Hay Guru's I need some advice!!

[aczlan]

Hopefully this helps. YouTube - Video of Tedder 001.MOV

It looks like your tedder may be leaning too far back. Can it be tilted farther forward?

With that style tedder, when the tedder is leaned back, the hay is largely picked up by the teeth at the in the back of the basket. Thus it is thrown together by the rotation of the baskets and bunched into rows (as seen in your video).
If the tedder is tilted forward, it will pick up the hay with the teeth in the front and scatter it (relatively) evenly across the field behind the tedder.

As for the "chatter" in your video. IIRC, ours did that when we had the rpms over 400 or 450 RPMS. Try spinning it by hand and see if the arms/teeth hit each other. If they do, you will need to retime the baskets. To do this pull the bolt that holds the wheels to the shaft below the arms and carefully lower the basket, move it over a tooth and lift it back up, then put the bolt back in.
In the diagram below the = is the gearbox and the flange of the tedder.
The _ is the arm and the / and \ are the teeth. The |X| is the shaft, the |B| is the bolt through the shaft and the
|...***...|
|../.....\..|
|..\...../..|
|...***...|
is the tire.

|.............................................|
|...................===.....................|
|....______=========______......|
|.../................|B|...............\....|
|../.................|X|.................\..|
|./..................|X|..................\.|
|...................***....................|
|................../.....\...................|
|..................\...../...................|
|...................***....................|
|.............................................|


Aaron Z

 

[BryanM]

I have not worked on the tedder planning on doing so tonight. If you would Could someone tell me what way the tines are suppose to angle? does it bend too the way it is turning or bend back from the way it is turning? Or take a look at my pics and tell me if that is the way they are suppose too be on. please.

My first plan of attack is too adjust those teeth so they are perpendicular. After looking at the tedder and sppinning it by hand the teeth doo look alll laid back. and when spinning by hand they seem too be timed right they dont hit. so if you could take a look at your tedders and see if the bend of the tines are forward or backward that would give me a start. thanks

 

[JasG]

With the tedder angled for operation, when the teeth are at the point closest to the ground, the part of the tooth closest to the ground should be almost vertical. Yours look like they are never near vertical. On a Kuhn like we have, there is no adjustment, if the teeth get bent like that we have to replace them.

When they are mounted correctly they will sweep the hay in front lift it, and it will slide off the back. Yours look like it they would never lift it and maybe even press some of the hay into the ground.

Here is a picture, look at the front tooth on the basket to the right.

http://www.farmadverts.ie/pictures/listings/117_16.jpg

 

[BryanM]

JasG thanks thats what I was looking for. as Far as adjusting the teeth, I will half too take a better look but it looked like the holdown bolt and hardware would let you slide the tines up a bit. Ill have too check that out a little closer you may be right and I might have to replace all the teeth.:thumbsup:

 

[aczlan]

JasG thanks thats what I was looking for. as Far as adjusting the teeth, I will half too take a better look but it looked like the holdown bolt and hardware would let you slide the tines up a bit.

If you loosen the large bolt that holds the tine on, you can rotate it so that the tine will be closer to vertical. I would hit the bolts with some WD40 or PB Blaster the day before, then take them off with an impact trench.

Aaron Z

 

[BryanM]

well I mad all tines vertical and cut a few tines down so they would all be aprox same length. the only thing I could try it on is some raked hay and I am not sure that was a fair test. My rake is a side delivery rake and ropes the hay so when you go over it it somewhat clumps. although trying it 2-3 times it seems too be better.

To get the true test I will have too wait til next cutting when the hay is in swaths.


I would like too get everyones take though on when too tedd how many times? when they rake? when they bale?

 

[aczlan]

I would like too get everyones take though on when too tedd how many times? when they rake? when they bale?

Day 1: We cut with a New Holland 461 Mower Conditioner (which puts the hay into windrows). Sometimes we rake in the evening, but that depends on how the hay is drying
Day 2: Ted the hay with a 4 basket tedder (once in the morning after the dew burns off and sometimes once in the evening)
Day 3: When the hay crackles we roll it into windrows (2 passes with the side delivery rake into 1 windrow) and then bale it a few hours later.

Baling: Our baler is a NH with a pair of conveyor belts on the back to kick the bales into the wagon and we have a person in the wagon stacking.
We get ~150 bales into each of our two wagons and each field will produce 1.5 to 2 wagonloads of hay per field.


Aaron Z

 

[JasG]

I would like too get everyones take though on when too tedd how many times? when they rake? when they bale?

Depends on you soil,climate, crop and time of year. I have helped farmers that put up 1st cutting in late July that we never tedded. Mow one day and bale the next. Some areas of the country that is any time of year.

That being said what works for us:

Day one mow as early in the morning as possible. If ground is dry swath the hay as wide as possible. If ground is wet, narrow the hay up. The theory is the ground will dry faster and allow the hay when tedded to dry faster. Our soil is a high clay that doesn't drain well, if it was a loam or gravel type we would swath everything.

Day 2 tedd after the dew is about off.

Day 3, with 1st cutting it's a judgement call, some of our grass we may be able to rake and bale. If not we will tedd before the dew is off. This is suppose to save some leaves on the crop. 2nd and 3rd cutting we tedd, no matter what due to it won't be ready.

Day 4 rake and bale.

With some 2nd and 3rd cutting we may tedd late on day 1 and on day 3 in mid afternoon rake single, then double on day 4. We have a Kuhn rotary rake and this really allows the air to get to the hay.

This is what we have after years of trying differnet things seems to work for us.

We have a Deere disk mower, Kuhn tedder and a Kuhn rake.

 

[cjk]

I would try running your pto at different speeds. I have a similar tedder and it makes a big difference. If mine is windrowing I have to speed up the pto. I am missing the reduction gearbox and run the pto at 1500 rpms.

 

[Duffster]

we have a person in the wagon stacking.

Why do you stack the hay in a kicker wagon?