hay rake advice

Keith Molden

Well-known Member
I've been thinking about buying one of the 8 or 10 wheel V rakes. I've had people tell me that they work great and have had them tell me that they don't work well at all on fields that are small. Just wondering what you folks think about them. I've used side delivery rakes for years and had a 3 point hitch wheel rake but didn't like it at all. Keith
 
Not being a wise guy, but when you are at you local equipment dealers facility, how many new side delivery rakes are on his lot??

I have not used a side delivery rake in 20 years.
 
Hi Keith, I bought this Khun carted style speed rake,or Vee rake last year. Works great for me, I can put both sides down , or only one side down. It will gather in 3 , 9 foot rows, or two 14 foot rows with ease
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How small is "small"? 5 acres is no issue,1/2 acre might crowd it. As with any implement,the bigger stuff is sometimes just too big. I have found that a windrow that is heavy,or stuck tight,a wheel rake can miss some hay. On hay laid flat,no issues. I like the carted type as we can use a small tractor.Easier turning,too.An H Farmall is plenty of 'horse'.We have a lot of irregular shaped fields. Just leave the ends till last. one round around the ends as you finish will clean up nicely.
 
Well I rake waterways with a 10 wheel Sitrex Magnum V rake. I think a wheel rake will do what your wanting to do. The current wheel rakes are much better than the small wheeled rakes of years ago. There are some newer designed carted wheel rakes that would work better for you than the style I have. Mine is longer which is great for spreading out on hill sides but does not work as well in tight corners.

The carted type rake like Bruce pictured below is doing a good job these days. The older carted rakes did not work well unless they where in a flat field. H&S Action rakes, the Kuhn Knight rake like Bruce has works well, there are several companies making them now.
 
Actually Bob, around here you see a lot of the side delivery rakes on the dealers lots. We have mostly 10 acres and smaller fields and hillsides around here to work with
 
I'm with asking how small the fields are. Have you considered a rotary rake? Those things are great,but I parked mine for an 8 wheel 3pt V rake just because it cuts my raking time in half. When Dad and the boys were here to rake for me I didn't care,but doing it alone,raking in half he time is a must. Some day I'd like to have a pull type like Bruce's. I like the 3pt for maneuverability,but because it's such a pain to put on and take off,it ties up a tractor all summer.
 

Only comment I am going to add is what type of baler are you using? Older closed throat round balers do not like V rake windrows very well and will have difficulty starting bales. My 241 IH would not feed with a 8 wheel H+S rake of my brothers very well at all.
 
I have a Gehl closed throat. Doesn't make much difference with that. It does make a lot better bale when raked with the V rake though. It lays the hay out wide and even instead of rolling it all together in a single windrow. It makes a difference what you cut with. When I has a sickle type machine with rolls,the V rake tended to bunch the hay and I always had to make sure I baled in the opposite direction from what it was raked.

With the disc type with a flail conditioner,it's softer somehow and doesn't bunch it near as bad and I seldom have to bale in the opposite direction.
 
I think location makes a difference. There are hardly any wheel rakes here, mostly rotary rakes. I used a carted v rake a few years ago and didn't care for it. In a big field of lighter hay it worked good. In heavy hay it made kind of a tight lumpy windrow. The rotary rakes make very loose fluffy windrows that bale easy and continue to dry. In a small field (5 ac?) it was kind of a pain.
 
The angle that it comes down would make it bind up I think. If I'd spend a lot of time making new stands that let it come down perfect it would probably work. I've thought about it. It's just simpler to leave it hooked on.
 
I really like mine. 418 gehl. 4 wheel 18 feet wide.I was doubling most of my hay with a jd side delivery and sometimes running two of them. It's more than paid for itself in time and labor. I bought it used for $1500. I keep my side rake for tipping the double rows or really heavy hay.
 
Case IH 8430 & it doesn't seem to care what size windrow I have it will bale it but a double windrow is also one of the reasons I'd like to try one. What I'm talking about is one like Bruce has a Pic of on down on this post. Around here Sytrex or Galfre are pretty well used because they are cheaper and we don't make 10,000 bales a year like you folks out west do. It would take about all of my county to get enough hay to bale 5,000 round bales I believe LOL
 
We used a 10 wheel H&S v-rake a little, worked great to cut raking time, and also to speed up baling. Our fields were flat so no troubles there. It worked great for us. One thing that I did didn't with that over a regular side rake, was to start in the middle, and do the headlands last.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
I don't have a V but I have a 4 wheel 3 pt and I have a parallel bar, some call them side discharge (thought all rakes side discharged...purpose of the implement) JD 660. I have had the wheel for 12 years and thought it a waste but it proved it's worth to me on this sparse hay patch.

Mine works fine in the straightaway but you get in turn, like I have in my home patches and it makes sloppy corners. It is great for picking up every blade of grass as it is ground contact with a flat blade tip. Being 3 pt it is nice to lift and drop at the right times when you want to skip over places and easy to transport.

The JD on the other hand tends to skip over minor variations in the soil unless you force the spiked fingers into the soil and even at that it doesn't have the same degree of ground contact....leaves product on the ground. It's 9' and can cover 2ea 6' spaced WWs like my 6' drum mower makes, or if using a JD 1209 9' swather it can follow adequately if you have the ww deflector down where it doesn't ww but spreads out the full width. It is the drag type with the 3rd wheel up front.

For big WWs and raking into the wind the JD wins hands down. For raking where the ground beats you to death in the seat if you try to rake at the speed the basket requires, JD hands down. For raking thick, heavy stalked crops like the 8' Gotcha plus Sorghum-Sudan hay patch I had in 2014 (I have pictures that I've posted) it wins hands down.

So, for my current sparse project, I run over it fast with the basket raking numerous passes into a half decent WW then come back with the JD and clean up the curved areas and tuck the straightaway into clean WWs.

To each his own. This is what I have found to work for me....a STO trying to survive.
 
Bought a used Frontier v rake a couple years ago....here's a post

http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=implment&th=264736

Used it all last year and this year. Never even got the rollabar rakes out this year. I think it cuts my raking time by 2/3, and since the kids have grown, saving time is a big deal.

Got it adjusted to match the pickup width on my NH 855 baler.

Have to keep an eye on it in heavy hay, it can wad up when the hay won't feed under the bar in front of the wheels, but it's not that big of a deal. Raise it up a little, pull forward to clear the wad, let it down and go.

I won't be without a v rake again.

FWIW

Fred
 
Don't know where you are located but up here in NW wis raking is part of the drying process. I run a nh 256 tandem hitch. First time over I rake 2 single windrows and go back the next day and shift the hitch to make a double one. But most of my hay goes to horsy people who feed it lovingly one flake at a time and want every flake to be perfect. Had a Vermeer v rake and sold it after one year. Didn't corner well, wanted to plug at the back and bunch up, and I felt like I was doing primary tillage every time I used it. Plus it didn't have a center kicker wheel which left a strip of hay in the middle undisturbed which is a no no when the ground is damp. All that bitching aside, I do abit of custom baling with a 4' wide Vermeer. Baling is much nicer behind a V rake. You just drive and can let your mind wander. Nearly perfect bale every time because the windrow is so uniform. Good luck with your choice after sorting through all this advice.
 
I have a 8 wheel v rake, 3 pt hitch. I hated it, when i was using it on my 45 hp deutz, I tried it behind my 80hp deutz, it works great. Of course one is more of a compact tractor, the other is a row crop. My guess, once it is adjusted properly, they work great. I can not get a manual for mine, anywhere, which is part of the problem.
 

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