Hey thanks Ken. Happy it was helpful. Cheers!

Good morning and thanks very much Michael. I appreciate the kind feedback. Have a wonderful weekend- cheers!

Good morning and thanks very kindly AGT. I appreciate it. Have a wonderful week!

Hey good day Mean Joe. Thanks! Hope all is going well - have a good weekend!

Good day Paldeus! Thanks very kindly for the comment. I am happy you enjoy them. I try to keep them interesting and of value. Cheers and all the best this week!

Hey thanks O&D. I think I should have raised it higher when I first got it, but I have learned now so we will see how it does on the front lawn next . Cheers and all the best!

Thanks LA! It is an impressive unit for sure. The coffee's on my friend! Cheers!

Hey good morning Sean. Thanks! It is a pretty good all around unit I think. I have not used a brush hog yet but I would like to see what it is like. Have a great weekend and talk again soon!

Thanks Nate!!

@@GPOutdoors I have to tell you again about the Mods that Paul Short is making for the B2601. Today he posted a new HST filter mod for the bottom of the tractor. This is the third filter protector that he has developed and has for sale. I encourage you to go check it out on KZfaq. Cheers!

Hey good evening Nate! I follow them and saw the latest and greatest. Thanks - they are nice folks and enjoy their channel a lot. Cheers and all the best!

Good morning dp! Thanks for sharing this. I see that the unit has a row of chains hanging along the front edge to stop debris and I can see that if it is raised too much that the chains will also lift from the ground level. Great advice and very happy you were not injured badly. When I adjust the height later this week I will certainly keep that in mind and make sure not to extend the upper control arm too much. Thanks again! Have a good one.

Thanks for sharing. I always try to be careful, but often times I still manage to injure myself. Sometimes what learn the hard way can be embarrassing, but I would much rather learn from someone else's mishap rather then experience it myself.

a helmet is needed

Welcome and good morning Brenton in Australia! Thanks for tuning in and congrats on the new tractor! I am happy you joined and glad the videos are helpful. We are pretty fortunate to have some experienced tractor owners as well as new tractor owners subscribed and a lot of kind folks who share their advice and experience so always good to read the comments on the videos too, as I have learned a lot from these folks over the last 10 months and hopefully their experience will help you too. The flail mower seems to be a good unit for property that has different types of terrain - grass, brush, thicket, fields etc. Cheers and all the best to you both! Hope to hear from you from time to time and how things are going down under!

Hey congrats Bill! Hopefully watching the videos helped to show how it works on different types of property. Cheers and all the best!

Thanks very much Hank. I understand that as well. I know it drops the debris for sure. Also much easier to maneuver the tractor since it sits so tight in behind as opposed to my finish mower or a rotary mower which sticks out far behind the tractor.

LOL. Thanks HH. You probably noticed I started the rock wall along the edge of the forest behind me. I had to do something with all of them. LOL. Thanks kindly and always enjoy your comments. Cheers and all the best to you! See you on the next one!

GP Outdoors You can bet on it!! Peace.

12 feet? That's a big flail. Thanks Tomas. A lot of folks have said how much they think the flail is the way to go. Cheers and enjoy the week!

@@GPOutdoors two flails, one on the 3pt, one hydraulically mounted on the side. Total of 120 blades to sharpen. Always fun to replace.

You bet. I didn't do it much justice having it set so low, so kind of my fault but very impressed that it withstood the abuse so well. I will raise it up this week before cutting the grass. But I agree, it cuts really well overall. And you can certainly grind the hammers pretty easily so long as you don't alter the weight of them too much. Cheers and hope this helped a bit. Have a great week!

If one does grind the hammers to put a new edge on them one should use a wet grinder, ideally...hey wait that can be another vid...maintenance of the flail then people can have a clear understanding of what flail ownership entails

LOL! Good morning Joe. Always like the support. :)) Hey, I see you posted the next video in your tractor maintenance series last night so I am going to grab a fresh cup of coffee and sit back and enjoy it. Thanks again - have a wonderful week!

Hey thanks 10essee! 2 years? Now, that's what I call thinking ahead! LOL. Appreciate you sharing. It helps a lot. I am going to try cutting the lawn shortly to see how it does and will check on the skid shoes to see if or when it digs in. I have been doing the same thing for reverse. I am told we shouldn't mow in reverse so I lift , go backwards then drop as you do. We will see how it does on the front lawn. I find the same thing as you - it cuts the heavy stuff really well. Thanks again and all the best!

Being advertised as a non-throwing style mower, I'll have to say I was surprised at the debris exiting my mower, but only a few meters toward the rear. I did have a chip strike my face as I was looking backwards though. Safety glasses are always a must!

