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auger or rotary windrower
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willtravelrepair
Posted 11/17/2010 09:54 (#1440193)
Subject: auger or rotary windrower


denver, colorado		I am considering updating my jd 4890 14ft auger swather. Been told i need to go with a rotary platform to cover more acres. I now cut at 5~5.5 mph. Will i get over more acres with a rotary? Really do not want to go to a wider cutter head as we are in suburbanite area and have to move alot in traffic. How much more in maintenance? We cut mostly dryland grass hay, but do have some alfalfa, and raise 100+A. sorgum/sudan grass for hay. How do rotaries do in sudan grass that can get 7ft tall? Thanks kenny
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mignic
Posted 11/17/2010 10:22 (#1440238 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: RE: auger or rotary windrower


Texas Panhandle		Heavy tall hay of any kind is where the rotary shines. I'm not personally real familiar with JD as we run Agco and Macdon but I know the new r series seems to be a good machine out here.

Are your fields smooth enough to run faster? We generally cut alfalfa and like crops at 12-15 mph. I think you will cut your swathing time in half at min.

Maintenance is a no brainer... There's almost none on ours compared to our sickle....
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nwks baler
Posted 11/17/2010 10:30 (#1440248 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: RE: auger or rotary windrower


Kansas		We normally travel 8-10 mph in sorgham sudan, and 15-20 mph in alfalfa. That is with a R450 John Deere with a 995 header. Our 4995's that we had we could only run 13-15 mph in alfalfa because that is as fast as they wold run with the header on the ground.



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engbert2
Posted 11/17/2010 19:59 (#1441016 - in reply to #1440248)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


German Valley, IL		I do not want to own any of your 4995's the hydro was not big enuff to handle running in high speed .... any kind of hours and the tandem will be toast !!!!!!!!
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nwks baler
Posted 11/17/2010 20:20 (#1441056 - in reply to #1441016)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Kansas		engbert2, Some of our 4995's have had over 20,000 acres thru them when we traded them and we have never had any hydro problems. I try to service my machines very well maybe that helps?
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engbert2
Posted 11/17/2010 20:35 (#1441084 - in reply to #1441056)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


German Valley, IL		Just saying .... we got one a couple years ago that the dealer ended up having to put in one motor and one pump and its still a little soft on the one side ... You must be all on flatland ?????
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nwks baler
Posted 11/17/2010 20:54 (#1441134 - in reply to #1441084)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Kansas		Most flat some hills, you do have to slow down going up . I always keep the drive motors adjusted to the same speed and run alot of header float pressure. I also spend alot of time smoothing my fields and killing pocket goghers in the winter.
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Hank, in Or
Posted 11/17/2010 10:31 (#1440251 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower



Bonanza, Or		You will cover a lot more acres IF your fields are smooth enough to run at the speeds a rotary is capable of running. Your maintenance costs on a rotary will be much less than a sickle. The only down sides I have seen to a rotary.... initial cost, they don't do a good job of cutting in wet gopher mounds. I would not go back to a sickle.
A 16' rotary will not be any wider or not as wide as a 14' sickle because you have no sickle drives and shields to stick out on the ends.
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Jeff Outwest
Posted 11/17/2010 11:29 (#1440322 - in reply to #1440251)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Janesville Ca, 96114		How do they handle dry gopher mounds?
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IAhaymakr
Posted 11/17/2010 11:52 (#1440358 - in reply to #1440322)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Northwest iowa		Poof!
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Jay in WA
Posted 11/17/2010 14:21 (#1440551 - in reply to #1440322)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Pasco WA.		They don't plug but they leave a skip till the dirt clears out. The windrow will also be full of dirt. Pivot tracks are bad too.
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Hank, in Or
Posted 11/17/2010 21:26 (#1441215 - in reply to #1440322)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower



Bonanza, Or		I don't think the Hesston puts as much dirt in the windrow from dry gopher mounds since it doesn't have a auger in the header. But you will have a skip when you hit a dry mound of any kind which is longer the faster you are running.
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deereman05
Posted 11/17/2010 13:31 (#1440475 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Your moms house		I would go with a rotary with the steel on steel conditioner. In certain conditions mostly down reed canary and spartana grasses the impeller conditioners will wrap and the urethane does not condition enough in heavy hay.
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KRK
Posted 11/17/2010 13:31 (#1440476 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


1 1/4 mile south of Tedbear		http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBbARZHejhU
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dewgubbe
Posted 11/17/2010 19:15 (#1440905 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Northeast Nebraska		LOL - Cut hay 20 MPH? MY ASS

We ran 650 acres of hay in 2010, cut it all 4 times. We run a 4895 with 16 ft 896 head.

