A good Swath inverter

bison

Well-known Member
Do they really exist?.
I have 100 acre alfalfa/grass mix on the ground.(200 more to go)
The crop is heavy, the swaths are 5' wide, cut with a 14' pivot tongue haybine.
I had an inch of rain on it 2 days ago and need to turn it cause it don't dry worth a F**k.
I usually use a combine pick up behind the tractor to fluff the swaths up after rain but now it just lifts the swath and throws it right back on the ground, the swath is just to heavy to fluff it up.
I have access to a 12 wheel V-rake and have tried that on a couple swaths but all it does is roll 2 swaths together and as luck will have it most of the wet is again on the ground and now i have 28' of crop in one messy swath.
My baler(JD 567) can hardly swallow that much hay and is constantly grunting and on the verge of plugging up.
The crop also catches under the front axle and tranny and hitch on my tractor and releases big plugs of hay that falls wider than the mega wide pick up on the baler
I have used in the past various rakes with mixed results and never found one that did the trick to my liking.

i've also used a NH 166 swath inverter and found it a big joke for all but a 3' swath, it just can't handle volumes.
Then there is the Matador 7900 swath inverter,..it does a good job and is fast but again only in 3-4 feet wide swaths any wider than that it just lays it beside the orig swath without turning it over

What is out there to turn a heavy swath satisfactory?,.. i mean turning a swath that leaves the wet on top and does not make a rope and/or spread the swath over hells half acre.

What do you say?
 
I have an old 9' MC Rotary Sigh I have used in just the conditions you have described. The idea behind it is simple the light dry hay falls out right behind it and the wet hay gets thrown out farther out the back and ends up on top to dry in the sun. It sound crazy but it works good. I can open up the back wide or close it up and make a narrow windrow. Just an idea if you know someone who has one and will let you try it. Bandit
 
Nope. i don't need to combine it!,..i need to turn it.
You got to use a tedder right after cutting, not when the swath is 75% dry and only wet on the bottom.
 
On some v rakes one side can be locked in transport position. This is what we do on ours to turn windrows.
 
I built a "fluffer" out of a combine grain pickup, maybe like what you already have....but I mounted it behind the tractor on a swivel, so it delivers the new fluffed windrow to one side or the other of the original swath. Hyd cyl runs the pivot, and a hyd motor runs the fluffer, slightly faster than ground speed, so it pulls the windrow open a bit before laying it back down.

It was a quick job putting it together, having barley already on the ground for too long, and I didn"t want to lose the new alfalfa seeding underneath. So it was crude, but it worked fine. I have pix in Photobucket, but can"t access them since they "improved" their system. I also cut up the frame after using it for one year, and made a mounted sprayer out of it! But the keys to the machine were the pivot and variable speed drive.
 
(quoted from post at 21:30:07 07/28/14) I built a "fluffer" out of a combine grain pickup, maybe like what you already have...[b:d67df17315].but I mounted it behind the tractor on a swivel, so it delivers the new fluffed windrow to one side or the other of the original swath.[/b:d67df17315] Hyd cyl runs the pivot, and a hyd motor runs the fluffer, slightly faster than ground speed, so it pulls the windrow open a bit before laying it back down.

It was a quick job putting it together, having barley already on the ground for too long, and I didn"t want to lose the new alfalfa seeding underneath. So it was crude, but it worked fine. I have pix in Photobucket, but can"t access them since they "improved" their system. I also cut up the frame after using it for one year, and made a mounted sprayer out of it! But the keys to the machine were the pivot and variable speed drive.
hat sound like a good idea, to bad you can't provide a pic.
 
(quoted from post at 19:43:34 07/28/14) On some v rakes one side can be locked in transport position. This is what we do on ours to turn windrows.
he one i used has the ability to have either wing locked out but i cut up and down the field instead of round and round and it is a huge PITA to have to stop and get out of the tractor to change wings on every swath.
 
