Hesston 1070 haybine. Reel breaks teeth and rough stubble

lastcowboy32

Well-known Member
I recently tuned up an old Hesston 1070 that was an auction find for a few hundred bucks. Overall, if you look at the paint, chassis, conditioning rolls, cutterbar and sections...you'd think that it hadn't mowed much hay in its lifetime.

If you look at the reel, though, you'd think otherwise. The reel is missing quite a few teeth. The bumper bar in front of the reel has a tell-tale wrinkle in it that says that it's been straightened.

I made some hay with it yesterday.

Pros?

I like the way that it pulls, the chassis is heavily built, but it's balanced on nice wide tires. I was pulling it around with a little Jinma 284 (28 horse) and mowing some six foot tall canary grass without much effort.

Damn thing seems to avoid plugging. Maybe because it has stub guards on it? I've never used them before.

I like the design and accessibility of the wobble drive. It's up out of the grass and more accessible for maintenance/repair than, say...a NH 467 or 477.

It has a lot of lift/lower travel. Very nice for when you want to lift it up to drive over previously mown hay. Even with the low tongue connection on the Jinma tractor, I was able to lift the mower above obstacles or swaths.

Cons?

Not sure if I like the reel being a chain drive. I ended up replacing the chain. The old one was worn/stretched. I also think that this could cause systemic issues over the long haul..as in..belts slip...chains break. Also, there is no "give" for the reel. Damn thing seems to eat reel teeth. It even broke a few of the ones that I replaced. Any tips on that? Maybe something is out of adjustment?

The stubble is rougher than I would like. Could that be an issue with using stub gaurds? They do seem to prevent plugging, but I don't seem to get a good overall cut, even with good/sharp sections.
 
Some pictures:
1. Hooked up and ready to go. Note the chainsaw and hand scythe in the bucket of the tractor...you never know what you'll find on a backswath of a field that hasn't been mown in a few years.

2. Making some decent hay in a field that was brush-hogged in May to knock down weeds.

3. Some county-fair-blue-ribbon goldenrod in a section of the field that previous owners had skipped for many years. Cows need bedding too.

4. Figuring out the reel chain.

5. Straightening the swather/windrower panels that somebody must have bent by putting it on a trailer sideways to go to auction. Two boards...two clamps...a gentle tug...straight panels.

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Since you replaced the chain, also consider changing the little sprocket---gets much more wear than the big spendy one, and can extend chain life. Reel teeth usually get damaged in the sickle- check for adequate clearance at lowest reel height.
 
Used a PT-7 for 25 years or so. Liked it better than the New Holland 472 I now use, but back to yours. Adjust the slip clutch on large sprocket on reel drive, just to point of not slipping in normal crop. I have found that the stub guards leave more of a ragged stubble.
 
JMS is correct about the reel tooth damage. Teeth need to sweep they hay off the guards, but not get bit off by them. The disc with washer and springs on the reel sprocket is a slip clutch. Take it apart and clean the discs and put it back together and adjust it so it can slip when necessary.
 
(quoted from post at 09:48:04 07/28/15) JMS is correct about the reel tooth damage. Teeth need to sweep they hay off the guards, but not get bit off by them. The disc with washer and springs on the reel sprocket is a slip clutch. Take it apart and clean the discs and put it back together and adjust it so it can slip when necessary.

All good advice.

I'll have to look into adjusting the reel position and the slip clutch.

I'm also grateful for the opinion about the stub guards. I like the fact that they don't plug as easily, but I like a field to have a nice clean, even stubble.

I looked at the sprockets when I did the reel chain. They all look good. The one on the conditioning roll (smallest one) looks really good, as if it's been recently replaced. However, it has a very slight wobble to it...so whoever replaced it must have put it on just a leeeeeetle cock-eyed.

Right now, it's put enough hay down to keep us busy for a couple of days. At least now I have a few things to look at during the next rain storm to see if I can get it working even better.
 
