Finally used my Haybine

tessiers · Jun 14, 2013

Finally after 6 weeks of rain I got to use my Hesston 1091 mower today. I just upgraded from a JD #5 sickle and what a difference. Definately a learning curve, I think I missed a lot of little strips between rows and some on the corners, got better as I went, hard to tell till its baled. I could not believe how fast it mowed, 3rd gear on my Ford NAA, and thats got tall gears. HP handeled it good, planned to mow with my Massey 135 for the extra HP but I did not need it. Plugged a couple of times right off but once I got the hang of it never plugged at all even crossing swaths. All in all I am real pleased, can't wait to see the field after baleing to see how bad I really did.

Carl_NH · Jun 14, 2013

With the weather tomorrow you should be baling late tomorrow or Sunday more likely. Late Monday is more rain for NE.

I cut lots of acres with a JD sickle bar and the haybine pulls the cut material in and crimps the stalk and it dries quickly.

rankrank1 · Jun 14, 2013

tessiers said:
...I could not believe how fast it mowed, 3rd gear on my Ford NAA, and thats got tall gears. HP handeled it good, planned to mow with my Massey 135 for the extra HP but I did not need it...

Impressive. 6.5 mph or so is about the practical max speed of any single action type sickle cutter. I believe your NAA in 3rd gear would be 5.54 mph or so at 1750 rpm on the throttle or 6.3 mph or so at WOT (2000 rpm) with stock size tires. Again impressive.

More impressive is that you were able to go that fast with such limited tractor HP on a 9' cutter. I have mowed with my Farmall h on my Hesston 9' cutter. It was 3rd gear (4.3 mph) max in average crop last year. I had the Farmall h on the Hesston 9' again this year during a portion of my very very very heavy first cutting and it was 2nd gear (3.3 mph) in many of the tall dense areas due to the low tractor hp. I imagine future cuttings will be back to 3rd gear as my later cuttings are always less dense.

Your NAA must be a strong a runner - no wonder you like it so much.

Robert_in_NY · Jun 14, 2013

I'm not able to cut yet because my fields have standing water in every low spot. The fields are saturated to the point of you can't drive in the same place twice without leaving a rut now. Not a fun year so far. Glad you finally started cutting.

tessiers · Jun 15, 2013

Very wet here as well, this is a little field on well drained sandy soil, the rest of my fields are another story all together. I have a feeling I will be cutting portions of most of my fields for several weeks unless we get a burner of a week to dry things out. My NAA is a little sweetheart, I am the third owner and just about 1500 real hrs on the clock. First owner bought new for a small farm, second was his son for bushhogging 3 acres per year for 20+ years. I bought 6 or 8 years ago for $1000, new points and a carb rebuild and we were off.

rankrank1 · Jun 15, 2013

Forgot to ask: Most NAA do not have a hook-up for a hydraulic cylinder (although they can be added). Does your NAA have a hook-up for cylinder? Or did you use the ole manual hand crank cylinder like I do?

tessiers · Jun 15, 2013

I have remote hydraulics. I took the hydraulic cover plate to a machine shop and they did the nessesary tapping quite reasonable. Info was readily available on line. Simple spool valve on the fender.