Hesston 6450 swather

flying belgian

Well-known Member
I have spotted one on Craigs list and am thinking of updating from the old JD 800. Anyone know anything about them? It is hydro with the Chrysler engine. Guy says he gets parts
from Case dealer. Have not looked at it yet. Pictures look clean. $3000.
 
I have a Case which is a Heston, good machines but 3000 is about double for a machine that age.
 
What does it have for a head, and how many acres has it done? They're good enough units for being built in the 80's. I have a 6450 and a 6650. The 6650 came with a 21 foot draper head that turned out to be too big for my use, so i sold the head and kept the tractor. I then bought the 6450 for its 15 foot draper head.

I used it on the 6450 for two years before I switched it to the 6650. The 6450 was a nice rig, smooth gas engine, never seemed short on power. But the 6650 has a cab with air and a diesel, so I switched them. This past summer, the wobble box up on top for the twin knife had a catastrophic failure. We cobbled it back together, and it suffered another catastrophic failure 50 acres later. Now I'm hunting for a replacement head.

If the head is wore out, the machine is worth scrap price. My draper head had nearly the the entire cutterbar frame rusted away underneath, a fair bit of stress cracks, and the parts needed to fix up the wobble box were still available, but cost more than I paid for the entire unit. So look over the head really well.
 
If it is in good, field-ready condition and everything on it works then $3000 seems like a very reasonable asking price. I've seen Hesston windrowers of this vintage sell for a lot more at auction in our area but only if they look good. The 6450 has single-speed wheel motors which create a compromise between speed and torque but unless you're doing long distance roading or trying to climb really steep hills this isn't a problem. I'd recommend driving it before buying to make sure the hydrostat is in good shape with equal power to both wheels. This time of year you'll need to run the engine for quite a while to warm things up since cold, thick oil can mask the symptoms of a worn-out hydrostat.
 

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