Mower conditioners 9' New holland or Deere

Thinking on getting a 9 ft mower conditioner. Which one is better 488 New holland or 1209 Deere? Both dealers nearby.

Having had a 1209, I would go with the 488 if those were my choices. I feel the New Holland floats over terrain better than the Deere, doesn't have a tendency to shed its skid shoes, and has easily adjustable roller pressure.

I had a couple of 1209's. Worn out when I got them but worked ok considering. Also had a NH with an enclosed drive shaft.....how do I feel about that one? You don't want to know. The 1209 has an open shaft and you can get to the zerks to grease.

Oh, the torque on the bolt that attaches the sickle bar to the wobble box is 150 ft-lbs. ANY slack in that drive interface will cost you a bar.

I have a 1209, earlier serial number, also pretty wore out when I got it. The conditioner rollers are not very good so I have them opened up . The roller tension is set by the same springs that adjust header float. It is tough to get the right header float with conditioner rollers open. With rear shields clear in you still get a pretty wide windrow. Since mine is earlier sn, sickle head was changed later so you can't get a complete sickle without updating to later style pitman arm also. Same thing when conditioner roler, reel drive broke, you had to buy complete updated stuff.

I have a 488 that was new in the 1980's. it still works well, will get another 1-if this one ever wears out.

I go with the 488 as you can still buy a brand new one(different model number but same machine).The new Deere is nothing like the old 1209.Dad tried a 1209 but bought a 489 NH instead as it floated much better in our rocks. Tom

I would take the NH 488 any day over the JD 1209. They are just a better machine.

(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.

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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.

I would choose a NH 488 over a JD 1209. One needs to inspect the wobble box mounting bracket on 1209 for cracks or welds as they have a history of giving problems.

Never once had an issue in 25 years with the wobble box. Not saying that no one ever had an issue with it. I remember back in the day when my JD dealer was also a NH dealer....They always had a wobble box for a 489 on shelf and they never stocked one for a JD.