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Gehl 880 haybine

D

dubv

Member
I just purchased a Gehl 880 haybine. Its been parked in a shed for some time but it looks fairly solid. Anything in particular I need to watch for on this machine? Anyone have experience with them? Thanks!

Chris
 
Never used one, don"t know that model, but looked one over last Fall at a local welding shop. Complicated, way less than bright design in the power train. Lots of work to replace parts. Small wheels are not much more than a roller- will bury in soft ground. Maybe another reason that they got out of farm equipment.
 
Should have asked before, not after. Parts availability is poor and will get worse fast. Gehl left the hay and forage business several years ago and no one bought the tooling or rights to supply parts. An 880 was always a marginal machine to begin with.
In the Hay and Forage line, there is no good reason to buy Gehl anything, even though a lot of their stuff was pretty good.
 
By law a company has to make parts for 10 years. I have a Gehl 1285 chopper and I have no problem getting any parts for it, best chopper I have ever owned. I dont have any problems getting parts for my Gehl wagons or 1580 gehl blower. I dont know much about their hay cutting products though.
 
our family has had two of them, and a Gehl 1090 (which I believe is a series newer) over the past 20 years at least, and yeah, they'll work, but not real good. I can't pinpoint one thing, they just kinda fall apart all over. Even the sheet metal on them is kinda chincy, but if your only going over a few acres a year on a hobby farm, it will get you by, and yeah your local AGCO dealer should still be able to hook you up with parts. If not, there's lots of those things out there hanging out at scrap yards. If your going over some acreage, get a disc bine, we did the numbers and with fuel the way it is, a big hydro swing disc bine will almost pay for itself after a few years in fuel and time savings. Hope that helps.
 
I guess I should add I only paid $200.00 for the unit...sounds like the price was about right.

Unfortunately a discbine is not in the cards with my budget as I'm not going to take out loans to purchase equipment, so for now I'll make do with the two sickle haybines I have.

Thanks everyone for the input!

Chris
 
It may work just fine. That was the first haybine grandpa bought. He used it for many years, and I did for a few years too. For some reason, mine liked to break the sickle bar right where the drive head attaches to the bar. Didn't ever work to weld it, simply had to buy a new sickle when it happend. I had about 6 broken sickles that I threw into the scrap bin about a year ago.
The head didn't float very well on rough ground, and it was a low capacity mower with slow ground speed. However, it sure beats nothing, and it did work better than the Ferguson 3pt sickle mower it replaced.
 
Their forage harvesters were excellent, rugged machines. Bought a 2 year old CB600 in 1977, chopped hundreds of acres every year til the cows went in 2001. But the moco- no, would never consider one.
 
Have you tried getting beaters for their chopper boxes? I've heard that stock on hand is all that's left...they aren't making more. And htey are way overpriced for some rolled-up and pop-riveted sheetmetal! Local welding shop has started making them out of round tube (2x thickness) with fully welded teeth.
 

Used to work for Gehl. Most of their equipment was very good. They tested and tested before the put stuff on the market. I never worked on the older haybines. I believe they were Owatona (sp?)made since Gehl bought Owtona's hay line a long time ago. I know their self-propelled haybines were Owatona's. So you may look for Owatona parts if you're having trouble finding them thru Gehl. Our local Gehl/White/Agco dealer retired/sold out a couple years ago. Gehl wouldn't let anyone else local pick up the parts or skidloader line.

Not sure about the late forage boxes. I think they were made by M&S or Myers. Gehl small box spreaders were New Hollands. New Holland's V-tank spreaders were made by Gehl (which I have a couple friends who really like them)

Disc-bine cutter bar's were made by Kuhn so those parts are easy to get.

Probably worth $200 for scrap so you didn't go too wrong with it.
 
For 10 years after END OF PRODUCTION of a particular model. So if that thing went out of production in 1980, you're SOL. And when companies go out of business entirely, often the 10 year rule gets ignored. Ask some people who bought Papec equipment right before they tanked.
 
(quoted from post at 05:06:06 03/09/10) I just purchased a Gehl 880 haybine. Its been parked in a shed for some time but it looks fairly solid. Anything in particular I need to watch for on this machine? Anyone have experience with them? Thanks!

Have owned MC770 and a MC880 since new in 1976 and 1979 respectively...
True the sheetmetal hood in the back has annoyingly weak mountings, but anyone with a little engineering sense can easily reinforce it...

True they are now hard to get parts for, that's why I have three parts machines that were bought at scrap value (a major bargain).

False that someone here says they are ..."hard-running and don't cut well and are only good for a few acres"... Mine have cut over 10,000 bales a year for over 30 years, and usually travel at 4 to 5mph in normal stands.
A little Farmall H will have no problem powering a 770, and a little IH 300 or 350 is able to run an 880 ... The 1070 and 1090 are newer versions of same machines, with slight improvements..

As with any sicklebar mower, there are certain things that MUST be maintained, such as proper lead, proper knife register, proper shear gap, proper head-to-pitman alignment, and proper float.. Ignore those and you will have a poor-cutting hard-running machine, no matter the color...

My only complaints with the gehl mowers is that 1: the welds are pretty to look at but are understrength at a couple critical points, the biggest problem spot is the pitman rocker... The design IMO is much better than NH wobble-ball, but the factory welds on the pitman and the machine suspension tube are inadequate under stress. Had to rebuild them long ago and all of mine have since been welded on [u:686cda17b3]both[/u:686cda17b3] sides, haven't torn one up in many years.. 2: the fat tires are too expensive, best to get the dual-setup... 3: The only bearings that ever fail are the two on the sweeper, they are sealed.

Most helpful hint of all... GET AN OP MANUAL, and ALWAYS leave the machine up in the transport-lock position when it's not being operated, especially during storage. If you don't, the torsion bars will be at full-twist and fatigued in short time, leaving you void of proper float capabilities. Then it will draft hard and drag its shoes in the dirt... The shoes do not touch the ground in an ideally smooth level field when the machine balanced and float is correctly set. A machine that has been stored in the down position for a long time will soon leave you without any torque/float adjustment left.
Click to expand...
 
Question how do I replace the right bearing on the reel? There is a large nut that I cannot remove. Any ideas?
 
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