(quoted from post at 14:23:58 07/25/15) Thinking on getting a 9 ft mower conditioner. Which one is better 488 New holland or 1209 Deere? Both dealers nearby.
I have not really heard any real reasons why to buy one over the other. I have never used a NH 488 so I do not have much opinion on that machine. I used my late style JD1209 for around 25 years or so. I was a great machine, easy to maintain, and reliable. I felt that it floated just fine over my rolling hills of Western New York. Like I previously stated, I have never used a NH 488. I did use a NH 489 and I was not impressed with the machine at all. I was happy to unhook it whan I did.
If the NH 488 is engineered anything like the 489 run like hell!!! The 489 is extremly difficult to work on when there is an issue. I helped my buddy replace the drive chains on it and it was a job. The sprokets are worn, but that requires a good 10 - 12 hours of work to get the machine opened up, replaced, and back togather. The JD 1209 is very simple to work on, it is open and user friendly to adjust or maintain. Make sure that you look at the design of everything and ask yourself do you feel comfortable with working on it? Are you capable of tearing it down and rebuilding it? I don't care what color it is, you don't want to take it to a dealer and get a bill for fixing it.
What type of knife guards are on it? Do they have the regular guards or the stub guards? I would not buy a machine with the regular guards. The stub-guards are adjustable so you can keep the proper clearence betwene the knives and guards, this is a night and day difference in cutting hay. If your hay is light and fine (horse hay, grasses) (second cutting is even finer) the regular guards will plug up and do a terrible job.
Two years ago I was in the market for a new (new to me, but used) machine. The JD1209 served its time and I sold it for $2600.00. I looked at all kinds of machines, JD, NH, NI, Hesston & Case IH (Case IH were built by either NI or Hesston). One of the thinsg that I noticed, reguardless of model and of age, the New Hollands all (most of them) had rolls that the rubber was torn off. I looked at 489's, 411's, 1411's, 1409's, If it was at the dealers lot or a priviet individual was selling it, for the most part the rolls were junk. New Holland must of had issues with adhearing the rubber to the steel drum. By all means I did see JD's and Hesstons with bad rolls too, but it seemed like every NH I looked at had bad rolls.
In the end I bought a NI 5209 from the original owner. It had an easy life on the vegatable farm, they had about 25 beef cows that they had to make hay for and finally got out of the beef business. I liked the NI rolls much better than the JD's and NH's.
Stub guards, rolls, and ease of service are what I would be looking at. I never used a NH 488, but if it like a 489 run, don't walk. The old timers alaways told me that the 488 was a far supior machine over the 489, but I have no real reasons to back that up. I can't remember why they always said that it was a better machine than the 489.