Thought I would post an update;
Well I think I got a steel on a new Kubota 1035 rotary hay rake. I went new over taking one out of his rental sale. Paid $7K. Other quotes I got were 8K and higher. It was the last one they had in stock. The beat up used ones were $5900 The kubota has 1' working width advantage and I liked the bigger tires and bogie wheel set up over the Kuhn. Gear box also looked heavier and has less maintenance points. I like the Kuhn side certain adjust on the parallel arms, but the framing was thinner than the Kubota. Kubota does weight 926 lbs vers 820lbs for the Kuhn. Also the Kubota has more rake tines per arm.
In looking at the rental fleet, all rakes showed wear and tear, but overall the Kubota held up better based on overall appearance as for straight steel, or bent arms. Kuhn had a few more bent arms, but tines were in better shape. My gut said they had seen a lot of use and abuse, so I passed on the used this time.
I did take my bobcat CT 235 over and test lift the Kubota 1035. I figured if I could handle that I could handle the lighter Kuhn. NO issues. I will need to be careful on the rough fields (it is a bit bouncy), thus wanting the bigger bogie wheels. I definitely need to invest in a good set of binder chains and ratchet binders.
Now for something funny. While the arms are removable there is only storage for all the arms less one. It appear for transport you leave the lead arm on. Wonder whom thought that up? Common sense says you take them all off for long transport. Snag one at speed and who knows what might happen. You would think they would have storage slots for all arms. Ill need to figure a way to store the last arm - bungee cords to the others probably will work.
They should have it ready next week.
