New idea crimper?

Found a New Idea crimper, they're asking $300. Steel rolls. What can you guys tell me about them? Are they very practical to use on small acreage? Anything to really go wrong with them? Biggest problem I see is ive got an 8ft disc mower and pretty sure it's an 7 ft crimper. Thought I might ted first, makes a smaller "windrow" so to speak...

The hay needs to be left just as the mower drops it, or the crimper will not pick it up. With a sickle mower you crimp in the same direction as you mow. With a disc mower, you crimp in the opposite direction, because disc mowers make the stems fall forward. It needs to be 'picked up by the head'.

If you can find a New Holland 404 crusher, it will work much better. They have a textured rubber roller and a smooth steel roller. They leave the hay laying up on top of the stubble. Here in NC, it saves us a day of curing. We sometimes ted after a day or so after crimping, sometimes not.

Your 540 doing okay?

Garry

Curious how it'll work, being a 7ft crimper and my new Holland 616 is
an 8ft cut....

540 has been rock solid so far. I rolled almost 800 rolls last year and
still the only thing I've done to it is replace the pickup drive chain. I
did lose my lease on a large industrial park for this coming year,
somnot mich hay to put up this year, at least not yet. That's one
reason I'm looking at the crimper. I've got about 5 acres I'm thinking
about sowing Sudan grass in, and from what I've read, if fertilized
right, it'll produce some tonnage. Only issue is it's a little stemmy,
thus why I'm looking into a crimper.

All crimper-crusher units are considered a 7' unit for use with a 7' bar mower but you do not put out a 7' flar swath, you have to have that swathboard on the end of the bar, if you don't then you are plugging all the time. So that swath board makes it a 6 foot swath and if you measure the length of the rolls you will find they are made for length of that 6' width of swath. And all of the units help on hay curing, some types more than others and type of hay makes a big difference in how well they work, I cannot see the rolls to tell type if crimper or crusher, crushers work better only for leguames while crimpers work on all types of hay. Your disk mower does it have shields that can be adjusted for laying a full width swath or down to a winrow? If it has you should be able to pull then into a 6' swath but the thicker parts of the swath from pulling the sides in will get crushed harder than the middle do to amount being put in. 2 steel drums? 2 rubber rollers? one of each?

Some type of rolls will pick up going only the way mowed, others will pick up each way. I never used a New Idea. Had 2 different models of Deere, AC, IHC and a new holland was brought out and tried and sent back before ever got the first round conditioned and the IHC was brought out and used for several years by both my Uncle that bought it and us. And the hay field the New Holland was tried out in was ours but Uncle buying machine.

Should work good on that. only thing getting your swath to lay corectly.

First one we had in the middle 60s? was a John Deere crimper, two steel rolls that meshed like long gears. I ran it 90% of the time and hated every minute, seems like I spent half my life laying under it with my knife cutting hay out of the rolls, it wrapped bad. This was bought new and after about three years the rolls were chipping off the ends, so it got traded on a Cunningham I think, maybe a New Idea? Rubber rolls, worked perfect for as long as I was around the farm. Pulled it with a Farmall M with a new side mount balanced head mower, could really knock down the hay.

We had a 6' Cunningham conditioner and a 7' ih sickle bar mower.It had the metal mesh gear style mesh crimpers.I ran it while Dad mowed.It picked up the hay fine,probably because the swath board flipped the hay over on the end,narrowing the swath.Your disc mower should do the same.
As others said,it picks up hay from the heads,so with a disc mower you travel the opposite direction.DO NOT TED FIRST.The hay has to go thru the crimpers length ways,so if you ted it the crimper will be ineffective.Run the conditioner while the hay is green,the sooner the better.To make it pick up the hay best,keep the tongue high as possible so the bottom and top crimpers are as perpendicular to the ground as you can get them.Clumps of hay will go thru it,but may not crimp well,so you may need to shake them apart first.Clumps are more prevalent on corners,and these are the areas that don't dry quite as well.If you don't follow the swath properly it may suck hay in from one side or the other,which can cause it to wrap up on 1 roller.Usually it will wrap on the lower roller,so if it wraps on the top roller,something is wrong,and it is hard to discharge after you crawl under and cut it.A linoleum knife works best for cutting when it wraps up.Dad was particular about getting hay dry,so we went around our fields with pitchforks and shook apart any clumps,carried them to sunnier parts of the field to get them to dry.So you learn where hay may still be green before raking.Even after raking,we went around with pitchforks straightening windrows and spreading any remaining green hay on top of the windrow so it would dry.
In most hay,crimping is very effective at getting it to dry,but you almost always have some trouble wrapping on the roller(s). I much prefer a tedder-so much easier to use and operate,and in the long run,just as effective.Mark

We used ours on sudan grass,but released some tension on the rollers first,I think so it would not grind it up.See my other reply above.Mark

2X on not letting it draw hay from the next swath. I spent a lot of time as a kid under a Cunningham cutting the hay from the rolls.

So did I !! Mark