We demod a new R450 with 995 head. What a piece of crap. It couldn't take in hay any faster than 10 MPH. Not even close to enough power.

We adjusted the pump on our 4895. It needs to run 2630 RPM wide open. Book states 2600 +/- 30. We also turned the injection pump up 1/2 turn. These two things made a new machine out of it.

We replaced the sickle EVERY cutting. It only costs 125 bucks to rebuild it yourself with the hardened back knives. This helps alot. Replace guards once a season.

If I we're you, I would take the money you are considering spending on a new windrower and put it towards auto steer. With sf2 accuracy, I had ours set at 15.7 feet and never left a strip of hay standing.

We have had a 1600A swinger, a 995 swinger disk mower, a 4895, and demoed the R450. So i do have some comparisons. We did run the 995 as fast as 15 MPH pulled by a 200 HP FWA. The R450 simply does not have enough power to get the capacity.

Edit: 20 MPH might have happened downhill. But consistantly the R450 would only run 9 MPH average. Our 4895 consistantly cuts 7 mph. This is in hay that ends up making a ton an acre once baled up. This is in Northeast Nebraska. Mostly rolling terrain.

Edited by dewgubbe 11/17/2010 19:43
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nwks baler
Posted 11/17/2010 20:14 (#1441040 - in reply to #1440905)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Kansas		dewgubbe, you are more than welcome to come ride with me anytime on my R450. We windrow alfalfa at 15-20 mph all the time. I am a very small alfalfa producer. I have 1600 acre of alfalfa per cutting . We normally cut the irrigated alfalfa five times and the dryland alfalfa four times per year. We also cut around 2000 acre of sorghum sudan this year.
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Hayhauler
Posted 11/17/2010 19:32 (#1440944 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Northeast CO		dewgubbe--what kind of crimpers were in the R450?
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dewgubbe
Posted 11/17/2010 19:40 (#1440967 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Northeast Nebraska		V10s.

It was a brand new machine, dealer wanted to sell it to us pretty bad. It had 10 hours on it.

Previously the machine apparently cut some corn stalks, they were all over it. I have no idea how they got them to feed in and make a windrow. The crimpers were so tight we couldnt get hay to feed in them. We had a heck of a time getting going with it. It was streaking, over conditioning, no power, and mulching the hay on the ends. Once we opened the conditioners up it was way better. The hay actually fed through like it should, which prevented the streaking, over conditioning, and the mulching. Also helped on power. We set the conditioners to condition the hay the way we wanted.

It still mulched on the ends though. JD has a crappy design for the 16 footers. Its never going to feed from the outside all the way to the middle with those "accelerators". We never had a problem mulching with our 995 14ft.
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Big Square
Posted 11/17/2010 22:30 (#1441372 - in reply to #1440967)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Eastern Half of Kansas		From what I hear none of them of the wide disc mowers feed well on the outside turtles. I think you mean 955 on the pull type.
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ahay68979
Posted 11/17/2010 22:36 (#1441397 - in reply to #1440967)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Saronville NE		We went to a SP rotary from a SP sickle, you can cover over twice the acres in a day, less day to day maintence, but the 2 downfalls, they are fuel hungry and when you have to go into em to fix they get pricey in a hurry vs a sickle. But still dont think I would ever go back. Cuttin at 12 mph all day long in alfalfa vs 5 get alot done, and 8-9 mph in cab tall cane vs 2 mph with sickle. The acres you can push thru are amazing.
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dewgubbe
Posted 11/17/2010 23:55 (#1441540 - in reply to #1440193)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Northeast Nebraska		nwks baler....what conditioners are you running?

If i ran 15 mph with the r450 we had it would have killed it off.

I also have a strong feeling that if you could only run 5 mph in standing hay with a 896 sickle your machine was worn out.
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nwks baler
Posted 11/18/2010 08:30 (#1441825 - in reply to #1441540)
Subject: Re: auger or rotary windrower


Kansas		My machine has a V10 conditioner. I find most of the time when people have problems with ground speed with a rotorary, it's because the machine is set wrong. Most of the time the dealers don't know how to set them. For example I had a call to cut some sorghum sudan for someone a new 4995 with 995 header (same header as mine) I windrowed it without any problems. Their machine was fine (I looked at it at the edge of the field) it was simply set wrong. These things happen with any brand of machine.
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