plenty of power? Is the motor specific for that machine? Can you tell me the model number for the motor? Lipa does not provide much information and we don't have dealers here. I'm thinking of building a unit out of a chinese flail mower. You are actually cutting 5" trees?

I have a lipa (Italian) TLBE 90 flail mower (36") with hammers rather than y blades running on a Hitachi zx30 u2 (john deere or airman) and it runs it with no problems. I had to reduce the flow to slow the spindle speed back to manufactures specs. It was doing about 3200 rpm and should be doing 2000 rpm. It would go through a 5" or a group of 3 or 4" trees with no problems or slowing down. it now slows a little that I have reduced the flow when other functions are used but is very usable.

 

[AT&SW]

We have recently bought an ex 30 and are running it on a bobcat 435 short stick. Have not experienced any problems with it the machine will definitely warm up. Do not feel any balance issues but in heavy material it will bog the head down. The knives have been very durable for us.

 

[Jim Dandy]

My buddy just bought one and put it on his JD 50. I used it for 2 days. His was a 30 I think. It did good up to 2" in diameter after that I did not think it was very productive. After using it I don't think I would buy one. Maybe I was expecting too much.

 

[KSSS]

I have a Rockhound 30HD on a Takeuchi TB153FR 2012 model. The excavator does a good job running the head. Never gets hot, puts 3K psi to the head. I cut willows almost exclusively. The US Mower and Rockhound are similar, I just thought I was getting a little more for my money with Rockhound. Rockhound recently released for order a fixed tooth grinder/mulcher for a mini ex. I got an email on it but I cant get a link to work on here. I am planning on ordering one. They claim and show video of it grinding an 8" log. I think it would be more efficient at certain types of jobs. Its not cheap though.

The key I think to success with flail mowers or grinder/mulcher is to remember that the mini excavators don't have the hyd. hp that skid steers or other carriers have. So while its always tempting to get the biggest attachment that will fit on your machine, your happiness with the attachments performance is tied to how much power you have per tooth or per flail knife, the more teeth on the attachment the less the hp power per tooth. So in easy applications the bigger attachment means you get done sooner, but in tough conditions the attachment can easily get overwhelmed with the limited power produced by a mini ex.

Lastly you really need to really look at the psi and gpm of the excavator and make sure that the attachment will work with your excavator spec. Some excavators r have really poor aux. flow specs (like my previous 2007 Takeuchi TB153). Takeuchi fixed this issue with the 2012 model but you need to be aware of what the numbers are and what they mean to attachment performance.