Tedder out of time?

Negligence · Jun 23, 2009

I've never owned a tedder but I'm looking to purchase one for this season. I've found a used that needs a bit of work (new tines, etc.).

Owner said the tedder is in time but it has gone out of time before. What exactly does this mean? Not everything is rotating in unison? Is it something easily fixable, or should I avoid? It's a Kuhn. Thanks.

chh · Jun 23, 2009

Out of time? If it is built like my tedder the only way it could get out of time is to have a gear skip/slip in the gearbox. Mine is not a Kuhn though so maybe I am missing something.

jimg · Jun 23, 2009

IIRC the Kuhn 4 basket has 'finger' gears in the drive line instead of U-joints. Perhaps these are slipping by each other somehow? Anyway, I'm not sure where else this could be occurring as chh said.

slowzuki · Jun 23, 2009

The digi drive coupler may have jumped time but that would be pretty obvious. My last Fahr tedder jumped time due to damaged teeth in the ring gear at the basket.

zzvyb6 · Jun 23, 2009

Kuhn makes a combination tedder-rake. There is a lever on each basket to change the tine bar sweep motions. I got mine cheap because the shift lever on one side was broken off. Check to see if yours happens to be a combination machine. Its really handy to have on hand. The only other option would be to drop the mis-timed basket and set the fork sweeping orientation to its proper timing. Seems to me Kuhn has manuals on their website. Thats where I got mine from...

RickB · Jun 23, 2009

slowzuki said:
The digi drive coupler may have jumped time but that would be pretty obvious. My last Fahr tedder jumped time due to damaged teeth in the ring gear at the basket.

I'm not sure the timing problem can be at the digi-drive. If I remember correctly, the number of fingers on the digidrive coupler are equal to the number of tine bars on the rotors. If the digidrive advances a 'tooth' , the rotor simply advances by one tine bar causing no problems.

The timing problem is likely involves one of the ring and pinion sets driving a single rotor. I'd walk away from this one unless it is incredibly cheap and you have the time and skills to fix it.

aczlan · Jun 23, 2009

I retimed my FIL's Fahr KH-40 last year (4 basket tedder with fingers to transfer power to the sides and a fold back side baskets), it took 2-3 hrs to figure it out, but I could now do it in 1/2 hr. The trick is to use an engine hoist to pick the side of the tedder up and a jack to carry the weight of the wheel assembly, you drop the wheel assy down an inch or so and then lift and spin the rotor until it is realigned. If you need pictures I can take a few to show how I did it.

Aaron Z

RickB · Jun 24, 2009

aczlan said:
I retimed my FIL's Fahr KH-40 last year (4 basket tedder with fingers to transfer power to the sides and a fold back side baskets), it took 2-3 hrs to figure it out, but I could now do it in 1/2 hr. The trick is to use an engine hoist to pick the side of the tedder up and a jack to carry the weight of the wheel assembly, you drop the wheel assy down an inch or so and then lift and spin the rotor until it is realigned. If you need pictures I can take a few to show how I did it.

Aaron Z

Re-timing it is relatively easy. Finding the cause and preventing it from recurring is different.

aczlan · Jun 24, 2009

RickB said:
Re-timing it is relatively easy. Finding the cause and preventing it from recurring is different.

In our case, the tedder had jumped a tooth because someone set the basket height too low and the teeth dug into the ground.

Aaron Z

slowzuki · Jun 24, 2009

Yup the one I had that jumped time was a KH 40. Only 10 mins to fix, but then it happened again. Then again. Then again. Then two arms collided just right and popped some pieces in the main gearbox. It was beat up enough it is now just parts for a bigger Fahr tedder.

Some other weak points on that model are the pivot balls for the arms. The balls wear and let the couple ride on the tips. Also the studs the pivot balls ride on get bent over increasing the distance, lastly the casting stretches and cracks also increasing the distance.

I'm working on building a bracket to put the stud in double shear to stop this. Once the couple rides on the tips it will start breaking the roll pins than hold the couplers on.