Sitrex wheel rake-trying to decide

[garyfisher123]

around me you can find the single sided wheel rakes for the price of scrap because nobody uses them. The best feature of a v-wheel rake is that it rakes hay faster than the old fashioned rake.

The speed thing is why we are looking a V's and rotaries. I have one dealer telling me that V's are the way to go and another telling me that rotaries are the best way. Guess I will have to demo both this hay season!

 

[garyfisher123]

A 8 wheel rake will rake a 3' wide windrow. We still put up around 5000 square bales with a New Holland 316 and have no problem with 3' windrow.

So they will go down to around 3'. If that is the case, then the V should work great. We bale with NH 312 which I guess is pretty similar to your 316.

 

[flusher]

around me you can find the single sided wheel rakes for the price of scrap because nobody uses them. The best feature of a v-wheel rake is that it rakes hay faster than the old fashioned rake.

What's the problem with the single-sided wheel rake?
Hard to use? Lousy windrows? Hay contamination? Too slow? Other?

 

[HayDR]

The speed thing is why we are looking a V's and rotaries. I have one dealer telling me that V's are the way to go and another telling me that rotaries are the best way. Guess I will have to demo both this hay season!

If you want a 18' rotary rake you will pay in the $14,000-18,000 range and a 8 wheel rake sells for $3,100 in our market.
There is no question you would love a large rotary rake but do you want to spend that much money. Depending the brand of the rake you are looking at, there can be some issues with transportation of rotary rakes. The V-Rakes fold up and are easy to transport down the highway.

 

[jdeere5205]

What's the problem with the single-sided wheel rake?
Hard to use? Lousy windrows? Hay contamination? Too slow? Other?

I would think the problem with single sided rakes is that it requires at least 2 passes to make one windrow and its not for the too slow part because we rake with our vicon 4 wheel rake faster then the john deere side delivery. Its not that they are hard to use but requires some skill. Not a good idea to have greenhorns using the rake..... however practice makes perfect The v - rakes make for much more productivity and faster operation with only one pass instead of 2. They can also make great windrows if you can properly use the rake.

 

[flusher]

I would think the problem with single sided rakes is that it requires at least 2 passes to make one windrow and its not for the too slow part because we rake with our vicon 4 wheel rake faster then the john deere side delivery. Its not that they are hard to use but requires some skill. Not a good idea to have greenhorns using the rake..... however practice makes perfect The v - rakes make for much more productivity and faster operation with only one pass instead of 2. They can also make great windrows if you can properly use the rake.

I'm confused. Are you saying that with a single sided wheel rake you have to make two passes over the same ground to get a good windrow? Or that you have to make two passes over adjacent swaths, the first going and the second coming, to rake enough hay into a single windrow?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I'm confused. Are you saying that with a single sided wheel rake you have to make two passes over the same ground to get a good windrow? Or that you have to make two passes over adjacent swaths, the first going and the second coming, to rake enough hay into a single windrow?

The four disc wheel rake is basically like any side delivery rake. You rake one swath at a time. If you want to double windrows you need to rake every other swath then turn around and rake the other swath the other direction. This is not a good system as corners are a hassle. But depending on how big of an operation you have it is a cheap alternative. Plus if you have a real heavy first cutting you can rake individual swaths without being forced to double windrows.

 

[flusher]

The four disc wheel rake is basically like any side delivery rake. You rake one swath at a time. If you want to double windrows you need to rake every other swath then turn around and rake the other swath the other direction. This is not a good system as corners are a hassle. But depending on how big of an operation you have it is a cheap alternative. Plus if you have a real heavy first cutting you can rake individual swaths without being forced to double windrows.

Gotcha. Now it's clear. Looks like a V-wheel rake is a real time-saver.

 

[Renze]

We changed to a 3 meter Claas rotary rake 3 years ago. We got it from the internet, the Dutch Ebay equivalent.

Most wheel rakes around here are used by hobby farmers who cant figure out how to attach a PTO shaft, and dont have the skills to work around corners with a Vicon 4 wheel rake. They rake the headlands and corners by hand, but this type of hobby farmers have more time on their hands than they can find use for on their hobby farms anyways

Bigger hobby farms (like ours) people that have a daytime job and run a farm big enough to break even, but too small to make a living off, all use PTO driven rotary rakes.
smaller rakes from 2.8 to 3.5 meter are cheap because full time farmers need bigger equipment, and the smaller hobby farms only want a 75 Euro (scrap price) wheel rake.

You can make turns and corners with wheel rakes but it requires some skills.
That was not the reason that we changed to rotary: It was because in dry hay, the hay gets blown away on the flat, and when the silage is green and heavy, the rake wobbles over it and makes humps.
When picking up a wheel rake swath of heavy grass with a self loading silage wagon or a baler, when you stop, the machine pulls about 5 meter of swath into its mouth, because the wheel rake winds it up like a rope.

The PTO machine is much more convenient and works also in too dry or too wet grass.

The model of rakes which is common in North America, was sold in Europe only as horse drawn models: When tractors came, these rakes were extinct and forgotten. Everybody used the wheel rake during the 50's and 60's, and when the rotary rakes came in the 70's, most farms used them, and in the 80's all professional farms used them.

 

[flusher]

We changed to a 3 meter Claas rotary rake 3 years ago. We got it from the internet, the Dutch Ebay equivalent.



The model of rakes which is common in North America, was sold in Europe only as horse drawn models: When tractors came, these rakes were extinct and forgotten. Everybody used the wheel rake during the 50's and 60's, and when the rotary rakes came in the 70's, most farms used them, and in the 80's all professional farms used them.

Thanks for the input.

Rotary rakes are nice, but expensive, even the used ones. Price was the principal reason for considering wheel rakes. And used wheel rakes are more readily available in my area.