Borrowing Equipment

I think that this is a good one.

I downsized from 50 to 15 acres of hay ground a few years ago. I sold my Ford 8240 and my New Holland 411 mower. Haying is in my blood so I kept a few small fields, just to enjoy without the pressure. A young fellow who grew up across the street bought my mower and he does my mowing for me in exchange for some things that I do for him. The weather this spring has been hard as it has been in many areas, and we just got our second good stretch starting this morning. Yesterday, my young friend told me that he wouldn't be able to mow so try another friend but he couldn't either. This is no big deal because I really don't worry about it that much any more. Well this AM my young friend texted me and suggested that I take his tractor, a Ford 7600, and my old 411 and mow it myself, so I took him up on it. So I am merrily mowing away, except for getting way too many holidays because of how far away from the swath his tractor tracks. Suddenly the mower is making a bad noise, and the tractor stops and stalls. I look back and the mower header outer end is way down and the hitch is on the ground. The tractor's drawbar broke. So I restart the tractor to cool the turbo and check things out. The mower appears to be OK, though it is hard to tell for sure because the header is still dug in a little. The drawbar was rusted on about 1/5 of the surface at the point where it broke. I called my friend and left him a voicemail. He was at a farm 20 miles away spreading fertilizer on corn. I shut the tractor off and went to my place and loaded my truck with jacks, cribbing, wrenches, and other tools and an extra drawbar that I bought off ebay a few years ago just because I couldn't believe how cheap it was going. It took me about an hour and a half to get the front of the mower jacked up, drawbar swapped over, and mower hooked back up to the tractor. When I got the mower up off the ground I could see that it was a catastrophic failure. Most of the discs were oriented parallel with each other which means that most of the gears in the header are stripped, which means that the mower is pretty much a total loss. I left my friend a voice mail to call me. I decided that I would help him with purchase of a replacement mower, or repair of the 411 whichever he wants to do. After awhile he called back and I told him what had happened and he was all apologetic about how it would have happened to him if I hadn't been running it, and he is really sorry that I didn't finish mowing. He is a gem and I will help him to get back in the field as soon as possible.


This is after I got it hooked up again.

That?s just awful. Is there a chance that just one set
of gears stripped and that let the rest get out oh
time

(quoted from post at 13:13:55 06/22/19) That?s just awful. Is there a chance that just one set
of gears stripped and that let the rest get out oh
time

Click to expand...

Well when seven out of eight are clashed with the next it doesn't look it to me.

411 are know to do that!

Probably the discbine can be fixed with a lot of labor + some $65 shock hubs. I bought a too well used 1431 15+ years ago and have had to disassemble it too much to reverse and replace spline shafts and bearings , but not gears, unless a bearing went out ., Early on I installed the newer $65 shock hubs under the turtles and they tend to cause chain reaction hub failure as knives clash.I recently hit a chunk of wood and it took out 4 hubs ,so I have put a few of the old solid hubs (every other) back in to prevent this.

Maybe you can find one with a good cutter bar, but
the rolls trashed for cheap and combine the two.

You have a good neighbor. I would feel the same way.It was Age,rust, wear and tear...... Not negligence caused the 'breakdown'. And I'd feel as you do. Need to help fix it.You are both good men. Good neighbors too.

My 411 had cutterbar issues as well. We ended up replacing 10 gears inside the cutterbar. There is an equipment dealer in Abbtosford WI that parts lots of them the gears cost me about $40 or $50 each. We took everything out and washed the inside to make sure all the broken pieces were out then put it back together checking each piece as we went. The different gears made it noisy when we were done. I sold it the next year and bought a Deere 920. My NH dealer told me to get rid of it as the cutterbar was not a NH and the parts are way overpriced. You would never be sorry if you upgraded to a 1409 or 1411. The newer ones are NH cutterbars and built much better with more reasonable parts prices. Tom

I have a hard enough time trying to remember the "sweet spots" on my equipment much less loan equipment to someone who knows nothing about it nor
the converse. I sometimes remember how it all works about the time I'm finished with the job. This applies especially to haying. I don't borrow, nor loan.

I know it will hurt, but perhaps you should buy the mower back from him for s negotiated price maybe for a bit less than he bought it for from you. Then you have time to gather parts for repair.