What kind of rake - bar vs. wheel

[rtimgray]

So far this year, I've picked up a small roller, an old square baler and disc mower. This is my first year for doing hay all by myself, and so far it's going pretty well. However, at this point, I'm still using a borrowed rake that I will need to return. It is an old 5-bar rake, ground driven via wheel and shaft. I've been looking for a rake but so far haven't found anything local and cheap. I will finish out this season with the borrowed rake, so I should have most of a year to look, so I am wondering about differences between bar rakes and wheel rakes.

I've seen several of the bigger farmers pulling the large V-rakes, but that might be a bit much, in terms of dollar outlay for me. I've seen several 3 pt hitch wheel rakes advertised, but just don't know the plus/minus of each type. I would welcome any opinions and the goods/bads about each one.

If it matters, I'll be doing a couple of cuttings of about 60 acres of fescue/grass hay. I will be square baling and rolling some.

Thanks.

Good luck and take care.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I used to put up 10000 small square bales a year and always used a NH trailer bar rake and that is likely what I would buy now if I went in to hay again. But I will say that was 25 years ago and new equipment comes out every year.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Not sure if it's going to make much difference between a roller bar versus wheel rake. It's been decades since I did any haying, but I seem to recall the 5 bar rakes had better ground coverage and didn't tend to miss any hay; whereas the wheel sometimes dropped clumps, especially at the end of the rows on turns. (Neighbors used a bar rake, my maternal grandfather used a wheel.)

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Okay here's my opinion after 30 years of owning and operating on rolling KY hay ground. Two groups, in general, "side delivery" and "center delivery". Side delivery needs two "passes" to make one windrow, Center delivery needs one pass. Side delivery rakes include, the old 5 bar rakes, the wheel or "ferris" wheel rakes and the 3PTH rakes and some rotary rakes. Center delivery include the V or Y rakes. Side delivery disadvantages: slow, like I said two passes for one windrow. Advantages: time proven design, does not need a tractor with hydraulics, will rake clean in most situations even rougher ground. Center delivery: Advantages, will rake fast and wide, up to 24 plus feet on some models. Disadvantages: None of the three separate makes and models I've used like rough ground or think hay. Neither did they like hay that was not tedded or raking across mower swaths. Lessons I've learned. I like the 5-bar rakes, but get one with "dolly wheels" the others can be tongue heavy. I had a drawbar pull wheel rake that was a good one, it had a hand crank to raise and lower the wheels. Take that off, throw it in a hole and replace it a hydraulic cylinder. That will allow you to rake back and forth in the field inside of around and around. I hope this helps some. Again it's just my opinion.

 

[bsrfarms97]

I have raked plenty of hay with rollbar rakes and v rakes. If all I'm putting up is grass hay and no silage hay, I would go with a v rake 10 to 1. At even just 60 acres of hay you will spend many more hours in the field raking and that will burn up alot more fuel in no time. Especially when the cost of fuel has gone up in the past several years the way it has. Besides I think you will find a decent Walton v rake or Vermeer type v rake is not much more expensive than a decent NH 256 roll bar for instance. The v rake will save you time and money in the long run in my opinion.

 

[Tx Jim]

I too vote for the "V" type wheel rake. It's very difficult to build a "GOOD/even" windrow for rd baling with a roll-a-bar rake making 2 passes plus as mentioned it takes twice as much time to rake or longer. Ease of rd baling starts out with a good windrow. I personally prefer the wheel rakes as shown in picture with the rake wheels next to the windrow being formed instead of the "butterfly" type rakes that the frames are closer to the windrow. 3 pt wheel rakes are a cheap get-by but I wouldn't own another one as I had that BAD experience 20 yrs ago.

 

[bsrfarms97]

Another thing to think about if your going to be round baleing is when raking with a rollabar rake you will find many times you will have to constantly weave your baler back and fourth to feed the sides of the round baler evenly. If you don't feed them evenly it can result in poorly shaped bales which will result in more hay lose if you store your rolls outside.
Again with a V type rake it will eliminate the weaving motion with the tractor and baler and your result will be more consistantly even shaped bales with less hay lose.

 

[rtimgray]

Thanks for all the replies, fellas. However, all of this may be moot because only a couple of hours after I started this thread, I was talking to a friend that I hadn't spoken to in quite a while and he said "Hey, you know anybody that need a hay rake?" Turns out that he has a 5-bar New Holland with a dolly wheel that has been sitting in his barn for the last 10 years (ever since he wised up and got out of cattle/haying). We went over last night and looked at it and it seems to move freely and looks to be in good condition - 3 of 4 tires were flat, but that's to be expected after setting 10 years. He drug it out of the barn last night (after airing up the tires) and called me this morning - said they still had air in them. I'm going to go pick it up today - I've got hay ready to be raked right now, so if it doesn't get rain on (probably will, the way it looks this evening), I'll give it a try in the next few days.

I figured the V rakes would be much quickers, but I worry that some of my fields have too many dips/hills/etc. One thing I know I can do with the bar rake is do multiple passes in each direction in light hay to build a bigger windrow - I don't know if the V rakes can be easily reconfigured to do that or not. At any rate, I got a pretty good deal on what looks to be a good rake, so I'm not gonna say that I'll never upgrade from it, but I'll see how it works out here in the near future.

Once again, I really appreciate all the thoughts and comments. Take care.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

For whatever it's worth I think you made a good choice. A solid piece of equipment, with a proven design at a good price.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

One more thing, the rol-a-bar rakes come in a right handed and left handed model. I have seen some frames made and bought that would allow you to pull two, making them a V rake of sorts. Just something to consider if the rake works out for you. I converted my rol-a-bar to rubber mounted teeth to lessen tooth breakage and I think it helped. However, I think sun and weather was pretty tough on the rubber so I parked it in the barn when not in use.