Anybody use a NH 254 rake/tedder ??

I just bought one at auction and was wondering how you liked it if you have one ...I was looking for a used tow unit but all I have found are mostly a few 3 pt units.....

I have a 255, newer one w/fewer grease fittings. They can be very expensive to keep working I'v heard. I have not had any problems. Great as a tedder OK as a rake. Takes a lot to get the speed and settings down. A manual will be helpful. Good for small fields. I run mine about 9-10' wide, will go to 13' I think. Not real good to double up windrows.

Have one. Have since 20 years. It rakes fairly well if the hay has been tedded. It does a respectable job of tedding in it's conventional tedder position, but it's slow...
The downside. You can't keep parts ahead of them. Cam followers fail regularly, followed by the cam, the tine arms and bushings, hangers, etc. In terms of reliability it's one of the worst machines NewHolland ever built.

If you got one in good shape that never did much work, you may get away OK if you only use it for a small amount of work. It was intended for small acerage guys doing up to mabey 50 acres a year who didn't want the expense of a tedder and a rake. For that, and used in that context, it wasn't a bad machine... but if you start putting it over a lot of acres it will bankrupt you.

Chances are... if it was at an auction, it already bankrupted someone else and it was time to get it gone.

There is no fixing the thing unless you decide to basically replace everything under the rotors including the bearings. BAsically make it new again and then it will give several more years of fairly troublefree service. If you opt to fix as fails, you'll be fixing all the time and losing hay...

Rod

I have a 255 also. I run mine as wide as it will go. It will rake two windrows from a moco together, but you have to drive carefully! I'm starting on my ninth season with it now. I have yet to spend a nickle on it, other than grease. But, I only run about 60 to 70 acres a year with it.

Thanks guys
The auction I bought it at was a small dispersal auction. hour and a half long.....for making hay for a few horses and two feeder beef they had some odd equipment.....fairly new New Idea discbine...JD 338 square baler...JD 1530 tractor....the 254 tedder.....and the rest of the stuff was junk.....wasnt a fancy looking farm either....couldnt imagine spending that kind of money on the discbine when the rest of the place is rough...but there was a fairly new 4wd Kubota...

I dont think the tedder was used much....