Need help on hay rake brands..

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Hi..we are wondering if any of you have heard of SP Systems hay rakes or BEFCO hay rakes. We need to get a rake and hay season is almost upon us. We are not familiar with these..but would like some info..pro/con. We would also like to know if there is any one who is familiar with three point hay rakes? Pros and cons on that one too please! We live in a really flat area here.

Thank you so much and we hope you have a great day!

-- Sher (riverdobbers@webtv.net), April 24, 2002

Answers

SP doesn't ring a bell but I've seen a Befco. Wheel rakes were never my favorite with grass hays, they work OK on heavy legume mixes and straight legumes. Befco is as good as any wheel rake, cetainly they have good parts support. I have a 3pth Massey bar rake, I like it's manouverability backing up is a breeze, but on a rough feild every tractor chuck up and down tranfers to the rake. I also have a NH 256 rolabar rake with dolly wheels on the front, it does the nicest job on all hay and rides evenly across a feild. I've done some custom baling for neighbors that use rotary rakes, they sweep it to the side leaving fluffy fast drying rows. Rows that blow everywhere in a wind and can be a pain to feed my round baler but they are popular never the less. Some brands of those are notoriously weak in the drive, Kuhn rakes always seem to be torn apart when I see one being fixed but agian I have friends that swear by them. I'll stick to my rolabars, old fashioned and they twist the hay into a rope but the rows stay together in the wind a lot longer.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), April 24, 2002.

Forgot a real advantage of the 3pth rake. It's power by the PTO so you can set the speed to a constant rate and if you come to a plug from the haybine you can raise the rake and (by driving over and reversing back to get a second bite) peel the lump off in layers flicking it to the side. Takes some practice but works great.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), April 24, 2002.

Thanks so very much Ross. We were looking for a used hay rake..wow..they want five prices for those things! And most are gonna require some fixin..mo money!! So then we started looking at new ones. The bar rake is not off the table here either.

Thanks again Ross..

-- Sher (riverdobbers@webtv.net), April 24, 2002.


Here in southern Minnesota the New Holland & John Deere roll-a-bar 5 bar rakes are _the_ only thing to buy. Almost no one uses 3-point rakes, and the big wheel rakes are not much thought of. NH 55 rakes sell for $300-400, and 56 & newer sell for $500-1200. Parts are available easily, & these rakes have lasted 30-50 years - with a couple of bearings & new teeth, will last another 50 years. Always able to resell them for what you paid for them. (JD are just as good, but I'm more familiar with NH.)

The off brands like you mention might be scrap iron in 5 years, use hard to find parts or teeth...

Of course, that's just the popular opinion. In a normal year most anything will rake the hay for you.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), April 25, 2002.


Thanks for the info and input Paul..he is looking at a New Idea bar rake this afternoon. Thanks again!

-- Sher (riverdobbers@webtv.net), April 25, 2002.


Late model New Idea rakes were sure impressive, most of the parts on a rake are universal stock items, just be sure to put fresh gear oil in the angle drive every couple of years, it's the only special part and should last, with care, forever.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), April 25, 2002.

Yes, NI is a good rake, does not bring the superior prices of NH or JD, but rakes hay well & the replaceable parts can be found easily enough. I believe Agco now owns the name if you need to look for original parts.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), April 25, 2002.


Thinking about it I think New Idea made rakes for Case IH in the 80's and early 90's, they certainly made balers for them. Which makes me wonder if Hesston didn't have a hand in NI as they certainly made balers for Case IH too. Not really my brands, though that hardly makes them bad. Just Case IH dealers might have parts for New Idea rakes as well.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), April 25, 2002.

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