Drum Mowers - logistical questions

[Texasmark]

I starting to look for same thing a affordable way to cut grass hay with some clover in it on a small scale 8-15 acres per cutting, and don't want to use a sickle bar mower or someone else used/abused equipment . I found this mower from Kuhn PZ 170 - Mowers - KUHN North America.com I like that is comes from a name brand dealer. I am also looking at a mower conditioners but good used ones bring more money than buying a new drum mower.

I went looking and for the NH 404 I went to a farm that had a lot of old, unused apparently, equipment. I told the guy what I was doing and what I was looking for, asking if he had anything of the sort he would consider selling.

He walked with me out to the lot and dug around coming up with this machine. It had seen it's day but not really. The gearbox leaked a little, but no biggie, just fill it before you use it. The bearings had zerks and all took grease. The sprocket that drove the upper roller (rubber covered on this machine) was worn pretty good and the chain had long rusted into a solid mass. The tensioner spring was rusted into. Tires were cracked, but held air and still do and are adequate for the job. I gave the guy $400 and didn't haggle. Was glad to get it.

I went to TSC and bought a gear but couldn't find a combination with a sprocket that fit my machine so I came home and welded the new gear onto the old gear using the hub that fit the conditioner roller shaft. Also bought a 10' box of 60 chain and a spring that would serve the tensioning process there. So I had about $450 in the unit and it got a real workout on my harvest this year shown in the pics I have posted.

I later found a second one made locally, but sold commercially, that was $250. All it needed was lube and a new 60 chain. Works just fine. Last year I had none and now I have 2.

They became obsolete with the advent of the MOCO, like the 1209 (9' cutting strip sickle and conditioner) JD made. But they are out there. All you have to do is look around, especially when you see a farm where lots of equipment is sitting around unused.

The MOCO was a pain and too big for my smaller operation here in retirement. Wrestling the sickle bar and clogging on wet grass, crawdad and fire ant mound plugging and all just got to be too much for my well being. So I went looking for something better. I could not fit a new disc cutter and especially a disc MOCO into the retirement scheme of things so I went looking. Every used one I found had extensive brass braze repairs on the bottom of the main spar which I guess is oil filled to lube the gear drives and bearings of the discs. Other thing I didn't like was too many parts. Stumbled across a drum ad one day and the rest is history.

Mark