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NE Kansas | Looking at trading for a 2001 Case 8870 swather. It has a header design with two augers instead of one large one. Is there any reason to be concerned about this design. I mostly cut prairie hay, alfalfa, and brome. The hay in the prairie meadows ranges from wire grass to very heavy slew grass. Some years the prairie hay can be pretty light, making only a ton to the acre. The wire grass in these types of years might be half of that, and so tough so as to break a sickle knife if you're not careful. Other years the prairie might be pretty good, and the slew grass gets heavy and rank. In these types of years, the NH 1475 hydraswing I have now can hardly choke down half a swath of slew grass with out bogging down.
The current hydraswing runs behing a 140 horse tractor and the knife and sections are rebuilt every year; meaning I'll push it as fast as the ground or other conditions will allow over quite a few acres. Will an 8870 be able to cut at 6-7 mph as I'm used to. I see a lot of somewhat smaller SP machines in the "neighborhood" running at a slower pace than what I need to go.
The machine I'm looking at has about 650 engine hours, 450 header hours, and most of the options available at the time. It does not have any rear axle suspension or windshield wipers though. Are there any other things I should be concerned about with this machine. It is my understanding that this is more or less a Heston built swather.
Thanks
Jonathan
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Case 8870 swather with dual augers
