Anybody use V Rakes?

FarmboyBill · #1 10/02/13, 09:44 PM

Used one today as the intermediate gear on one of the rods in the reel of my JD 4 bar hay rake is stripped out I guess./ Bailer man had a V rake so I used it. I wouldn't give a nickel for a dozen of them. It was around 20ft. I had to 1/2 lap to get a good pickup. Between the sloppy job the rake did, and the bailer man the field looked respectable tho. Still wouldn't have one. Got 14 bales of Haygrazer off 12 acres. Got 5 acres of both HG and pararie grass to do tomorrow. The PG isnt very tall. Don't know what kind of job it will do on it. BUT, as that is all that gets cut here, I guess it must do alright. It was a Hesston. Easy to hitch up. The hyd on the 48 H Farmall wouldn't begin to raise it.

DaleK · #2 10/03/13, 06:09 AM

I have a 22' New Idea. Works good when it's set right. Wish it was about 6' wider

rambler · #3 10/03/13, 06:59 AM

I have a cheap 5 wheel, half of a vee.

Glad I have it, but would not want it as my only rake.

It does well in thin stuff. And rough ground, along the ditch bank.

Chokes on thick hay, can't do corners, doesn't work well in wind, and so on.

The better vee rakes have improvements over my cheap model tho.

Paul

COWS · #4 10/03/13, 07:36 PM

I have a good quality Vermeer 10 wheel v rake and love it. Advantages: it is wide and covers a lot of ground. You can pull it as fast as you want to the tractor to go. Disadvantges: When folded up in the transport position it is still wide and you have to be careful going through gates and going on the highway. When raking very bulky hay, sometimes the volume of hay is too much to go out the end of the v and it is necessary to stop and raise the rake to get the hay out.

I had always wanted to try an inline wheel rake and finally got a 7 wheel one. It rakes good and I don't think bulky hay will give it trouble. However, it is difficult to swing the tongue out of transport position. The spring loaded pin has to be wedged open while the tractor is moved to one side. Then the wedge has to be knocked out. Then the trailing wheel has to be manually moved around. Also, it dosen't turn very sharp.

I used a basket type rake for years. Too slow and expensive to maintain.

COWS

FarmboyBill · #5 10/03/13, 10:16 PM

This one folded to around 9ft. I didn't see where it covered a lot of ground as I had to 1/2 lap it to get a good coverage. I could pull it as fast as I wanted the Vs to flop up and down.

I pulled the steel wheel rakes fast enough to suit me on a 48 H Farmall. Specially at the turns. Course, Im older and don't like being jounced around anymore. OR I notice it more than I used to.

Lazy J · #6 10/04/13, 07:49 AM

If it wasn't picking up hay then it was not adjusted properly.

I am not a fan of ground driven wheel rakes because they can increase the amount of Ash in the hay, but you can't beat the speed you can rake and the productivity you gain with combining two windrows into one.

Jim

FarmboyBill · #7 10/04/13, 08:36 AM

Like I said. Raking on farm ground, going over the cross furrows, little as they was, as sure noticible at high speed. AND the corners was a bear. I always double or triple windrow anyway. The faster I went the more the wings flopped up and down. This one couldn't get much dirt in the hay cause it wasn't on the ground, OR in the hay that much. This one is owned by the hay man he rakes a bunch a hay a season. IF he didn't do a good jpb, ID think at least some people would be hacked off by it.
Hopfully ital. never be used here again.

CCCC · #8 10/04/13, 08:46 AM

A wheel V-Rake or any wheel rake will never do as good of a job as a pickup rake which I believe is what your use to using with you JD which is what I grew up with. If you have a lot of windrows to get together in one am, on packed alfalfa ground it is not bad. A wheel rake seems to handle the hay like a rope where as a pickup rake just handles the hay better. Just my .02

COWS-I believe your Vermeer is a V-pickup rake and I have never used one myself, but have seen them in action and know folks that own them, I have yet to hear too many bad things about them.

jwal10 · #9 10/04/13, 09:13 AM

I liked the older side delivery wheel rakes, we had several New Idea. We hooked 2 of them together to rake single windrows at times. Never liked the finger type wheel rake wheels. I had a 4 wheel Lely mounted on the front of a tractor for flipping windrows. It was mounted all haying season. On big mowing and baling jobs I just removed the wheels. Hay is so heavy here and the hay working days short so we don't rake windrows together except right before baling so we just use a single rake to put 2 windrows together. Works better for a round baler, 2 windrows laying right side by side. No weaving back and forth. With the tucker wheels on the baler it fills the edges of the bales nicely. Export straw balers, use the V rakes so they can make big windrows fast....James