Wide pickups vs. gathering wheels

[cowsense]

My next baler will have to have more pickup width.........the extra wide pickups on most balers do not impress me; extra drives,stuffer augers etc. look like a nightmare for maintenance and I've heard of enough guys with problems. When its time to work I want to be baling not fighting and fixing a contrary machine. Perhaps gathering wheels would be a better option.......they're certainly a lot simpler! There must be lots of people with experience with both........your input is welcome!

 

[Manitoba_Rancher]

Hey cowsense,

Go for the wide pickup. Gathering wheels dont work as great as they should. We ve got a hesston with the wide pick and I love it. Can pick up a wide windrow and never look back. All the extra augers and the stuffer havent caused us any grief and we put a pile of bales through it in a year!!!

 

[Haytrucker]

The JD 567 sure has a wide pickup.
And 95% or better of their bales truck very well.
What are you raking with? What I've seen of this haying deal; the rake makes the bale...

 

[Silver]

I hated the gathering wheels. If you're using them then you are driving on your swath, and that is a bad deal all the way around. I sure do like the wide pickup, but I've only had the pleasure of running a JD 567 for a couple of weeks. Until the old JD 535 gives out though, I'll just keep using it. 30,000 bales and counting.

 

[Shelly]

This new baler we have has the wider pickup. Hubby likes it alot better than the gathering wheels that were on the one we traded off.

 

[HAY MAKER]

My next baler will have to have more pickup width.........the extra wide pickups on most balers do not impress me; extra drives,stuffer augers etc. look like a nightmare for maintenance and I've heard of enough guys with problems. When its time to work I want to be baling not fighting and fixing a contrary machine. Perhaps gathering wheels would be a better option.......they're certainly a lot simpler! There must be lots of people with experience with both........your input is welcome!

Get you a New Holland baler with the wide pickup,I have had zero problems with mine, I guess it would depend on what you were baleing as to wheter gathering wheels are worth the money,my opinion is,they work well in light windrows of the bermuda type grasses,not to well in the heavy cane types,same with rakes,I always hear folks saying how good their wheel rakes work,put em in some of these heavy cane type grasses,then tell me how good they are..............good luck

 

[Andy]

The main problem with the NH wide pickup is that it has two less bars of teeth than the normal pickup. That can really slow you down in heavy crops.

 

[HAY MAKER]

The main problem with the NH wide pickup is that it has two less bars of teeth than the normal pickup. That can really slow you down in heavy crops.

WOW!!!! andy showing his brillance again,yeah New Holland spent a bundle on research engineering /design to add the wide pickup to slow down baleing,andy maybe you need to learn how to operate a baler? and understand less ground speed does'nt mean slower production.............good luck

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

The main problem with the NH wide pickup is that it has two less bars of teeth than the normal pickup. That can really slow you down in heavy crops.

WOW!!!! andy showing his brillance again,yeah New Holland spent a bundle on research engineering /design to add the wide pickup to slow down baleing,andy maybe you need to learn how to operate a baler? and understand less ground speed does'nt mean slower production.............good luck

Haymaker could you explain your reasoning about this. i always thought production was was the amount of pounds of hay baled per hour. It you are going slower or not able to put as much hay into the bales that you wouldn't be productive,

 

[Andy]

The main problem with the NH wide pickup is that it has two less bars of teeth than the normal pickup. That can really slow you down in heavy crops.

WOW!!!! andy showing his brillance again,yeah New Holland spent a bundle on research engineering /design to add the wide pickup to slow down baleing,andy maybe you need to learn how to operate a baler? and understand less ground speed does'nt mean slower production.............good luck

Yeah I must be an idiot to think baling at 9mph and rolling up 40 tons of hay per hour was faster than runing 5mph and rolling up 30 tons per hour.LOL

NH didn't design the extra-sweep to run faster it was desgined for lighter fluffier wide windrows, like straw. They do not work well in heavy windrows.

I am perfectly capable of running a baler. Most of the people that own NH balers around here ask me for help when there balers are haveing trouble. The dealer is hot after my trade-ins because he knows that the balers have been operated properly.

 

[John SD]

I have no experience with gathering wheels but anyone who had them around here weren't impressed. I have a Hesston 856A with the wide pickup and love it. I haven't put 2000 bales through it since I bought it in 2000. It's sat out the '02 and now the '06 hay season. :sad:

There are damn few of my hay fields you would want to run 9 mph on. I run the tractor about half-3/4 throttle while baling. PTO speed is rated at 2200 engine rpm while I run 12-1500 engine rpm. Just a high idle basically. This is with a 160 hp rated tractor. I figure it's easier on the tractor, baler, hay, and myself not bouncing around in the cab. I only make my bales 5x5 because that is heavy enough for the equipment I handle them with.

Go for the baler with the wide pickup. You won't regret it.

BTW, I hate having to rake and don't if I don't have to. If my 16' swather doesn't lay down a big enough swath to bale I question whether the hay is worth cutting.

 

[Jason]

I don't know how wide these pick ups go... my 660 has a pick up that is wider than the space between my tractor wheels. Some of the hay I am baleing I am driving on with both wheels.

I agree about ground speed, faster is not always better. Rough ground, too much hay forced into the bale doesn't allow proper tension,etc.. As it is if I start a bale in a very heavy spot I can get some looking like they are soft core.

The idea of rakes or windrow size matched to conditions is a better choice than high speed baleing.

