Hay rakes

I have a Farmhand 5 wheel rake that I'm about fed up with. In heavy hay it seems like I have to rake each windrow twice to get it to rake clean. Plus it doesn't merge 2 windrows together nice when I want to double up for round baling. Point is I may be looking for a new rake. As much as I'd like a rotary, it just isn't in my budget. Therefore I'm looking at rolabar rakes. Don't have a lot of experience with them though so I'm wondering how well they handle big windrows. Some of the hay I make is conservation easement waterways so I can't cut til after Aug 1 which means the grass is REALLY tall when I cut making huge windrows the the poor old Farmhand rake can't handle. Not does it not rake clean but it also has a tendency to plug up because the hay can't fit under the frame. Will I have the same issues with a bar rake? How well do they handle uneven ground? Leaning towards 1 with a dolly wheel in front just to make turning in odd shaped fields easier but again if regular hitch vs. dolly will handle rough ground better I'll get that instead. Looking at JD NH or IH and New Idea. Anything to watch out for on any of these brands? It'd be neat to find an AC if I could but not seeing any of them around right now.
Thanks for the feedback,
Tony

And personally I want the rake hitched directly to the drawbar of the tractor tried a dolly
wheel didn't care for it.

Here is what I rake with

click here to watch video

matador wrote: We have an older John Deere 670 rake that we bought new. Ours has the dolly wheel, and it's never given us an issue, but I would prefer one without. Backing the rake by hand gets old real quickly. But, as for the rake itself, it's been perfect. I'm far from being a John Deere guy, but I'd have another of these rakes in a heartbeat

Just wondering if you ever used a NH rake? I had a JD that we raked with for years and thought it was a good rake,used the NH one time never hooked to the JD again.

We use a NH rollar bar rake ,not sure of the model as dad painted 15 years ago and did not put new decals on it. Pull type. Has always done a good job. A friend of mine has 2 of them that he pulls in tandem. They have served him well as he bales 20-25k bales a year. He recently upgraded to a Krone basket rake. He purchased a Bale Barron that requires even length bales. The rollar bar rakes do tend to twist the hay together. Meaning when you are baling and come upon a a large clump of hay and stop the tractor to prevent a broken shear pin, the baler tends to continue to pull the hay in due to the twist created by the rake, resulting in longer bales. The Bale Barron has saved him a lot of labor and he his extremely happy with it. But for most of us that have small farms, the roller bar rakes do a fine job.

I've heard that inline balers make a bale of a more consistent size. I don't know how it would work with wrapped hay.  I wouldn't think it would be pulling a "rope" of hay into the chamber, though.

I have a new idea and ,new holland bar rakes. I use a sitrex speed rake for all hay and does a great job as any high frame wheel rake does. When I bale square bale rye for straw its always the new Holland that gets used .if I was buying another bar rake I would only consider a hydraulic driven . I don't like the new idea but have a neighbor that has a hyd driven one with rubber mounted teeth that does a great job.

I pulled a New Holland rake once when I worked for a neighbor, but it was pretty worn out and beat up. I do know farmers out here with New Holland rakes, though. I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about them. Either a Deere or New Holland bar rake should provide you really good service if you get once that's in decent shape

My Hesston PT-10 mower conditioner left a nice windrow that the baler would pick up (when run in the same direction as the PT-10 that would pick up like a rope when cutting and baling alfalfa.

Early on I had an IH #5 bar rake. It kicked the hay at about twice the ground speed so it wasn't good for the hay to pull more than 2 or 3 mph.  Then I got a Farmhand wheel rake and never had a problem with big windrows with it, though it could add some dust to the hay that horse owners didn't like. It could be pulled at 6 or 7 mph and still treated the hay gentler than the IH rake did.

The rakes and baler are long gone, the PT-10 has been rotting outside for about 15 years, I don't know if it can be made to work again. I know the tires have rotted.

Gerald J.

Gerald J. wrote: My Hesston PT-10 mower conditioner left a nice windrow that the baler would pick up (when run in the same direction as the PT-10 that would pick up like a rope when cutting and baling alfalfa. Early on I had an IH #5 bar rake. It kicked the hay at about twice the ground speed so it wasn't good for the hay to pull more than 2 or 3 mph.  Then I got a Farmhand wheel rake and never had a problem with big windrows with it, though it could add some dust to the hay that horse owners didn't like. It could be pulled at 6 or 7 mph and still treated the hay gentler than the IH rake did. The rakes and baler are long gone, the PT-10 has been rotting outside for about 15 years, I don't know if it can be made to work again. I know the tires have rotted. Gerald J.

I did learn by experience that having the mower conditioner make the narrowest possible windrow delayed drying at least a couple days. So I learned to set the output chute as wide as possible and fortunately the baler intake chute was as wide. Cut at least two days off the drying even if it was so wide it had to be raked before baling. Around here the first cutting never got more than three days without rain it seemed like.

Gerald J.

I will say 1 bad thing about the 256, that I have.  I hadda order parts fer the gearbox, 2 gears plus the main output shaft, from CNH.  shaft wasn't machined right, was oval where the gear was sposed to press on, and it walked back off the shaft, on the test run, from the shop, to the hayfield.  Drove back up to the shop, yanked out the shaft and gear, cleaned them up, and mig welded the gear, to the mis-shapen shaft.  Man was I pissed, about 4 more hours of work, in hot hayin weather...

New Holland 258 or equivalent with the dolly is a great rake combination.  The dolly keeps the rake more consistent on the adjustments so you don't have to constantly fidget with adjusting it from side to side and up and down.  The dolly also allows for tighter turns since it's further back from the rear wheels.  I also liked not having it so close to the tractor which makes it easier to see the rake.

As Gary Burnett said   “I hate to bale after someone has done a sloppy rake job” reminded me of what an old timer told me years ago “No one should be allowed to rake hay until they have baled behind someone who didn’t give a crap how they raked!

Gary Burnett wrote: BigBadAllis wrote: New Holland 258 or equivalent with the dolly is a great rake combination.  The dolly keeps the rake more consistent on the adjustments so you don't have to constantly fidget with adjusting it from side to side and up and down.  The dolly also allows for tighter turns since it's further back from the rear wheels.  I also liked not having it so close to the tractor which makes it easier to see the rake. On a hillside the rake with a dolly is harder to keep it where you want it,on the flat they're fine,plus with the small front wheel on a dolly the rake bounces more than hooking to the tractor.I think its one of those things you either really like a dolly wheel or you don't like it at all.

We had the New Holland dolly with dual grippy tires.  Never had a problem with trailing on hilly ground.  No excessive bouncing since they were larger implement size tires.  15 or 16"