Wheel Rake or Rotary Rake?

[jnettesh]

I recently purchased a NH BR750 Round Baler this winter and I'm still looking to upgrade the way I rake hay. All the hay I bale is dry and usually consists of straight alfalfa or an alfalfa/grass mix. Right now i'm leaning towards a H&S 12 Wheel Hi-Capacity Rake. I have a nine foot haybine and hope to rake three windrows together. Any experience with these rakes or any recommendations on a different wheel rake or rotary rake would be appreciated.

 

[dun]

Whatever type of rake you get you will need to turn all of the windrows. Most times if you roll the 2 outside rows onto the middle one they middle one won;t be properly dried. It creats uneven moisture within the bale.

 

[jnettesh]

Whatever type of rake you get you will need to turn all of the windrows. Most times if you roll the 2 outside rows onto the middle one they middle one won;t be properly dried. It creats uneven moisture within the bale.

Yes, I very much agree with you and this is my one concern with the 12-wheel rake. I hope to increase the size of my haybine but this would not be until next year (2009). Then the 12 wheel rake would be better suited.

 

[EAT BEEF]

I had a 12 wheel H&S not hi capacity though it did a good job but we had to ted every thing most of the time so getting the center row to dry was not a problem. After that I had a miller rotary rake I really liked it for drying hay and not much leaf loss. Although it fluffs it so much that somtimes it would not feed into the baler as well as a wheel or bar rake (tend to make more of a rope) may not be much of a problem with the wider pickup on the new baler. I have a 435 deere w/out the merging wheels and unless I got the windrow just right or the wind was blowing would leave streaks in the field not worth going around picking up but it looked bad. So wheel rake is fast but the rotary does a better job if you have the time imo.

 

[jnettesh]

I had a 12 wheel H&S not hi capacity though it did a good job but we had to ted every thing most of the time so getting the center row to dry was not a problem. After that I had a miller rotary rake I really liked it for drying hay and not much leaf loss. Although it fluffs it so much that somtimes it would not feed into the baler as well as a wheel or bar rake (tend to make more of a rope) may not be much of a problem with the wider pickup on the new baler. I have a 435 deere w/out the merging wheels and unless I got the windrow just right or the wind was blowing would leave streaks in the field not worth going around picking up but it looked bad. So wheel rake is fast but the rotary does a better job if you have the time imo.

Thanks for the input. I also like how the rotary rakes fluff the hay up for drying. The biggest reason I want to upgrade my raking system is to save time on raking and baling, thus combining the windrows. I currently have a bar rake which works fine but I spend a lot of time raking hay. I know you can get rotary rakes that combine two windrows but i'm not very familiar with them. With your 12 wheel did u have any trouble with the hay getting clogged up in the frame or the tires?

 

[EAT BEEF]

jnettesh I didn't have to much trouble except at the back two wheels were the two sides come together in real thick hay sometimes it would make a ball and you have to pick the wheels up and start over. that didn't happen to much and I think the hi-capcity you were talking about is made to overcome this problem. I had this equipment in Ohio I moved to Oklahoma and now just have a cheap 10 wheel it will ball up a lot but is good for running into pecan trees. A friend of mine worked for a custom cutter they had a 48 or 50 ft rotary rake it was really 4 rakes in one I think it was around 50,000 they also also had a two rotary rake I think it took a 24 ft pass I see some of these for 10,000-14,000 used i think. How much hay do you have to make?

 

[jnettesh]

eat beef, yeh the high capacity is set up to overcome that problem. i was just wondering how the regular bi-fold did because there almost half the price of the high capacity. The rotary rakes you described sound great, especially for drying purposes, but too high priced for me unless I pick up some more acres but thats becoming harder each year. Ive got just over two hundred acres of hay ground. I'm looking for something under the 10,000 dollar price range, which kind of puts me out of the rotary rake but i still wanted to hear what people thought. Ive just leaned toward the wheel rakes cause of time and the way there setup. Not much breakdown and really just replacing the teeth when they go bad. The rake ive been eyeing up is the 12 wheel hi cap and there asking 8250 for it. It was a rental/demo unit but it practically looks brand new. This to me even seems high but I cannot seem to find anything lower thats even in good condition. ive looked at bifolds cause of the price difference, but was just concerned of having hay getting caught in the frame or wheels.

 

[cfpinz]

I've got one of the older model Vermeers that is similar to the one below except it is not a high-capacity model:
http://www.vermeerag.com/equip/rakes/wrx_rake/

Nice rake. Really nice in odd-shaped fields because you can adjust the raking width on the fly. Never plugged this one, only complaint I have about mine is sometimes it's a bear to get to start opening up from the transport position. Dad has a Vermeer caddy-type. In thick hay it will plug but you can raise it up and clear raked windrows if you rake yourself into a corner.

If I were buying a new rake tomorrow it would be either the Vermeer listed above or the New Holland that is similar, I forget the model number. Sure do like the New Holland.

cfpinz

 

[EAT BEEF]

jnettesh imo your on the right track although you might be able to find a used two rotary for close that :?:
the vermeer does look like a nice rake. A guy down the road from me has those durabull rake teeth on his old ten wheel caddy rake i think he said they were 180 for each wheel seemed like a lot since his rake wasn't worth that much but he says he hasn't broke one in 2 or 3 years.

 

[jnettesh]

cfpinz thanks for the info and the great link. One thing ive notice with the wheel rakes the H&S, Vermeer, and NH are all very similar in design. I think i see more H&S around here since the company is from wi. I do agree with you on the new holland, it looks very nice but ive tried searching for some used ones and havent been very lucky to find any nearby. Im not set on any brand, more or less like any equipment, the cost and location are the big thing.

 

[Sage]

I have been using an H&S 16 wheel rake for the past 4 years. The goos is that it is very fast without loosing leaves on alfalfa. Most of our hay dries compleatly in the windrow before turning so leaf loss is a problem with the basket style rakes. The bad is that it is very long and a bit clumsy in the small fields and like stated earlier it will just peel the top off a wet clump of hay. This has to be a very heavy wet clump but it will leave it and the wheels will bounce over instead of pushing the wet hay into the windrow. For our operationg I would purchase another wheel rake instead of a basket style such as the JD or New Holland.

 

[hurleyjd]

jnettesh imo your on the right track although you might be able to find a used two rotary for close that :?:
the vermeer does look like a nice rake. A guy down the road from me has those durabull rake teeth on his old ten wheel caddy rake i think he said they were 180 for each wheel seemed like a lot since his rake wasn't worth that much but he says he hasn't broke one in 2 or 3 years.

I have the 8-wheel vermeer rake. I have converted two of the wheels to the dura bull tines. I bought the rims from Vermeer and the teeth from Shoup. The conversion cost about 110 a wheel. I really like them. I cut with a nine foot mower/conditioner. The rake will put the two windrows just where you like them. It does ball up in thick windrows. If you need to go wider then you can buy the rake with more wheels. I like the fact that the rake can be picked up to make a turn. I do not think that the H & S rake can do that. I may be wrong but you can proable buy this rake new for between $3000 and $4000. Some of the grass here is so thick at times that I think that three windrows would be a problem with any wheel rake and the baler could not feed the thick windrows as you would like. That is if the baler were 4 foot wide.

 

[Sage]

The H&S and I think most all the other wheel rakes raise and lower with the hyd as well as open and close. Our H&S actually raises high enough to get out of the field over windrows if needed. That was my biggest hang up with the JD/vermeer basket rakes, they didn't raise high enough and they didn't open and close from the cab. The NH does and maybe the newest JD/V mght now. If you have pivots get the largest tires available.