I ordered this Sanking 61" Tractor Heavy Duty Flail Mower 3 Point Mowing Attachment on July 15, 2024 and it was delivered on July 31. It came without any useful guidance on setup or operation but there was a 12 page Operator’s Manual in 6x8 inch small print which mostly provided 2 very faint assembly drawings and parts lists, but no real useful instructions. So, maybe I can provide this to help other purchasers get started. My goal was to pull this flail behind my 2010 John Deere 2520 tractor which has a 27 HP diesel engine and HST transmission.The unpacking and initial setup went pretty smoothly, but it was lucky that I had my loader available to lift the mower out of the steel frame and dual skid package that it came in. It weighs 720 lbs and is very cumbersome. Most of the initial setup dealt with bolting on the brackets which are used for attaching to the tractor. The Amazon description highlights a “Quick-Hitch System which can greatly simplify the hookup to a tractor”, The first real problem I found was that the provided Quick-Hitch does not match up with the JD iMatch Quick Hitch that I have on my tractor. The Sanking flail mower is designed so that the span between the two lower connect points is 23”, while the Deere Quick Hitch (iMatch) is 28”. Seems strange that they paint the flail in JD Green, but do not adhere to JD standard interface specs. After a day wasted on trying to figure out a way to adapt the connection, I decided to not use my JD iMatch system but connect the tractors 3-point hitch directly to the mower’s 3-point hitch attach points. This worked OK, but is annoying.The next step was to connect the PTO shaft on both the tractor and mower ends. I spent a couple of hours trying to fit it in, but finally figured out that it was too long to fit – the tractor and mower could not be made to get close enough to fit the PTO shaft. So, a neighbor suggested that I cut off about 2” from each of the 2 halves of the PTO which make it expandable. This done, I could now get the PTO shaft installed.I had read that some flail mowers ship without any gear oil in the gearbox and figured out that there are 2 fill points – one on the gearbox and one on the shaft leading to the belts. The gearbox has a fill point, a drain plug, and a fill level plug which are not mentioned anywhere in the documentation or marked on the machine. The shaft to the belts has a fill level plug in addition to the fill point. The plugs have socket heads and are easily missed if you are not looking for them. So I made sure the oil was OK and got ready to try it.In order to try the flail mower, I drove it to some 24” long grass, started the PTO at about 900 rpm and increased to the recommended 2540 rpm. I then lowered the lift so the feet of the skids were firmly on the ground and started mowing. All was going great for about 50 feet but then something happened and the flail stopped flailing.After about a day of looking for what broke, I read some posts on TractorByNet.com that talked about a shear pin on the PTO, so I took off the PTO, checked and there it was on one end of the shaft. I got some 5/16x2” bolts from Tractor Supply and fixed that problem. It turns out that the skids should not touch the ground but should be up and inch or so, with the roller only making contact. I had lowered too far, and the cutters got bogged down with mulch from a prior cut which caused the shear bolt to break. There are lots of posts on TractorByNet.com - a search on “flail mowers” today had 1127 hits. Most all of the hits have multiple suggestions on how to fix a problem – highly recommended.I now have cut some of my fields with my new flail for 3 hours and am very happy with it. I’m impressed with the design and sturdiness of the flail. Most of my issues concern lack of proper documentation. I do worry about where to find replacement parts if / when needed, but perhaps that may be addressed as more customers purchase these machines.

for the two half hour sessions it worked well, then it broke. The transfer geared unit on top that goes from PTO to pulleys is not working. The seller has not gotten back to me. I wonder if parts are available?

I bought the 68" unit which I do not see advertised. Delivery was with a lift gate truck (no extra charge), with two men who handled off-loading without issue. Heavy gauge steel, well built and assembled, shipped in steel shipping cage. No instructions, but pretty self evident. No guidance on gear oil choice - I chose 80-90, which is about 30 weight engine oil in viscosity. Be sure to grease all fittings, including one housed with belts. Used about 6 hours first day - great job. I was so impressed with manufacturer - Saniking (I think) - I looked for a chipper they might make, without success.

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Have not used the fail mower as of yet. Changing the bolts. Without manual the drive shaft does not line up.