Hay Rake

[dt34715]

I presently own a 10' rotary rake and have been thinking about going to a wheel rake, but not sure.
I know the rotary rake does a good job, and have no experience with the wheel rake. But I do know it would be
a time saver.
What is your advice??

 

[jltrent]

The V-wheel rake will be twice as fast, or one person can do what two can do with the one sided rotary rake. Once you get one your rotary rake will get used very little. If you are talking about a one sided wheel rake then stick with what you have.

 

[bigbull338]

a 10 or 12 wheel rake can rake hay 3x as fast as fast as a rotery rake.plus the wheel rakes are less repairs.

 

[lavacarancher]

I have a 12 wheel rake and I'm still trying to get the bugs worked out. It is fast and as long as the hay doesn't ball up at the narrow end and plug it up everything works good. As I was raking this past haying season I noticed that with a heavy load (lots of hay) the last two wheels would get closer together and plug up. Adjust, adjust, adjust, etc. no help. Then I noticed what was causing the back wheels to move closer together was the front was moving out - makes sense. I added a chain across the front to prevent this from happening and finished my haying without further incident. Anxious to try again this season.

 

[Tim/South]

I have the back wheels set at different angles to keep thick hay from trying to squeeze through at the same time. One side empties just a little before the other.

Wheel rakes are great for grass hay. For legumes they usually cause more leaf shatter.

 

[double v]

What type of land are you haying ie, flat, hilly, longrows, short rows. The wheel rakes are great for long flat surfaces shorter areas make it harder. I actually sized down to a 8 wheel was using a 10 wheel just to big for some of the fields I was haying

 

[dt34715]

I am haying 10 acres of Bermuda on mostly flat ground.