10essee, I was thinking the same thing about a week ago recognizing this unit is tearing up a lot of debris and hitting rocks along the way. Although it has kept things down , every time I hear it hit a rock , I immediately turn my head away by reflex. You never know. I think safety glasses makes sense. Better safe then sorry. Thanks for sharing. Safety glasses from now on. Thanks my friend! Some good advice for all. :)

Oh man, I just read dp pmm's comment, hit in the head with a hammer sounds no fun at all. For the record I set my unit to the highest setting (4 inches?), so perhaps that is why I have more than expected debris emission. My safety glasses double as sun glasses, but I should probably toss a cleared lensed pair in my attached tool box for extreme shade or after sunset work... One last thing, my unit has two holes for the top link, the top one is just a hole, but the bottom one is slotted to allow the unit to follow the ground contour. Does the BECO have that?

Yes he made a great point there. So definitely need to be mindful of lifting the front too high. Good question about the second hole. Yes it has one and I didn't realize it but I think you might be right. It might be for that reason. I will check it out. Thanks 10!

Good stuff! I was pretty surprised at how well it worked. Kind of wish I had kept it now. Thanks again and all the best out there!

LOL! Thanks Bill. A quick suggestion for you to consider: When you get it, put it on the tractor and 1) extend your top link all the way out (many subs mentioned that it works best if the unit is slightly tilted backwards), it does. 2) check to make sure the skid shoes are not rubbing on the ground and adjust as needed, 3) check height of hammers from the ground and adjust the roller height to give you the cutting height you want, 4) don't forget to cut your PTO shaft to length before attaching it and running the PTO drive ( there is a little instruction booklet), and 5) when you start cutting you will know how fast or slow you should go based on the sound from the mower. It runs smooth and consistent but if you start cutting thick stuff while driving too fast, you will hear the change in sound and know to slow down. Hard to explain, but you will see what I mean. Cheers and all the best!

All noted GP. Thanks for the tips. I’m only a year into tractor ownership so any advice is welcome.

Morning Dave! Good call. I do the same but hoping after i clear most of the bigger rocks then I can lower it a little. Enjoy the weekend!

Thanks for the good advice Don. I am happy with it for sure, but when it comes to cutting my lawn, I need it a little higher for sure. I will definitely catch up with Kevin and Dave to ask for their suggestions. Thanks for sharing your advice, as always. Cheers and all the best this week!

GP Outdoors: There are 2 types of flail mowers as well. A coarse and fine cut. Another point to bring up is the different blade tip speed between mowers. Finish mowers usually have blade tip speed above 10,000 fps. Whereas rotary mowers are half that.

Thanks for the info Andrew. In this case would the knives provide the "fine" cut and the hammers I put on it provide the "coarse" cut option?

GP Outdoors, yeah. The more knives (as I understand) are considered fine cut. The hammers would be the coarse cut. I have the hammers on my flail. And it makes fields look "better manicured". Might want to lengthen the top link a bit to ride more on the roller and keep the skid plates off the ground. Or adjust the skid plates down to keep the knives out of the dirt.

Thanks. Appreciate the help from both of you. I am going to adjust it before I try cutting the front lawn so stay tuned!

Hey good day. Thanks for the good questions. I never felt underpowered with it at all to be honest. I have never tried the FHM but also might offer you include the Del Morino flails as well ( Neil Messicks did some good videos on them) and they look very well engineered and built. When I buy anything for the tractor I also like to include service and parts availability in my research. I think sometimes paying a little more for something that you can more easily gets parts or service/warranty on sometimes is an important consideration. Also, if you are thinking about some of the offset models, pass them by your dealer before you buy. When you swing a heavy implement out to the sides of the 3 point hitch, it changes the weight and where energy or force is being applied/carried by the hitch. I almost tried one until I was told it would put too much strain on the 3 point of my B2601, because the weight was offset on the hitch far too much. Good luck with your search and decision. Flails are a great mower choice, I think, when you have brush and grass/lawn on the property. Plus I love the "striped" look it leaves when you cut the grass. All the best!

Thanks for the quick reply. I appreciate the advice. I agree that the offset versions appear a bit unstable on a small machine and probably generate a twist on the 3 point that it may not have been engineered to accommodate.

Thanks Michael. It is a powerful and capable unit for sure. Have a great week!

yeah my kubota case dealer sold 55 these beco mowers this year plus they were alot cheaper

Good morning and thanks Charles. Appreciate the insights and thoughts. Makes a lot of sense. Both points. Cheers and have a good week!

Hey thanks and good morning Ian. Yes, absolutely. I spoke with Kevin at farmer's and he said he can certainly grind them but not constantly. The rotor is weighted so if you grind enough off to change the weight of the hammer too much, it may impact the balance of the rotor. But for sure I could grind them a few times I think. Thanks - great suggestion !

