Maybe I'll stick to the hydra-swing...

Then he did another with me on the end of the field just watching. Well, somehow he lost the lynch pin that held it onto the drawbar extension and when he was turning and swinging, he caught that big long toungue with the rear tire and dropped it on the ground. Only burst 1 Hydraulic line, a steel one about 4" up, so I'll have to get a hose with a custom fitting on it to fix that... at first I thought he pulled apart the supply hose coming from the reservoir to the pump...

Oh well, maybe I'll just keep cutting the hay myself. Not mad or anything, just a little bit of a learning curve with one of those monsters... I've hit the tire many times myself, just never lost that lynch pin.... Maybe I'll go to using a double-nutted bolt...

Donovan from Wisconsin

Sorry to hear about the mess. Mine has a double nut on the ball joint to drawbar extension. Parts book shows bolt with slotted nut with a cotter pin.

Did lots of work on mine this spring. Bunch of new cutting parts, bunch of new reel teeth, new auger stripper teeth. Straightened the lip the guards bolt on to. New to me drive sprocket on the auger(the hub and shaft were damaged. Since they were tapered it was easier to replace than have the machine shop repair). New bearings on the lower conditioner roller. Found out these bearings have extended inner races, and are not just run of the mill spherical ball bearings. The shaft on that roller was grooved from a bad bearing turning, so I welded it up and had it machined back down. The end of the shaft was not true so the machine shop took a sixteenth off and I got a tapered hub sprocket, with the new diameter, to replace the original. The original sprocket's bore was damaged.

New idler sprockets on the auger drive, re aligned both chain drives, shimmed the reel up, cleaned up the auger slip clutch and reset the tensioning springs. She runs smooth and cuts really nice now.

Check your drive sprockets on the conditioner rolls. Both mine and the one in the wreckers yard showed that they had come loose and extra measures had been taken to secure them. Mine had lost the Gib key and a bolt with a ground square profile beat in as a replacement. The sprockets on the wrecker's machine had been welded on.

John

I worked at a shop that makes sprockets so thats where I go now whenever I need one. Agco was one of our customers and many of the prints had Hesston on them so I'm sure they've probably got all the components on the shelf to weld up a new one when the time comes.

I might look at it in a few weeks, I'm thinking about taking the crimper off and using it to cut the oats ahead of the combine. Got a few weeds in there and they rarely lower the platform low enough to get all the straw when they do combine it, unless we cut it ahead of time for extra dry-down.

Ours came with a 1" bolt thru the ball joint and extension, but the ball joint has a 1 1/8" hole like a lower Cat. 2 3 pt. pin, so that's exactly what I mounted on there instead of the bolt that constantly came loose. I drilled a hole through the other bolt to the drawbar for a safety key though. The newer machine we rented a few years back had the same set-up as ours does now. works great, as long as you don't loose the linch pin....

Donovan from Wisconsin

I out a Cat. 2 lower 3 pt. pin on the extension for the haybine because the bolt that was being used was too small and came loose (I know, no cross pin or bolt to keep the nut on). I just bought the 3 pt. pin to replace it and now it'as always tight on the extension, you just back up and drop it on, then put the lynch pin through.

I know it coulda happened to anyone, but I don't think dad wants to try running it anymore, he'll just stick to hauling loads and running the chopper once in a great while. I guess I pretty much took over all aspects of the fieldwork, we plan together what gets put where, but I do just about all of it. Don't mind though, and he likes me actually working on the farm too.

Donovan from Wisconsin