Tedder/rake

About Rake/tedders - I have two NI's. 1 steel wheel ($70) and 1 on rubber ($15). The idea seems to be that by changing direction of the roll bars, you have the choice of pushing the hay forward, thus rolling off the trailing end to form a windrow (rake), or pulling the hay under the rake and flipping it out the back of the rake (ted). In both cases the speed of the rollers is determined by ground speed. So you need to be moving to get a good flip and fluff in ted mode (pto drive would have been nice). I ran 3rd @1800 on my NAA most of the time to get a good ted job. The only adjustment to the rake (between ted and rake) was the direction of the rollers and tines. Rollers coming forward under basket and tines somewhat forward (lifting hay up as you go) to rake. Rollers going down and out the back to with tines towards the rear (pick it up and toss out) to ted. Takes about ten seconds to set it up. Of course the type of hay affected the way it was spread out. In grass's I could run it down it close to the ground and it wouldn't throw it very far, but fluff it up real good (air flow for drying). In heavy clover, I would have to slow down a bit to keep from tossing the one row into the next, raise the rake up to skim off the top and widen the windrow a bit (more surface area) usually done right after mowing. Then I would go back with it a day later in the lower position to flip it. I should add when I was using a sickle mower I didn't need to skim like I do with the 1209 (no windrowing from sickle). I could spread it out a little better on the 1209, but like the ability to "see" good clean cuts on each side, nice windrow in the middle, and know its not plugged up with a plastic bag some damn fool threw it out his window because he didn't want trash in his car. Like I want it in my field. Prior to getting the 1209, I was using a NI sickle and NI crimper.

Actually my first year I had a baler and a sickle. Talk about taking forever to bale! Not counting cost I think I was only making something like $2 an hour and payin the help $5. The sickle laid it flat and wouldn't let it dry evenly for crap. After a week the top would be brown and the underside would look like it was just cut. By adding the crimper I could at least pick it up and throw / spread it out a little better after mowing. I could also add panels to the crimper and form a windrow. Still took a week to dry though. Then I happened on to a "windrow flipper" or as I call it a "$1200 mistake". Talk about discouraging. The plan was to form a windrow with the crimper and then come back a day later and flip it to get even drying. What a nightmare. I don't recall the name of that thing but talk about screwing up a hay field. Its job, as designed, was to flip a formed windrow over onto dry ground and reform the windrow as you go. That's about the last thing did. It was real good at forming hay balls about every 10-15 foot. Tried to replace the stop tines with a soild pannel / curtian, that worked so-so. So I took off the stop and used it for a season to flip out the side (ted of sorts) and picked up a cheap rake. Discover the rake had the ability to ted and quit using that POS all together. The tedder raked worked fairly wel but it was still 2-4 days depending on what I was cutting. Just didn't "spread" it out enough, but was a definate improvement. Then the weather pattern took a dump. I lost about 1/3 to bad forecast, rain, and humidity. Alfalfa and clovers wouldn't dry for crap due to the 85% humidity and rot in the field. If the forecast was rain - it wouldn't, if dry - it'd rain. This year didn't start off any better. At least now they get it somewhat right. Problem is that it rains every 2-3 days. Saw one of those Kuhn's running and had to have one. $1000 later, I did. Talk about "EVEN" and quick drying. 18-19 foot 4 basket. Spreads two rows at a time and easily takes a day if not two of the drying process for me. Paid for its self first cutting (1/3 I haven't lost). So Now its cut with the 1209, follow with the Kuhn, ted again the next morning, double rake with the NI's and bale with the ford. Grass's - 1-2 days, clover / alfalfa - 2-3 (depending on mix) and even with the crappy weather I haven't lost anything yet. As of Saturday I have sold everthing I done this year. Guess at some point I should start keeping some for my cows.

One alternative you might consider if you haven't already is a crimper. I picked one up at auction for $10 about 3 years ago because I have one lowland field that wouldn't dry without "extreme luck" as you say, and then would take 3-5 days. The crimper saves me all the hay from that field, as it now dries and does it in about 2 days most times. Cheap and easy solution for my problem.

Tom

We got one when they first came out (even assembled it ourselves out of the crate). The early ones had problems with the grease fittings popping out on the tine arms. To get around that, I carried a grease gun with me and gave the fittings on the arms a shot every half hour. It was inconvenient, but it worked. The early 254's also had very small, narrow tires that were prone to go flat and could easily find their way into varmint holes.

We had some later 254's that didn't have the problem with the tine arm grease fittings, and had much larger/wider flotation tires that were much more durable and were less likely to take damage from holes (you can't always see them under scattered hay).

I broke a gear on it this spring so I am going to put a Hydraulic motor on it this winter, along with new paint and teeth..... ....So it should be ready for another 50 years of work!

I'll post a picture tonight..... .