Flail Mowers: Everything You Need to Know

Recently, a customer informed us that after many years he was looking to substitute an old flail topper for something new. He’d noticed our flail mowers for sale and wanted some information so that he could decide on whether he should invest in a flail mower and what were the advantages over a flail topper. We said to him that over the years, we’ve had a lot of clients decide to invest in a flail mower. Some said that after years of working a flail topper that the cut was a bit too long. We informed them that with a flail mower the grass gets sliced numerous times and this breaks it down much quicker.

What is a Flail Mower?

A flail mower is a kind of powered garden/agricultural machinery, which is used to dispense with heavier grass/scrub which a regular lawn mower could not cope with. Some more modest models are self-powered, but commonly they are PTO driven compact tractor implements, which can attach to the three-point hitches located on the rear of most compact tractors. This type of flail mower is best used to give a rough cut to taller grass where the connection with loose debris may be likely such as roadsides.

The flail mower gets its title from the use of flails assigned to its rotating horizontal drum (also called tube, rotor, or axle). Many compact tractor implement companies also refer to the flails as knives or blades. The lines of flails are usually staggered to give a complete cut. The flails are attached to the drum with chain links or brackets, depending on the producer. The rotating drum is parallel to the axle of the tractor. The PTO driveshaft along the tractor's axis must make a right angle through the use of a gearbox in order to carry its rotational energy to the drum. As the drum turns, centrifugal force pushes the flails out.

Regular flails are formed like an extruded "T" or "Y" and a chain connects to the bottom. There are also fashionable flails with various shapes for shredding larger brush and others that give a smooth, finish cut.

If a flail hits an immovable object, it simply jumps off. Other rotary type mowers have an inclination to grab and throw the object outside of the mower deck if its tiny enough. This fact makes the flail mower best suited for spaces where thrown objects would cause harm.

Flail mowers may also be applied in a more or less upright position for trimming the sides of hedges. They are often called hedge cutters for sale (or sometimes also compact tractor hedge trimmers) then.

A Wide Range of Flail Mowers

Beckside Machinery are proud to stock the UK’s most comprehensive range of flail mowers for sale, which are subdivided into the following categories:

We have multiple flail mowers for sale in each category to suit your specific requirements. All variants can be viewed from our Flail Mower page. Please contact our team here or call us on 01673 828 965 if you want any help finding the right flail mower for you.