New Holland vs Kuhn Disc mower

elkhurst1 · May 2, 2011

I first started looking at Kuhn and Krone due to there being a dealer nearby. Then I spoke with a New Holland dealer that filled me in some on the NH so I took a closer look at them. The biggest thing with the NH is if you have any internal bar problems, all you do is remove that section which is only 4 bolts and drop in a new one. Then if need be you can completely leave that section out if it 's unrepairable, bolt the remaining sections back together and continue mowing with the shorter bar (thats how it was explained to me). That's certainly better than splitting the bar apart and having all the down time.
Check out the link below.

Hay-and-Forage-Equipment New Holland Disc-Mowers - Models, technical data and characteristics

Bigfoot62 · May 13, 2011

Turbo217 said:
How did you narrow it down to a New Holland or a Kuhn? I am looking at Krone, John Deere, Frontier, Vermeer. Any ideas out of those, or what does everyone favor? I like Deere, because 15 miles away and good parts system, but that is all I know.

I have two mowers. One is a Kuhn with orange paint (GMD 600), and the other one is a Kuhn with green paint. (JD 265) Same mower. Parts will interchange. I currently have a couple of orange rock guards on the 265!

They are great cutters. If I had to go buy another one right now, I'd probably get the same thing.
There are 5 dealers within 45 miles of me that handle the Kuhn or JD. It's always easy to get parts.

I have no memory · May 13, 2011

Last Fall I looked at them all. There are basically two different kinds of head drives which are gear or shaft. Kuhn uses gear drive as well as many of the other European brands. It's a solid design and if you look at old cutters those heads are usually still pretty tight. They do take more hp though and maintenance issue discussed hear at length can also be an issue. I've also heard that mowing on a hill can be an issue as the cutter bar shares the oil reservoir though the dealer assured me this wasn't an issue. Still, if you get a leak you might loose them all.

The shaft design was originally designed by Lely. AGCO/Hesston/MF, New Holland, Lely, Vermeer and maybe others use this design. The AGCO/Hesston/MF head is made by a company I believe from Italy that I would consider a second tier manufacturer so stay away. New Holland makes their own, (now), and Vermeer gets theirs straight from the horses mouth, (Lely). The old white colored New Idea mowers also had Lely heads. Haymagnum mowers are made in USA with the Lely design but only have the 3-pt kind which was too small for me.

I went to a bunch of auction places and dealers and looked at their heads after a lot of use. The older New Holland, (Kuhn head), were fine but the newer ones all seemed loose. The white New Idea head was excellent even though the machine looked beat up and that was the Lely desgin. So, I narrowed it down to Kuhn and Vermeer as the Hay Magnum was too small for me. I ended up ordering a Vermeer TM850 which I'm hoping is here in the next week or two. I like the Kuhn but one day my dad and I drove 4+ hours to Vermeer and even though it was an off day for them they made room for us to get a tour. We even met with some upper management guys who really new their hay stuff. Getting service like that is unheard of. That, and the fact that I didn't like the Kuhn trailed mower design with the springs for head float, made Vermeer a winner for me.

IMO - there is difference between cutter heads. Kuhn I belive first designed the gear bar and Lely the shaft so I wanted to stick with them. Also, as mentioned I think the NH is better than the AGCO/Hesston/MF head but the Lely was clearly better than both of them.

I'm a big made in USA guy to so even though the cutterhead is foreign, (Lely), the Vermeer is made in USA. I believe the entire NH machine is made in USA which is a bonus for NH IMO.

farmboyZ · May 13, 2011

From what Iv'e seen Kuhn make decent disc mowers and parts are fairly easy to get, but if you can get to a new holland that might be better. It seems like you've mostly got NH anyway and New Holland makes great haying products and you can find replacing parts at farm and ranch stores usually, but thats just a suggestion

sweettractors · May 13, 2011

I like Lely and have owned one. I never could find any aftermarket parts for them and the Lely people thought the parts were made of gold. Ken Sweet

cowski · May 13, 2011

i would rate them like this.krone, kuhn and comer. krone just the best all round mower.kuhn bars are sold in various colors good tuff mower with the least expensive replacement parts.comer cutter bars are sold under numerous names built like a tank.other mowers have their place, but if i baled over 1000 rolls one of these is what i would have.

Johno Geo · May 13, 2011

imho, buy the best equipment you can afford!

The thrill of low price fades quickly, but the agony of poor quality endures!!

whodat526 · May 14, 2011

cowski said:
i would rate them like this.krone, kuhn and comer. krone just the best all round mower.kuhn bars are sold in various colors good tuff mower with the least expensive replacement parts.comer cutter bars are sold under numerous names built like a tank.other mowers have their place, but if i baled over 1000 rolls one of these is what i would have.

i would have to agree i would rather have a nh or kuhn/jd then a krone there is nothing newer a nh in my opinion and i have run lots of different hay cutters

I have no memory · May 14, 2011

I've heard Krone may be the best too but finding a dealer is extremely dificult in my neck fo the woods. When I limited it to Vermeer, New Holland and Kuhn a large part of that was dealer support.