haybine with narrow front and fast hitch

how would you set up a tractor with a narrow front and fasthitch to use a haybine or similar? especially with a hydro swing model? lets use the 400 as an example. running over cut and conditioned hay is not a desired occurence

I think i have the fast hitch part figured out. Have a drawbar extension plate made that will bolt to the fh drawbar and hitch to the implement just as the OE hitch extension that comes with it would.

I am not sure how to negotiate the narrow front. My dad has used a narrow front to cut hay before, but that was a simple mower. with today's one step machines, seems that any hay run over does not dry or pick up the same for baling.

the 400 would be a backup tractor, but it would be nice to be prepared versus scrambling to beat the weather or need a welding shop on the weekend when they've gone fishing! Oh and keeping the narrow front is what we want.


thanks
karl f

Pulled a haybine for years with a narrow front tractor, H,M,400, could not tell any difference than with a wide front. Put a plate extension on the fast hitch I cannot remember the exact distence 13 1/2 or 14 or 14 1/2 from the end of the pto to the center of the pin hole.

How else do you cut hay but to run over the hay you just cut?? I know 100% sure you don't want to run over hay thats still standing because that knocks it down so it does not cut well. I use an Oliver 77 with trike front and a NH460 MOCO to cut hay and I always run over what I just cut down and will never do it any other way other then the first pas which you have no choice on. Been doing it that way for decades. How else is there with out a flying tractor???????????????
Hobby farm

wide fronts straddle the windrow.

already have the standard pto distance plate on the fast hitch, this machine requires an additional extension you bolt to the drawbar on like a ford 5000 or IH 656, 1256 or current production deere. the actual drawbar pivot ends up maybe 20+ inches from the pto shaft.

karl f

the "haybine" in this case is a 12' Deere 1424 moco hydra swing. should not make a difference, but maybe should have mentioned it in first post, just in case.
karl f

Karl: I'd get rid of both fast hitch and narrow front if I were using the tractor for mower-conditioner and want to do windrows. It sounds as though you plan to put material direct into windrow. First you don't want those front tires on windrow and secondly fast hitch is too low and will drag windrows.

Fifty years ago we were mowing with narrow fronts and spread hay over entire surface. I did that myself until mid 1960s then started making haylage. My first haybine was a NH 460 and we used it behind Farmall 300 nf, broadcasting the hay, with all tires running over a portion of it.

When I went haylage, I wanted one pass putting hay in windrow, so I switched to 560 wf on 9' haybine. First the fast hitch was gone in favour of U type drawbar, then I had to go to 16.9x38 rear tires to give enough clearence so drawbar didn't drag windrows. My next problem was getting hay too dry for haylage. I had never encountered this problem, with broadcast hay and tires running over most of it. At that point I decided timing was quite crucial on haylage, plus I had to rethink the way I made hay. Gone were the days of ever letting any tires on mowed hay. With windrows we went from sun cured hay to air cured hay, much faster dry down and less chance of getting caught by weather.

What Hugh said,

I wouldn't wanna be walking on that windrow either, because you are cancelling out the "fluff" effect of the crimper and slowing down the drying process.

I'd be for getting a different front end.

Allan

I use a narrow front SMTA on a 12 foot JD haybine. I moved the back wheels out a bit and can straddle the windrow I have just cut. My swather book says to cut your first round with swather behind the tractor. I tried that but left a lot of hat knocked over by tractor wheels. Wen to doing it like when I used a mower, and go opposite direction on it after several rounds.

If you want the hay to dry for baling, you need to lay it in a swath, not a windrow. Then it doesn't matter because you can't help but run on the swath... There's nowhere else to drive.

You need to rake the hay at least once between mowing and baling anyway, and raking will fluff out anything you did by running over the swath or windrow with the 400's front tires.

If you want to mow windrows with the 400, you've got two choices:
1. Run over the windrow.
2. Don't use the 400.

IMHO, unless the hay is pretty thin and the land pretty flat, any hydraswing haybine is way too big for a 400 anyway.

"I wouldn"t wanna be walking on that windrow either..."
know that all too well. grew up gettin yelled at for just walking accross a windrow, let alone drive over with anything, it was wasting hay, which meant wasting money. with that in my mind, was the reason behind my post. My dad went to a 230 windrower with crimper in the 70s, which is now completely shot, but due to the cost of a new one, we"ve reverted back to pull type, and he"s remembering why he wanted the self propelled back then--almost zero driving over a windrow.


karl f

mkirsch: Undisturbed hay will dry faster in windrow. In the 1960s I mowed hay in swath with NH 460 haybine, and this was timothy-alfalfa hay yielding 5 ton/acre dry hay per cutting. I moved to a haylage operation, and windrowing from the haybine. The first problem I encountered was hay becoming too dry for haylage within 24 hours. I had never seen heavy crop hay dry this fast. This hay was heavy enough I had to use 16.9x38 tires on my 560 or 656 to keep drawbar from draging windrow whem mowing. Everyday I found myself turning this once and baling it, within 30 hours of mowing. It was the surprise of my life and changed the way I made hay forever. The windrowers never came off the haybine.

(quoted from post at 07:41:36 08/04/08)You need to rake the hay at least once between mowing and baling anyway, and raking will fluff out anything you did by running over the swath or windrow with the 400's front tires.

Click to expand...

Nope, there is no need to rake hay between cutting with a haybine and baling it. Actually, I much prefer baling hay that hasn't been raked - picks up much nicer in my opinion.

Back to the original question - set your rear tires as wide as possible, swing the haybine accordingly and straddle the windrow.

OR - set the rear tires as narrow as possible and drive between the windrow and un-cut hay (swing haybine accordingly). I really don't recommend this as narrow rear tread settings are more likely to roll over.