Tedder opinions

[CCP]

You answered my next question about the safety release. thank you for all the information. I just visited your website and requested a brochure if you have them. I can show my husband this thread, but he is computer illitereate You are right in the prices of used disc mowers. I am finding them to be over $3000 and the cost of rebuilding them if they break is almost as much as your prices for the new drum mower. This may be the way to go. I had never heard of them till I started lurking on this site.

Corinne

 

[Renze]

My first hand observations on tedders:

We have the same problem with the 4 basket tedder, vs. the 6 basket tedder we used to have, where in this comparison, our 6 basket worked as good as your 2 basket:

The 6 basket was a 6 meter manual fold machine: we bought it because it was cheap, nobody wants a manual folding 6 basket anymore because its truely such a b*tch to fold !!! Even for me as a young healthy lad. But because my father is 65 and has arthrosis (spelled right ?) we bought a 5 meter, 4 rotor, hydraulic fold Vicon because he just physically couldnt do it anymore.

To keep the width of the fold up machine within proper roadgoing dimensions (i'm in europe, remember ) they use the same mid section for both tedders, while the rotors are much larger in diameter of the 4 rotor 5 meter tedder, than the 6 meter 6 rotor tedder: that makes about 25 cm per rotor !

Therefor, the 5 meter tedder, has an unequal distance between each rotor, the mid rotors are at closer center, than center of each mid section to the outer, foldable section. This effects that it will also throw more hay right in the middle behind the machine, than on the edges of its working width.
Our 6 meter machine, with the rotors on equal center distances, didnt have this problem.

I think you should look at a hydro fold 4 basket tedder, and keep an eye on the rotor centers to avoid this problem we have with the Vicon.
Especially when you say you bale 10.000 bales a year: We dont use small bales but plastic wrap everything in 3'x3' square bales, so 10.000 small ones would be about 80 big ones. You guys have quite some ground to cover: Personally i would never want a 2 rotor tedder to do our annual 80 large bales !


About disc vs. drum mowers: I was happy to step up to disk mower technology 2 years ago, but now i'm thinking of going back to drums:

2 years ago i bought a 2 meter 3pt hitch disk mower, a Krone AM 202 without conditioner. (when making dry horse haylage, we dont want a conditioner because when tedding a conditioned crop 3 or 4 times, the hay will fall apart in dust, which means a lot of crop loss)
Last cut the weather wasnt still enough to allow for a 3 day drying period, so we had to wait, and the grass was tall.
The disk mower plugged (i'm told a conditioner will cure that because it plucks the grass off the mowing table, but for hay we dont want conditioners) and left a very uneven stubble, inbetween the disks, there were stripes that were 2 inch longer than the rest.

For these reasons i'm thinking of buying a JF CMT 245 pull type drum mower: These mowers had trouble with the main belt drive and therefor are very cheap, but if you dont use the conditioner, they'll do fine because then only half the power is transmitted.

Next to that, the general build style of a drum mower is a lot more robust, and there are less blades to exchange every year. It will also slide easier over rough horse pastures...

 

[Grrrr]

Especially when you say you bale 10.000 bales a year: We dont use small bales but plastic wrap everything in 3'x3' square bales, so 10.000 small ones would be about 80 big ones. You guys have quite some ground to cover: Personally i would never want a 2 rotor tedder to do our annual 80 large bales!

Renze, I'm not being picky but if 10000 square bales equates to 80 large bales you have some seriously monster sized bales

My maths might be bad, but I think this would mean that each of your big bales has 125 square bales in them

I thought that the big bales held about 10 to 20 bales...

 

[Renze]

Renze, I'm not being picky but if 10000 square bales equates to 80 large bales you have some seriously monster sized bales

My maths might be bad, but I think this would mean that each of your big bales has 125 square bales in them

I thought that the big bales held about 10 to 20 bales...

hmm an average small bale is 23 kg... a hay-dry large square bale is about 270kg...
I think i should have said 800 bales instead of 80...

MAN, and this lady is using half the size of tedder, for 10x as much hay than me ?
She needs at least a 6 rotor hydraulic fold. the amount of work you have for it, justifies it

 

[Grrrr]

hmm an average small bale is 23 kg... a hay-dry large square bale is about 270kg...
I think i should have said 800 bales instead of 80...