Imagine hitting one of those ruts in Manitoba's fileds at 9 MPH... then again maybe you have to go that fast and only tie at the ends so as not to get stuck. :lol:

 

[Andy]

I have no experience with gathering wheels but anyone who had them around here weren't impressed. I have a Hesston 856A with the wide pickup and love it. I haven't put 2000 bales through it since I bought it in 2000. It's sat out the '02 and now the '06 hay season. :sad:

There are damn few of my hay fields you would want to run 9 mph on. I run the tractor about half-3/4 throttle while baling. PTO speed is rated at 2200 engine rpm while I run 12-1500 engine rpm. Just a high idle basically. This is with a 160 hp rated tractor. I figure it's easier on the tractor, baler, hay, and myself not bouncing around in the cab. I only make my bales 5x5 because that is heavy enough for the equipment I handle them with.

Go for the baler with the wide pickup. You won't regret it.

BTW, I hate having to rake and don't if I don't have to. If my 16' swather doesn't lay down a big enough swath to bale I question whether the hay is worth cutting.

Baleing at 3/4 RPM is one of the best tricks to makeing good bales. You will also have less leaf lose.

 

[lazy ace]

We have an extra wide pickup on the NH baler, it works all right but it seems to me like if you crowd the outside you can slug that auger. We have had zero problems this year but the haying machinery is still sitting in the machine shed .

I saw on TV that in Canada somebody had a v rake mounted on the front of there tractor and raked and baled at the same time. Would that work for pulling two windrows together, or does it work only for mowed hay?

Andy your tractor speed is impressive. We have gotten to that speed on some fields and man can you get stuff done. When you back your speed down to 5 or 6 it feels like you are barely moving.

Have a good one

lazy ace

 

[HAY MAKER]

I better call New Holland and tell them to fire their engineering dept. big dummie & pandy already figured out New Holland's cutting productivity with their wide pickups,lol................I wish I could get you in a hay field,Ill take a New Holland wide pick up,you take the standard,at the end of the day winner take all.................good luck

 

[HAY MAKER]

The main problem with the NH wide pickup is that it has two less bars of teeth than the normal pickup. That can really slow you down in heavy crops.

WOW!!!! andy showing his brillance again,yeah New Holland spent a bundle on research engineering /design to add the wide pickup to slow down baleing,andy maybe you need to learn how to operate a baler? and understand less ground speed does'nt mean slower production.............good luck

Haymaker could you explain your reasoning about this. i always thought production was was the amount of pounds of hay baled per hour.

It you are going slower or not able to put as much hay into the bales that you wouldn't be productive,

Yes I will explain it,when you explain why you think "going slower" puts less hay into the bales :???: LOL................good luck

 

[HAY MAKER]

I have no experience with gathering wheels but anyone who had them around here weren't impressed. I have a Hesston 856A with the wide pickup and love it. I haven't put 2000 bales through it since I bought it in 2000. It's sat out the '02 and now the '06 hay season. :sad:

There are damn few of my hay fields you would want to run 9 mph on. I run the tractor about half-3/4 throttle while baling. PTO speed is rated at 2200 engine rpm while I run 12-1500 engine rpm. Just a high idle basically. This is with a 160 hp rated tractor. I figure it's easier on the tractor, baler, hay, and myself not bouncing around in the cab. I only make my bales 5x5 because that is heavy enough for the equipment I handle them with.

Go for the baler with the wide pickup. You won't regret it.

BTW, I hate having to rake and don't if I don't have to. If my 16' swather doesn't lay down a big enough swath to bale I question whether the hay is worth cutting.

Baleing at 3/4 RPM is one of the best tricks to makeing good bales. You will also have less leaf lose.

There are lots of ways to make good bales,baling at 3/4 RPM running 9 miles an hour is one of them,right andy, LOL...............good luck

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

WOW!!!! andy showing his brillance again,yeah New Holland spent a bundle on research engineering /design to add the wide pickup to slow down baleing,andy maybe you need to learn how to operate a baler? and understand less ground speed does'nt mean slower production.............good luck

Haymaker could you explain your reasoning about this. i always thought production was was the amount of pounds of hay baled per hour.

It you are going slower or not able to put as much hay into the bales that you wouldn't be productive,

Yes I will explain it,when you explain why you think "going slower" puts less hay into the bales :???: LOL................good luck

Haymaker. I know to a point going slower allows the baler to pack a tighter bale but baling alfalfa you need to put as much in with as few revolutions to keep from knocking off all the leaves.I rakes 2.18 ft windrows together in even the heaviest hay that I grow to keep my NH baler full, that way I don't have to run 7or 8 mile an hour to make bales that have leaves on the stems.

 

[HAY MAKER]

As has been stated earlier by all,there are many ways to bale hay,matching ground speed ,RPM's,hydraulic pressure,driving patterns etc,to the field conditions at hand is the task,a wide pickup is just another tool................good luck

 

[Brad S]

hay trucker is right about the rake has a great impact on the bale. With the 567, you can have sloppy edges on your windrows because of the pickup width cleans up the hay. We rake about everything to reduce drying times - its amazing how many tons a 567 will choke down when you double rake 16' windrows.

If you don't have the wide pu, good rakes like the Vermeer twin rakes will let you match your windrow width to your pickup width with nice square windrow shoulders.

Gathering wheels never worked very well for me.