Honeeey? Do these tires make my butt look big?!? - BCS 853 with BIG rubber

[farmerboybill]

Hey Clytle,

The rake really can't throw past the stop because it throws it directly at it. You can flip up the stop and throw the hay a fair distance. In fact, the "/tedder" part of them name is accomplished by lifting the right side of the machine and flipping up the stop to throw the windrow back out. Eric never mentioned having trouble with the wrap. I think he has it set at the lowest setting for number of wraps.

Hi Jomifo,

Basically, you'd just go around the field raking in clockwise two or three rounds until you can't move the windrow. Then you'd start raking counterclockwise in a couple passes and throw out until you get to the first windrow. After that, make another couple three passes in and a couple three passes out. Keep making these mega windrows until you're done. At that point, you pitchfork the windrow onto a rack and take it to where you want a stack made. It doesn't make the stack for you unless you're looking for very small stacks. I wasn't running nearly the RPM's that the videos posted below show

Videos of the rake -

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3f4mnSLtug&lr=1]Grillo Model G107d walk behind tractor with PTO-driven Hayrake - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxWvdesnVbo&list=UU3dNwtzBGF0kX11Ts6Qe1LA& index=3&feature=plcp]BCS Hayrake - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnrBh1xpFVU&feature=channel&list=UL]mini.avi - YouTube[/ame]

[clytle374]

It only throws past the guard when running in light hay, you can see it do it in the grillo video.

As far is it missing the wrapper. Does he run his bailer at high throttle? I need to clean the dust out of the cutter area to see if it might be the problem. It normally works just fine, but has spells where it misses the wrapper. Lower throttle seems to help. We love ours and it's built pretty tough. Only thing I don't really like is the drive shaft setup, had to replace it once under warranty.

[farmerboybill]

Hey Clytle,

You're right. I watched the video again and did see the hay occasionally being thrown a couple feet past the stop. I don't know how much of an issue this is because the hay is still in the to-be-raked area. When you make the backpass to complete the windrow, the pile should stop any hay from being thrown. You can also throttle down to reduce the tine speed on the backpass.

Does your bale remover carry a pitchfork as he walks along? I've seen some European videos of the baler and the helper uses a pitchfork to tidy up the windrow in front of the baler. This isn't absolutely necessary, but it does increase the efficiency of the operation.

The pics I posted, I did with my cellphone because I had forgotten my camera. We're supposed to do 10 acres at his neighbor's place soon and I hope to make some videos this time.

[farmerboybill]

So to wrap up this thread, here's the final results cutting at Eric's place last week. We cut 12 acres in a total time of 10 hours cutting (Eric 6 hours, and me, 4 hours) His machine cut 1.25 acres an hour and my machine cut 1 acre an hour (I originally said 1.08, but think I estimated a too-fast ground speed of 2.5 mph). If I had the 59 inch duplex mower, I should have cut 1.3 acres per hour, a 71 inch, 1.5 acres per hour. Based on these estimates, cutting 20 acres would take -

45 inch single action on 852 with 27 inch tall tires - 20 hours
40 inch drum mower on 853 with 23 inch tall tires - 16 hours
59 inch duplex mower on 853 with 27 inch tall tires-15.3 hours
71 inch duplex mower on 853 with 27 inch tall tires- 13.3 hours

My estimates are based on a 2.2 mph ground speed with the sickle mowers and 3.2 mph ground speed with the drum mower. These speeds were estimated by adding oversized tires on top of the 2.8 mph top speed of the 852/3 and estimating ground speed at half throttle. I factored in loss from not cutting a full width.

The 107d has a slightly faster ground speed in third gear (3.3 mph), so it would take slightly less time with it.

So, back to the 12 acres. Here's the time invested in one crop -

10 hours mowing.
7 hours raking
5 hours baling
3 hours gathering the bales ( with 4 people doing it)

We got 246 bales weighing about 50 lbs each

That's 34 man-hours invested for 6.1 tons of hay. This hay would be worth about 60 a ton here. That makes each man-hour worth 10.58 an hour.

Of course, we could have gotten it done a lot faster with four wheel tractors and larger equipment, but we also would have had far more money invested in said equipment - especially if bought new like this machinery was.

[small farmer]

Great work Bill. You and Eric make me want to own a baler and I really have to get my rake and drum mower adapted to my BCS or maybe the Goldoni.Jim

[farmerboybill]

Hey Jim,

I didn't know your rake needs adaptation. What machine does it currently fit?

[small farmer]

I think it will fit my goldoni 600 but maybe a SEP given the source. The 600 just has one speed in reverse I believe. It came with out a motor and I haven't installed one as of yet. I hope to have an adapter made up locally from a 3" extension or some such thing.

Jim

[mpapiary]

"Of course, we could have gotten it done a lot faster with four wheel tractors and larger equipment, but we also would have had far more money invested in said equipment - especially if bought new like this machinery was."


This is true in virtually any case with a two wheel vs four wheel comparison, but your figures reinforce how suitable these little tractors really can be for a small farm/homestead operation. All this and it can perform all the soil working tasks and mow the lawn too! Great job on this Bill.

[leonz]

About the loose hay:

The videos we have links to here on the forum have the side hill farmers raking all the hay down to the bottom of the hay field and then letting the tractor and baler deal with it at the bottom.

Trying to circle the wagons so to speak on long hay would damage the hay quality I think more than trying to herd the hay together and if the wind picks up the piles would really fly away and then you would be herding cats.

[leonz]

Its too bad the that the 853 cannot be matched up with the Wolagri Mini Balers. The 853 has almost enough H.P., for them.