Good, older swather?

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
I been looking around. Want to get my equipment lined up before I plant oats in a couple months here. I see a few around at $10K and up. That is way over the budget for a test plot of oats. I did see one sell at an auction last fall for less than $1000. Very old, no cab. It started and ran well. Took me a bit to figure out what the darn thing was, though.

I would like to swath the oats to see if I can get a good uniform moisture content and then bale the straw behind the combine. I don't care how fancy a machine is as long as it can be made to work and parts are available. Any recommends on a good old low price swather? Make and model?
 
IHC I don't remember the number on the draper machines. Versatile 400 draper. Hesston draper and I dont remember their number either. JD but none around here.
 
I like the CASE branded Hesstons myself, I cut over 100 acres with this one two years ago, I bought it from a salvage yard
cnt
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Versatile 400. Although I don't think too highly of them one of those will work in your situation and most can be had for $1,000 or less. If you can weld you can keep one of those going. IH 4000s are another good one to have and IMO much better then the Versy 400s.
 
We still occasionally use an IH 210 self propelled. It works well for smaller farms like ours (50-100 acres small grain). I have heard good things about the 4000 IH, 2320 John Deere, and the 400 Versatile. If you don't mind running down some crop, a pull-type would work too (plus fewer parts to keep up).
 
Dave,
Do any of your neighbors grow oats? Do they direct cut them or swath them first? I have never seen a swather, we direct cut everything here, but I understand that's not the case in other parts of the country. As JD seller said, you will also need a pickup head. If direct cutting is an option, I think a flex head would be a more versatile head for your combine.
Josh
 
I bought a John Deere 800 with a 10 ft. platform a few years ago for $500. I used it to cut hay a few years and last summer we swathed our wheat with it.There are often a few listed on Craigslist for less than $2000.
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Dave,you need a machine with a 'draper'/canvas conveyor.And NO crimper/conditioner.A crimper will put all your grain on the ground because it's basicly a "thresher".An auger header will also damage/shell grain.Then you will need to come up with a windrow pickup.Then adapt your platform or find a 'dummy' head.Old drapers are OLD,and long since worn out.Read "headaches" into that.Windrowing grain is a great way to get dry/clean grain.But you need the right equipment.Steve (a former grain windrower)
 
Not yet. That makes two things I saw at auctions in the past six months that I did not bid on because I had not a clue what they were. One of the consignment sales had a fairly nice IH pickup head last fall...fit right on the 1660.
 
I'm looking for the pickup head too. The swather seems to be the harder item to locate. I don't mind a few headaches. I can test the thing six ways from Sunday on the hayfield and it will still break down when I get into the oats...no doubt about that! I am starting to get a picture of what I need. That Case 955 is a nice looking machine. An IH machine would be nice because I am so familiar with the engines I can keep it running that much easier. Guess I will see what I can find and go from there!
 
I use an old 479 NH haybine with most of the rubber gone off one roll plus the rolls are blocked open about 1/2". Started using this when my JD 800 broke down and I wanted to finish the field. Worked so good I never fixed the 800. Cut with the dew on and keep the RPM down abit and you get very little shatter. Keep the head fairly high so there is some stubble to keep the grain off the ground. You need to swath before the grain is dead ripe too. This year I only had about an acre or so of poor oats that didn't drown out. Didn't want to bother with the NH so went out when the dew was on and cut them with a Gehl disc bine. again didn't want to bother putting the pickup head on for so little, so planned on trying to pick them up with the direct cut head. Think it would have worked ok if it hadn't rained twice and had to rake them to get them dry enough. Ran through what I could get. What a guy goes through to get oats for mama's chickens. What I am trying to say is that there are many unconvential ways to get things done if you are real cheap and have abit of time to monkey.
 
Originally that was the plan. BUT, our elevator will turn oats away if they are not fully dry and with our weather...

Just thinking ahead. If I cut it like unconditioned hay (something I have a lot of experience with) I can get it uniformly dry and get good grain and good straw. That is my plan anyway.
 
Do you have a sickle mower? In the 1950's some farmers attached a simple windrower to sickle mower cutter bars to pull oats into a narrower windrow for combining.
 
Probably lots of them sitting around in ND and parts of northwestern MN. Brother still has the old Case 14ft SP swather sitting in the machine shed, as well as a JD pull type - not sure of the cut, probably 16 or 18ft. cut.

The Wisconsin air cooled engine on the SP has been replaced by a Case 4-cylinder liquid cooled engine. No cab though.
 

I would recommend an international 4000. The picture is off the net, I guess I don't have any pictures of the two we use. They have an American motors motor which is strong reliable engine and has hydrostatic drive which we have had no trouble with in the 15 years we have used them. Ours have 19' draper heads, but I have seen them as small as 15' and as big as 21'. Conditioner heads were also available. They come with or without a cab. We paid around $2500 in good condition with AC and heat, but this was around 15 years ago, they have gotten cheaper since. Nice thing about these machines is they have a good wobble box that will cut hay as well as grain. Only thing to watch for is the roller bearings on the canvases. If it is an outside machine you may have to replace the bearings in the rollers that drive the canvas, or at the least spray them up with wd40. One other thing, when backing up with these hydros', steering is REVERSED, just a heads up.
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I have a versatile 400 with a 15 foot head. No cab but the newer 400's can be found with a cab sometimes. Most outside of cattle country here in ND go for under a grand and the straight 6 ford lasts forever. Parts are also easy to find. best part of the 400 is it's hydrostatic, and most have a steering wheel for ease of use and reverse/turning levers incase your in a tight spot. I've heard the ih 4000 isn't too bad but those are harder to find around here. the JD 800's were also good but I'm thinking those were not hydro.
 