(quoted from post at 16:22:46 07/28/14) I have an[b:e10184a62d] old 9' MC Rotary Sigh[/b:e10184a62d] I have used in just the conditions you have described. The idea behind it is simple the light dry hay falls out right behind it and the wet hay gets thrown out farther out the back and ends up on top to dry in the sun. It sound crazy but it works good. I can open up the back wide or close it up and make a narrow windrow. Just an idea [b:e10184a62d]if you know someone who has one and will let you try it.[/b:e10184a62d] Bandit
never seen one around my neck of the woods
 
Well i ended up using my "fluffer", we got some wind this after noon and i baled half of it up tonight at 16 -18 % moisture :wink:
 
I use my old Oliver 107 side delivery for just that purpose. The manual for it explained how to set it and I turn heavy 5ft windrows when needed. Speed seemed to be the critical factor but when all is correct it looks like a small wave flipping windrow over exactly as I want it. I cant see any reason other side deliveries wouldnt do the same.
 
Picture this: 5x7 rear mount cultivator frame tube, just wider than the pickup, using 3ph mtg. Ran 4 inch channel irons back on each side of cult tube, to behind pickup, with a channel crossbar attached to channel irons, forming a rectangle frame. Center of crossbar, pipe/shaft pivot with shaft mounted on a crossbar above the pickup. Windrow passes under this crossbar. Front of pickup was lifted by chains attached to pipe lying on side channels- that"s the crude part.... nothing fancy but it worked. Didn"t have time for fancy.

Hyd cyl rotates shaft to get side to side action of pickup. Hyd motor attaches to upper roller on pickup, variable speed thru SCV. Set speed faster than ground travel to pull windrow apart to fluff it. I had 40 acres wet barley, cut with swather, so pivoted unit at each end of field to maintain original swath pattern and width for combine.

BTW- somewhere in archives there should be a picture of it- taken before I cut it up and made the mounted sprayer using the cult frame.
 
(quoted from post at 21:02:03 07/29/14) Picture this: 5x7 rear mount cultivator frame tube, just wider than the pickup, using 3ph mtg. Ran 4 inch channel irons back on each side of cult tube, to behind pickup, with a channel crossbar attached to channel irons, forming a rectangle frame. Center of crossbar, pipe/shaft pivot with shaft mounted on a crossbar above the pickup. Windrow passes under this crossbar. Front of pickup was lifted by chains attached to pipe lying on side channels- that"s the crude part.... nothing fancy but it worked. Didn"t have time for fancy.

Hyd cyl rotates shaft to get side to side action of pickup. Hyd motor attaches to upper roller on pickup, variable speed thru SCV. Set speed faster than ground travel to pull windrow apart to fluff it. I had 40 acres wet barley, cut with swather, so pivoted unit at each end of field to maintain original swath pattern and width for combine.

BTW- somewhere in archives there should be a picture of it- taken before I cut it up and made the mounted sprayer using the cult frame.
hanks, i think i get it.
You pivoted the pickup so it picked the swath up under an angle?

this is the one I build. I was also in a hurry.
Had i had more time i would have incorporated a pair of hydr cylinders and fulcrums to lift the pickup clear of the swath when crossing the outside rounds and to change the angle of the pickup for more aggressive lifting in heavier swaths.

Seeing that a good working swath inverter don't exist i might modify the bottom half of an old Vermeer 605C baler i have.
Widen the whole thing to 8 feet,incl pickup and put a 1/2 turn shute behind it

mvphoto9641.jpg
 
That's what a tedder does best- just kicks the
windrow up and allows the stuff that ain't dry to
dry and does it quickly.....
 
Yes, pickup pivoted left and right, and was fully mounted, so I could lift and turn without engaging end rows. Swaths were 13-14 apart, and when dropped back on the field, were the same......combine header was 13 feet, and needed uniform clearance across the field, so I pivoted the fluffer at each end of the field. Fluffer always ran at an angle, laying the windrow on new ground.
 

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