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Wyoming | We have a NH 1116 16' sickle machine and a Hesston 1360 rotary mow-co. Here's what I reckon are the maint/parts issues on each:
The sickle machines are cheap to repair. Good thing, too, because you'll be doing lots of it. Knives, knife guards, belts, etc all wear on these machines. If you don't keep the wobble boxes greased, you'll be repairing those too. The rest of the machine, however, really asks almost nothing of you.
The sickle machines are easy on fuel. I can cut a 125-acre pivot on about 40 gallons of fuel. If the machine is maintained properly, I can cut at 6 MPH in pure alfalfa that has no gopher mounds. Squirrel mounds here are worse than gopher mounds -- gophers just push up topsoil, squirrels go down into my gravel layers and push up 0.5" to 1" gravel onto their mounds. This gravel can break off knives in the sickle machine.
The sickle machine hates wet hay. The field better be dried down pretty good -- like no dew in the hay, last irrigation 48 hours ago, etc. The real limiting factor on the NH 1116, IMO, is the conditioner. The conditioner just doesn't have enough capacity to get a heavy crop through it fast enough without clumping in the windrow.
OK, the rotary:
The rotary machine cuts faster -- much faster. I've done 10 MPH. The rotary leaves a more ragged field (not just at the stem level, but also any lodging in the crop gets mutilated, not cut). Don't let anyone tell you that rotaries will leave a field looking like a sickle machine cut it. They will -- in ideal conditions. Get away from the ideal, and the cut starts getting rough.
Maintenance issues in the rotary cutters are:
- bearings -- the conditioner bearings are carrying a heavier load, and on the Hesston, these are the famous stupid Hesston sealed bearings.
- Knives do need to be sharpened -- it really makes a difference in the crop. If you run into some dirt, you'll need to sharpen the knives again.
- If you have dirt in your hay consistently, you'll eventually need to replace the turtledecks and caps on same. Don't try to weld-patch holes in the turtledecks. You'll never get them balanced. Just replace them.
- The skid shoes. Either be set to replace them (esp. the shoes on the outside edges, where you cut up against a wheel track), or take them off when you first get them and lay down some hard-facing rod on the shoes. We have taken pieces of broken S-tine steel and welded this steel onto the shoes. It makes the skid shoes last forever. The skid shoe steel is simply too soft for sandy ground, IMO. This is a comment I've heard from everyone running any color rotary here. You don't see this as an issue in the sickle machines because you're not moving as fast. The faster you move across the soil, the faster you'll grind down steel.
- The gearboxes in the drivelines absolutely must have clean lube every season. The cutterbar absolutely must have clean lube every season.
- Know those squirrel mounds I was talking about? Run over a squirrel mound with small rocks on it and you'd better hope that the rocks don't hit you in the back of the head. Lots of guys here are now carrying plexiglass shields they put over their rear tractor window. If you're running a SP machine, make sure that there isn't anyone in front of you. The first time you see a 1/2" rock launch outta a rotary, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't care if the curtains are down -- the rocks will launch.
- If you are getting a SP rotary machine, you'll find that the hydraulic drive saps a lot of power, and can get pretty warm on hot days when pushed into a heavy timothy crop.
- Rotaries suck down the fuel. I'll go through 120 gallons to cut a field with the 1360 being pulled by a 4640.
- Oh, yea -- it might seem like a trivial thing, but it isn't: the rotaries are harder to clean. When you've been through a nice, lush crop, the sickle machine takes only minutes to clean up. The rotary? I hope you have a good pressure washer. You'll need it. And maybe a putty knife, too.
Where the rotaries become expensive is if you don't keep the lube schedule up, or you don't attend to checking the gearboxes and bearings every single day. If one of these gets away from you, you will know just how expensive rotaries can be. If you have to replace a gearbox, bend over. They're expensive. Real expensive.
No one here uses a sickle machine to cut grass stands. You simply cannot get the job done in grass here with a sickle machine -- everyone is using a rotary. I've pretty well proven just how inefficient the hydraulic drive system is on the self-propelled machines. I can pull a 15' wide 1360, which is using the exact same cutterheads and conditioner as a Hesston 8500 or 8550, and lap the SP machines going around a pivot when I'm using only a 140 PTO HP tractor. When I move up to a 180 HP tractor, the mo-co really flies around the field. So, if you're looking for maximum speed, take that into account.
And, if you have any problem in the hydraulic motors that drops metal into the hydraulic system, bend over. With feeling.
What we're doing now is using the 1116 to open a field (the backswathes) and have one person cut the inside two towers and the wheel tracks. This takes time and is really a chore with the mo-co. You lose some hay when trying to open a field with a mo-co. So we use the sickle machine to do the tight turning stuff, and the mo-co to do the majority of the acres on the field.
Oh, and one more issue: if you have critters in your field, you will find that you get a lot more shredded meat into your windrows with a rotary than with a sickle machine. When you're whizzin' round the field at 10+ MPH, you'll be surprised at how many critters that used to get out of your way can't do it anymore. If you're using a mo-co, you can spot these out the side window of the tractor before you suck them in. If you're using a SP, good luck. All you'll see before you suck in a jackrabbit or a cat is a little wiggling in the hay 2' in front of you.
Edited by NVDave 11/3/2006 22:15
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Rotary Swathers