If you're looking for a no-frills machine, look for something like my 1955 M-H model. It's a lot of fun to drive and does a pretty descent job to boot.
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I'd vote for a Versatile 400, as well. I started out with a 12' JD 800. Never was happy with its performance, or the price of parts. Some people like them, so maybe I just got a poor one. 15' Versatile has been trouble-free (except for one set of points), and cuts much more per hour. If you look through the archives, you'll probably find some pics of both of the ones I've had.
 
I do have a sickle mower. At least five of them, maybe more. I sold a few off the place last couple years. That is an interesting idea and I remember seeing pictures of just what you are talking about in manuals and sales literature for mowers. Generally a series of rods extending back from the cutter bar, graduated lengths from short at the outer end to fairly long near the tractor. They leave a windrow behind the mower. From my perspective, kind of a Ron Popeil mower attachment. Likely a PITA to work with and I am sure I would need an auxiliary spring on the lift to handle the extra weight. I like a good sickle mower, but I think it will cost me more in shatter than I save by using it.
 
Around here a 479, even a rough one, is likely to cost me more than the swather. The horsey folk like to try doing their own hay every few years. Sometimes I think it is what drives the cycle of hay prices. When the price goes up, the cost of the old rotten equipment goes up because they start buying it like crazy. Drives the price down on bales so once they finds out that putting up hay is (bleep) hard work they start buying from those of us who do it again...and then we raise our prices...etc. Always amuses me to go to auctions at horse places. Some of the rattiest hay equipment you have ever seen in your life. These folks must half kill themselves to save a dollar on a bale of hay. Takes 4-5 years for them to forget and then the price of hay goes down again. I can almost set my watch by it. Now if I could just do that with corn...
 
I tell you Fudd, that is just a thing of beauty. Must be something wrong with me that I see something like that and want to take it for a spin. Everyone else I know, friend or family, is into cars. I will add that one to the search list.
 
Appreciate all the help. I have a tentative list for searching. Looks like I can get hits with "windrower, swather, or draper" Or, I can search for specific models...Case 955, Versatile 400, IH 4000, IH 210, JD 800, Massey Harris M-H. That gives me some good sources. The IH 5000 looks a little out of the range for what I am currently doing. I'll let you know what I find. Currently, nothing on CL that I can find but that will change as we get into nicer weather and folks get out and want to clean out the barns. Thanks!
 
Dave, I have an older model Versatile 400 that still works just great, gave $600 for it about 15 years ago, 20' cut, use it every year on canola and some flax. Also have a really old, 1950's 103 Versatile, still a good machine but belts are a bear to change, not hydrostatic.

Dick ND
 
I use a pull type draper swather saves keeping up a extra engine and cheaper to purchase. Several years back I have heard of farmers using a old binder for a swather. Some how removed or deleted the knotter end. Don't know if you are handy for such. Might be cheap.
 
I am handy with such...very. Just the line for that type of project extends down the drive and around the corner. I am looking for as LITTLE to do as possible. I'm still doing 2014 work and the 2015 is coming in.
 
Vesatile 400 is the better machine i havent paided over 500 for the ones i have they are runnin and non runnin mostly cut hay. canvases and rollers give you trouble i take canvas and rollers out in the fall put new bearings in the rollers come spring and cut hay all summer never had much trouble lately had a jd 800 and a ih 4000 all thats left of the 800 is the head its auger type was guna turn it into a snow blower somday lol
 
Notthing against a CASE swather either i never ran one. I just know bout the ones i have ran. That 955 CASE looks like a gem cnt
 
There is a neat little J.I CASE pull type on the tractor house website hay/forage-windrower/mower-conditioner-J.I CASE not case ih 12 ft pull type ground driven
 
i would say forget the swather and pickup . you put the oats down in a windrow and it starts raining and keeps up for days and then you can rake it up and burn because it will be all rotten. we used to do that here in South Dakota but it rains to much now so we strait cut. dry if need be
 
As a long time hay vendor to the local horsey folk, I can tell you we have some pretty lousy weather here from time to time also. But when oats are due to come off, there are long dry periods. I would like to have the option either way.
 
That is the main reason everybody quit swathing around here too. Never fails to get week of rain after swathing even though it had been dry all summer. Then there is more wear and tear on your combine and the extra expense of the swathing operation. That is why we try to avoid it at all costs.
 
That"s what I grew up with- on an IH binder, take out 1 (?) bolt that holds the arm that catches the grain to make the shock, and just let the grain run down to the ground. Bolt back in place, it makes bundles.
 

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