Hay rakes

[Texasmark]

That time of year again and I know we discuss them a lot but here goes. What is your favorite brand or brands that you know stay away from. Looking to upgrade my 8 wheel v to a 10 wheel with a kicker. Need a fairly good rake transport wise as my hayfields are spread out. Anybody know anything about an Ennorrossi (sp?)? They are priced right but that is usually a bad sign.

Thanks for any info..

Accidentally punched the "like Heart". Meant to reply: I am fond of the parallel bar rakes like the JD 500 and 600 series for my STO work. I no longer go to remote leased land and when I did, 4 miles was tops on rural roads so my 9' was no problem transporting or setting up when I got there. I bought a 4 basket, 3 pt. wheel back in 2007 and never cultivated a taste for it. However, I did find a use this year for some unique applications and it seemed to be well suited......the reason I tried it (again)...uniqueness of the task.

I see commercial guys and others who transport down the FM-Mkt road and State Hwys and the V basket rigs on the 3 pt especially seem to be very handy. The V of 8 baskets min. solves some of the problems with the 4 I had. I also see dual JD parallel bar for really big operations that transport easily in the drag configuration (non 3 pt). Don't know the width capacity, but "wide" when deployed.

I still don't like basket/wheel types for SS crops nor in windy conditions which I have here. Also they make high irregular shaped WWs on SS crops (the taller the crops when cut, the worse the problem) requiring an Open Throat Baler (Opinion). JD balers are all you see around here including mine. On SS crops and fields of Gotcha Plus as in the picture I posted on the Hay board a few days ago, forget the basket, course that was an unusual situation. It wouldn't stop raining and I couldn't bale it so it grew and grew demonstrating it's prime characteristic: Late maturing.

Other problem I had with the basket was wind blowing fine grasses like short (<18") Coastal up against the basket and it wouldn't fall into the WW. In the summer, wind blows most all the time around here especially during Summer afternoons, when one is out baling.

The parallel bar doesn't lift over crops when desired like a 3 pt basket can do and for baling thin crops requiring many WWs combined, it does roll them up in a tube (of sorts) the more you have to "move over" a given WW. However, I never had a problem baling the tubes using my JD open throat balers and cows didn't seem to mind.

 

[hurleyjd]

The Kuhn speed rake, Vermeer wheel rake and the rhino are nearly the same rake on difference is Independent wheels on the Rhino.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

The Kuhn speed rake, Vermeer wheel rake and the rhino are nearly the same rake on difference is Independent wheels on the Rhino.

If you call those 3 "nearly the same" then you may as well throw the New Holland Procart/Sitrex Q rake, Pequea MCR, H&S action rake, and some other rakes in the "nearly the same" category as well. All of them are a medium capacity carted wheel rake with the frame in front of the wheels. Some of them use the tandem wheel setup, others the independent style.