Hay rake draw bar

[shanehobson]

I make small bale hay for various people around the neighbourhood. It's a real hassle driving to a farm, mowing then driving back home to get my rake so I started thinking about how to be more efficient.
I thought if I could transport my rake on my ute (farm truck) then I can save on tractor travel time (save on diesel, tires, time).

The first photo shows my failed experiment to hang the rake off the back of the ute by winching it up and chaining it on. Failed miserably.

Next option (no photo) was to load the rake onto the ute by pulling it up ramps onto the deck with the hand winch. Didn't really work. Possibly could have made it work with a lot of effort.

So, how about I make a rigid drawbar so I can hook the rake onto the ute tow bar and just tow it there.
Next few photos show the mock up, the tack welded version (still a bit floppy and it was putting a lot of upward pressure on the ute drawbar which is bad for the pin holding it in place).
Last photo shows the additional of a piece of wood that makes the whole thing more rigid and it's now putting downward pressure on the ute drawbar.

Tomorrow I'll weld it properly, replace the wood with something better and take it for a test drive in the paddock.

Next, I'm going to make an A frame to tow the ute behind my tractor.

The plan is that I can drive my tractor with disc mower on the 3 point linkage, ute on the A frame on the tractor drawbar and the hay rake being towed by the ute.
I'm pretty sure it's road legal (we're allowed to tow two farm implements like this behind a tractor here).
So I drive tractor to the job. Unhook the rake of the ute, leave tractor, mower & rake at the job. Drive the ute home. When I got to the job next, I take the baler behind the ute.
Now everything is in one place. Mow, rake, bale. Then repeat the process to the next farm.

No doubt others who have been making hay longer than me will have better ways of doing this, so I'm open to your opinions.

Forgot to mention, it's made from 2 x plough arms off an old Fergy, a scrounged top link and an old drawbar off an International 434. The small piece of vertical steel the plough arms fit to was chopped off the end of the drawbar and the two small pieces of galvanized steel that the top link fits to were chopped off the end of some old power pylon steel angle sections.
I didn't have to drill a single hole !!

Shane

 

[shanehobson]

There are wheels (small) on the rake, so it tows like a trailer.

 

[zzvyb6]

Since I rake just before I bale, I put my NH55 rake on the back hitch of the baler and off we go to the fields. I only go 1/2 mile but it saves a trip each way. There are some glitches to this because of all the hitching and unhitching but it works for me. Believe it or not, you can quickly learn to back up this tandem rig. GO REALLY SLOW in reverse.

I suppose you could but a hitch on the mower and tow the rake to the field and leave it there in the process until its time to rake, too.

I used to use an offset front hitch mount on my 4020 to tow the rake off the front of the tractor using a rehomed U channel street sign post and this setup put the windrow right into the path of the baler towed conventionally behind the tractor. But I now double or triple rake the windrows into one BIG one and that just doesn't give me any advantage time or fuel wise. You only get to turn left in this manner. That can be easy to forget.