MAN, and this lady is using half the size of tedder, for 10x as much hay than me ?
She needs at least a 6 rotor hydraulic fold. the amount of work you have for it, justifies it

I agree

I actually think she should think about investing in one of these

All 13 metres of it

Maybe some extra contract work would help justify it

 

[CCP]

I think you guys are having fun with me

Ok, I am done complaining about the tedders. The field we were baling when I posted this thread had so many rock in it, the tedders could not pass between them. The next field was much friendlier to me! This is why those HUGE tedders would be a nightmare to me. Although I do like the looks of those hydraulic lift tedders, maybe I could ask for them for Christmas. How could he deny a woman asking for tedders as a gift?

Seriously, we are trying to make do with what we have. We had a catastrophic fire last year. 60' x 60' steel building burned, everything including the building had to be replaced. My husband owns/operates a landscape/construction business. Nearly all of the equipment was lost. So, no new toys for me.

But, we would like to know more about those drum mowers. Anyone else use them?

 

[Grrrr]

But, we would like to know more about those drum mowers. Anyone else use them?

Yep, we have an old one.

Same design for donkeys years. Very reliable. Very simple. Very effective.

Ours is only about 5'6" wide so is slow, no matter how fast you drive. Can only manage about 3 acres an hour with it.

Cut quite cleanly, but don't like laid down crops, like fallen over grass. Tend to leave an uncut strip in the middle.

Our disk cuts more acres per hour as it is bigger, and tends to leave a cleaner cut for some reason. It is also very simple design but folds hydraulically which is a nice feature and a back saver.

Never had it block up but we don't use a conditioner.

How many acres do you have to cut?

 

[Renze]

Our disk cuts more acres per hour as it is bigger, and tends to leave a cleaner cut for some reason. ....
......Never had it block up but we don't use a conditioner.

So, my aggrevation with the new disk mower, would be the fault of the too long, heavy, half laying crop of last cuts, not with disk vs. drum ?

And you dont have it plug up either, without the conditoner pulling the grass off the disks ? Would that also be because of our too tall stand, this year ?

 

[Grrrr]

So, my aggrevation with the new disk mower, would be the fault of the too long, heavy, half laying crop of last cuts, not with disk vs. drum ?

And you dont have it plug up either, without the conditoner pulling the grass off the disks ? Would that also be because of our too tall stand, this year ?

Hmm, I'm not sure.

This is basically the same as our mower (ours is a bit older)

As you can see there is really very little to block up, especial with those pesky little rake wheel things as far out as they will go.

We've had a pretty **** awful year as far as weather has gone and all our grass was too late, fallen over and heavy. The disk mower cut most of it well, and was able to cut the fallen over stuff relatively well as well.

The drum on the other hand, was leaving a little strip in between the two drums on the laid down crops where it sort of tore the grass rather than cut it. However, I have no doubt that the drum would cut anything, even when the disk wouldn't. The drum is just such a simple but efficient design.

The mower that the contractor I work for has, has been a complete git this season. It is a trailed one, with a conditioner. It just kept on getting bunged up, especially when the grass was wet. I found that going slow helped, as the conditioner had more time to deal with the grass, and could get it out the back of the machine.

The worst clog resulted in me being slow to raise it off the ground in an already thick cut, and it picked up a load of the previous windrow on the headland. Needless to say the conditioner was packed full of grass and it sheared the bolt. Grrrr.

But saying that, I spent most of yesterday night with it, and it did not misbehave once

I think if the crop is thick and heavy, the less obstruction the grass has the better. Plus, the conditioners aren't much good on horse hay as we find it makes for some dusty bales.

Have you tried using the drum again in heavy crops? I know how slow the small ones are but I have never had one plug up.

 

[sixdogs]

I hope I'm not too late in this but have used both two and four basket tedders and understand the problem since I faced it as well. I learned to drive in different places in the row and it spreads the crop differently and more evenly. Pto speed matters too.
The difference on 10,000 bales in time spent makes a four basket a joy for me. The two basket took forever. My vote would be for four basket and learn to like it.