LOL Terry! Too funny. Yup, good thing a couple of subs asked me to turn it over. I probably would have never changed it and kept on tilling! Cheers and thanks - have a good one!

Good morning Andrew. An excellent summary. Well said! Thanks very much for putting that together for folks. Cheers and have a great weekend!

@@GPOutdoors I forgot to add sickle bar mower & disc bine. These are for mowing grass that will be used for hay. Sickle bars can be used in VERY LITE/SMALL brush. Normally hang off the right side and has bars 5', 7', or 9'. Newer models can cut at 25-45° BELOW HORIZONTAL and upto 90° straight up. Disc bine is basically a swather used in farming. Keep the great videos coming.

so for clearing land out trails in wooded areas would you choose the flail or the bushhog?

Good morning and congrats on the new tractor Dre! It was a BECO brand, 48" - I got it from Farmer Equipment Sales here in Ontario - they only ship across Canada. The PTO HP on the B2601 is 19.6 HP. Good luck and all the best!

Good morning Ben. Thanks for the comment. Yes, my manual is similar. I think it's because of how the weight is distributed differently between the finish mower - which is pulled behind it on wheels and has a wider area that the weight is distributed over, versus the flail which has a concentrated weight and it rides on a roller and the 3 point. I have a 60" finish mower, as you probably saw and I used the 48" flail. It was heavy. I would recommend not getting anything bigger than the 48 inch for your 2650. Good luck and all the best!

Hey good morning Peter. It does work well for sure but GP's budget is all done for the foreseeable future so will enjoy it while I have it on loan. Thanks for saying hi. Have a wonderful week!

my kubota dealer sold 55 of these beco fail mowers this year

Morning Jackson. yes they sure are and very happy with the build of it. I have definitely had that unit set way too low - a lot of those hammers had earth caked all over them so it has been digging into the ground a lot. And the rocks don't help either. But nothing broken. I will adjust the height on it before I use it again so it will be cutting the vegetation instead of the ground. :)) I believe it is made in China. Have a good one and talk gain soon!

The reason for the spiral placement is to get complete cutting coverage while maintaining balance.

Makes sense. I've never ran one of these on my tractor so I don't know anything about them. Thanks for sharing!

Hey Leo, I will check into it and let you know.

Morning. with the B2601 I would not go any bigger than the 48" for sure. For most implements I go as wide as 60" but this unit is pretty heavy - the tractor pulls it great etc but when you lift it off the ground, you can feel the front end get light when you don't have the FEL on. Hope that helps. Cheers!

Hi Tazmo - congrats on the tractor! If you have a lot of area that needs a nice cut ( lawn) then, personally, I would go with the flail for sure, and ensure in really big rocky areas, you lift it up as you traverse it. If you have very little lawn area then personally, I would get a brush hog. It will do the job on fields, and thicket and brush, trails etc without the need for a groomed look. Neither one likes rocks.. :)) Good luck!

Good evening Gerrard! Thanks for the kind comment. Happy you asked. BETSTCO and BECO are not the same company actually. I have noticed the alot of different manufacturers seem to have very similar designs. The flail I was using is a 48" unit. It is rated for PTO HP of 16 -30HP so it worked great with the B2601 (19.5 PTO HP). Heavy unit as I recall ( I think around 470 lbs I think). I think if your tractor specs support a 53", then I would think you should be ok. Not sure how the higher PTO HP requirement would effect the quality. The BECO unit I had was equipped with a slip clutch if I remember correctly. I wish I could help further but good luck with it! Cheers!

@@GPOutdoors Thanks for the reply and your thoughts! I think I need to wait for them to get the 48" in stock that i'm sure will work well. Gerry

Hi Wayne. Congrats on the new equipment. The one I had came assembled. Sorry I could not assist. Good luck with it and hope you enjoy it!

Morning Darren. It works very well. There is another video ( can't remember the number of it now) where I cut my grass with it. My mistake was that I did not extend the upper control arm far enough. I learned as I used it, that the flail rests on the roller on the back so when you extend the upper control arm on your 3 point, it raises the mower, and when you shorten the upper control link, it lowers the mower. There are also 2 adjustment positions ( I believe) on the mower itself. i liked the flail mower very much but did not need both the flail and a finish mower and since most of my open area was grass, I went with the finish but if I had lots of areas with brush and thicket etc, then I would have chosen the flail for sure. Good luck and all the best!

Good morning Dustin. I would need the 60" for sure. The 2610 is about 55" wide so the mower would need to be wider. Also it has much more lift capacity on the 3 point than the old B2601. Thanks - great question!

