What is a Flail Mower?

Flail mowers are not for your soft and supple lawn grass – they are designed to work at harder soils and heavier scrubs. Flail mowers get their name from using flails; knife-like or blade-like metal pieces, attached to a horizontal drum that rotates to cut the grass. These are linked to the rotating drum of the tractor via chains or brackets. 

Are you wondering why the tractor came into this context? It is because the flail mowers are most often Power Take-Off driven and very occasionally is manufactured to work without a running engine. Therefore, flail mowers require a power source, most often a tractor, to mow the grass and is actively categorized as agricultural equipment.

How does a Flail Mower Work?

To understand how a PTO driven flail mower works, have a look: 

• The rotating horizontal drum of the tractor, containing the flails, is always in parallel to the axle of the vehicle
• The flails are placed wide across the drum to provide a complete cut of the grass
• The running engine channels rotational power to the rotating drum
• Once the drum rotates, the centrifugal energy shove the flails outward, shearing the bushes
• If the flail encounters an unyielding obstacle during its course of action, it simply bounces back instead of throwing the object out of the mower deck. This keeps flying debris minimal. 

Perks of Using Flail Mowers

Flail mowers have an upper hand to all other rotatory mowers. As they are used as agricultural equipment, they are specialized for several different functions. 

1. They are used to trim bushes, cut the shrubs, and are also usable for chopping banks. The versatility makes them popular in the maintenance departments, and for mowing landscapes. 
2. They don’t throw away immovable objects or bump into bricks as other mowers do. Instead, thanks to the chains linked, they rebound and deflect the impact. This keeps their repairing cost to a minimum. Flail mowers work for longer without being replaced now and then. 
3. If a flail does shatter or tear, the entire blade does not need replacing. You can change one small, readily available flail very easily. 
4. The flail mowers are sturdy, firm, and strong. They can clear bushes that are more than 2 inches thick and long. They are best for vines and scrappy brushes. 
5. The cut hedges remain under the mower for a longer time, shredding it to fine clippings that are evenly dispersed on the land. This inhibits regrowth and piling of the clippings on the soil. 

Flail mowers are often also called “hedge cutters,” “flail mulchers,” “flail shredders” and “flail choppers.” Unlike other rotatory mowers, there is a minimum chance of injury from flying debris due to the specialized design of flail mowers. Therefore, if you wish to trim scrappy bushes, hedges, and shrubbery to fine clippings that spread evenly on the ground, flail mowers are the perfect cutters.