We have a H&S with belts and plastic teeth. We put the crop roller on the front of ours, that made it work much better in heavy hay. I demo'd a Kuhn with the pickup-style head, it worked better than our H&S but I didn't want to part with the money to trade. Oxbo has a good reputation but I have never used one.

Belts will require maintenance. I have been told that the older Oxbo's need the pickups rebuilt regularly and the new ones are made better.

A merger definitely puts less rocks in the windrow. That is why I put up with the hassle. A rake would certainly be faster and easier....just not better.

Edit-I'm a bit perplexed---if your windrows are so heavy, why do you need to merge them? We merge hay to get a large enough windrow to keep the chopper full. If the triticale or hay is heavy enough, reducing your chopping speed from 8 mph to 4 mph isn't going to get any more tons/hour chopped.