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Hartford WI | We are using a Kuhn GF 5202 THA which is a 4 rotor trailing tedder. It has a working width of 17'1" with rotors that have 7 arms and are 5'8" diameter, with about 20" of rotor overlap. The dual tines on them, have a longer tine on the tip end of the arm, and slightly shorter, inside and next to it. Some are calling this feature "beveled" tines. Different wound tines are used for the clockwise and for the counter-clockwise rotor arms. We usually use a PTO speed of 350 to 400 rpm, and travel about 6 MPH (some of the fields are rough) in fields that are alfalfa/clover mixed with grass.
If you want absolute MAXIMUM drying effect of the sunlight, and wind, you will need to spread your windrows out over the entire field.
When I drive the tractor exactly between two 6' windrows that are 11' on center, my 17' tedder will move all the crop that has been cut, but it will not spread it out uniformly across the entire field. There will be a BARE GUTTER REMAINING, maybe 3' wide that will have very little crop sitting on the stubble, between each of my tedder passes. If we INCREASE the PTO rpm (to 475-525 rpm), it will almost eliminate the BARE GUTTER, but I am concerned about increased leaf loss, in our alfalfa with grass hay fields. Maybe when we tedder within a few hours of cutting, that won't be a problem.
Because of this low PTO rpm, BARE GUTTER problem, if I want to SPREAD CROP to dry over the ENTIRE WIDTH OF THE FIELD, it is necessary to just ted 1 and 1/2 windrows each pass, so that in two passes of the tedder, I have swept 33' of the field (3 windrows), just a little less than twice the working width of my tedder.
We are considering going to a 28' tedder (Kuhn GF 7802 THA), and tedding three windrows at a time, but it would also leave about a 3' wide BARE GUTTER, under most conditions.
Edited by ExcursionPSD 7/18/2015 08:28
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How big a tedder do I need?