Good day Cee. Yes it was my fault for sure. I didn't have it adjusted high enough, so it was cutting right down at ground level. Great mower - I enjoyed using it. Cheers and good luck!

i think they make a 53" flail to that needs 22 hp the 60" needs 24 hp the b2601 puts out 19.5 pto hp

I've 20hp at PTO and 48" flail is big enough , sometimes I have to slow down when growth is heavy. I definitely wouldn't want any larger than 48"

Good day Jeremy. Actually that makes sense so thanks. Yes, you can grind them but not a lot. The rotor is balanced based on the hammers and associated weight so you can certainly grind the burs etc off the end but if you continually grind them over and over and alter the weight too much, then that will throw off the balance on the rotor. But yes certainly can give them a grind now and then as I understand it. Thanks for the comments!

Just an additional note; when replacing hammers in flail mowers its highly recommended to do so "in pairs" ie: there are two 180 degrees apart on the shaft. This maintains the rotating mass in balance, otherwise an unbalanced shaft will quickly damaged the bearings.

Hi Andrew. Very sorry but I only had it for about 3 months ( it was on loan), so I can't help. Good luck!

LOL!

Good morning Gerry. I am not sure about DIY options but I know the folks at Farmer Equipment Sales sell a' ditch bank mower' which looks really neat. It is a flail mower with a hydraulic offset and would work perfectly for what you are describing. Not sure of the cost but at least it might be helpful to know there is an implement to do that. Good luck and all the best!

GP Outdoors Thanks for the info. I will look into it. I’ll bet it a little out of my price range but that is what I would need. Keep up the good videos. Appreciate the info you provide and the honesty that goes with it

Good morning Chuck. Thanks - I think that would have been best. Honestly, I was learning how to use it and I didn't realize I had it set so low. So before I used it on my front lawn, I had learned (from a few good folks like yourself) how to adjust it properly to raise the hammers up higher. Thanks again and have a good weekend!

Hey good evening Daniel! Thanks for the enquiry. Kevin and his dad (Dave) are really kind, down to earth folks - can't find someone better to deal with. I had the flail mower to test out for a summer - I loved it - I had the hammers on it ( I did several videos of it in different scenarios - forest trails, property and grass, saplings etc. It was a well built unit. I had the 48" as well. I am not familiar with your tractor but my tractor had 19.5 hP on the PTO (25 HP engine) and it ran great - I cannot remember what the minimum HP requirement is for the flail mower they have but I am sure they will tell you. I would have bought a flail but I have mainly grass and very little need to mow brush and thicket - otherwise I would for sure have the flail. Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions - Cheers!

@@GPOutdoors How did it cut your lawn compared to a finish mower, was there a huge difference?

Thank you for your input. I had only seen one of your videos on the Flail mower. I will check out the others. Thanks again, greatly appreciated.

Good day Ward, thanks for watching and for the question. They have a website by the same name ( farmer equipment sales dot com) but they do not ship to the US unfortunately. Only in Canada. Thanks again and all the best!

@@GPOutdoors That doesn't make us happy. HAHA

Hey good morning Ashton!

GP Outdoors. Good morning sir my sister are going back to middle school in 8th kind if nervous

GP Outdoors sorry ment sister and i

Going back to school each year always left me a little nervous too. But don't worry. Once you get back and get used to it again, it will be fine. And nice to have your sister at the same school too. Have a great week Ashton!

GP Outdoors thank you sir when can you do a live chat on youtube

Good morning Reg! I am not sure but if you go on the Farmer Equipment Sales website, they have all their pricing there which will give you an idea. Have a great week!

Well as long as it is informative, I personally wouldn't take offense. :)

Hey Rob. This site is for sharing and learning so I have no problem if it is, as 10essee mentioned, informative and a good clean respectful channel. Lots of families and kids watch this channel. However if you embed a URL in the comment, it will get blocked by the system so best to simply mention the name. But always welcome similar content that helps all of us for sure. Thanks for asking first, that is very kind of you. And certainly welcome channels that you think are helpful for sure. Cheers and all the best Rob!

Hi Burgie! The mower is adjustable, like other mowers. I had it set much too low at first. Cheers!

Good morning Joanne. Thanks for clarifying - no not that brand. It is BECO. They are not related btw. I would research more on that brand before considering it. Cheers!

Have a website for BECO. Thanks

I don't have a specific website for BECO but Kevin and Dave at Farmer Equipment Sales here in Ontario are a distributor of BECO line of equipment. They ship across Canada (but not to the US). If you are here in Canada and do decide to get one, let them know you are a GP Outdoors subscriber and they will give you 10% off. Cheers and best of luck!

Hey good morning Alex. Yes , thanks for the heads up. That is from Kevin at Farmer Equipment Sales, so all is good. The relationship I have with them is that they loan me equipment to use and learn how it works and in return, they use my videos for their website and products. But thanks for letting me know. Cheers!