The small, recently replaced sprocket...is that a weld-a-sprocket? Might have been welded a bit cock-eyed. I"d replace it again, cuz the wiggle is going to give extra wear to your new chain.
 

I'm not sure. There is something a little fishy about it. It doesn't look welded. It almost looks like it has some kind of pin (like a cotter pin) behind it, the end of which seems to be sticking out one side and not the other.

By the way, who does Hesston parts now? Is that AGCO? I'm not sure who the AGCO dealer is in Central NY.
 

For what the price of hay is around here, though... I could put a new chain on it every 500 bales and not bat an eyelash...if it means that I can cut our own fields and not have to buy hay.

:)
 
Follow on question:

What is the "vintage" of the 1070 model? My guess is....late 70's to early 80's???

My family has always used New Holland growing up. What NH model family would line up with it by vintage? 467? 477?
 
that small sprocket is the drive for the reel,, if you remove it should have a drive lug on back side,,you will have to check n see cause I know they changed these thru the the years of making these machines. I had a 1071 a bit newer than yours. make sure your slip clutch for the reel is not rusted and properly adjusted
 
Have the open front stub guards on a JD header and love them...NO plugging and nice even cut. If finishing up a wedge it will cut right threw a windrow cuton the last round. End up with a
lot less bunching !


John
 
(quoted from post at 12:49:20 07/29/15) Have the open front stub guards on a JD header and love them...NO plugging and nice even cut. If finishing up a wedge it will cut right threw a windrow cuton the last round. End up with a
lot less bunching !


John

I'm thinking that you may be right about that. After we baled the fields, I looked at the stubble. The first field that I mowed was nice and clean, even though it was odd shaped and had many swaths that came to a point, requiring me to cut through existing swaths.

As I looked at the fields in order of how I cut, the stubble got progressively worse.

I'm thinking that it has more to do with the reel setup and breaking teeth.

I had replaced a few teeth and re-bolted some loose teeth before starting out.

When I checked the mower at the end of the day, some of those same teeth were broken and some others were now loose/broken.

The stub guards didn't plug, but I'm thinking that I was getting crappy reel performance later in the day, causing the mower to push hay over, as opposed to the reel pulling it over the guards/sections to be cut.

I'm going to reserve judgement of the stub guards until after I adjust the reel position and slip clutch as a few people have suggested.

Chris
 
(quoted from post at 12:49:20 07/29/15) Have the open front stub guards on a JD header and love them...NO plugging and nice even cut. If finishing up a wedge it will cut right threw a windrow cuton the last round. End up with a
lot less bunching !


John

Update:

I devoted about six hours last weekend to "round two" of tuning this old haybine up.

-Replaced the guard at the far end. The old one was bent down and out of the sheet metal channel that shields it; so it kept catching wads of hay and building up. New guard, bent the dings out of the sheet metal so that the point of the end guard now lays in the shielding channel, as it should.

-Took off two of the bars on the reel and replaced teeth so that there were no missing teeth or half teeth. Both of these bars had as many as half off the teeth missing.

-Checked the alignment of all of the stub guards and adjusted by putting a piece of pipe over the points and bending as needed.

-Checked the torque on all of the stub guard bolts. Amazingly, some of them were only finger tight...allowing the guard to hang down a little from the section riding in it. You could imagine that this gap would make the scissor action of section vs. guard ineffective.

-Coated all of the chains with chainsaw bar n chain oil.

-Replaced the shoe adjustment bolts with 1/2" stainless steel bolts and stainless steel nylon insert locknuts (the old ones almost needed a torch, they were so rusty.)

-I disconnected the reel drive chain and turned the reel to watch for interference....NONE....apparently, all of the teeth-breaking action on the reel must have been from a previous owner just running the manure out of the old girl.

Result? Just these few adjustments made it cut like a whole different machine. No more breaking reel teeth. Stubble is nice and clean, no streaks. I'm also enjoying the stub guards' resistance to plugging.

A little TLC has produced a damn fine mowing machine. Happy as a clam with its performance. For 750 bucks and some elbow grease, it's a good deal.
 

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