Single rotor rake

[Thomas6180]

Good evening,

Looking to buy a new single rotor rake 4.2-4.6m, and looking for some opinions before I make a final decision. I have narrowed it down to the Krone or Massey (as have dealers for both of these locally)

 

[DeeGee]

Good evening,

Looking to buy a new single rotor rake 4.2-4.6m, and looking for some opinions before I make a final decision. I have narrowed it down to the Krone or Massey (as have dealers for both of these locally)

Awkward things to row up with! Hard to explain but not the easiest things to use.
Sold my 4.3m rake last year after just two seasons. The rows were too big for my small baler to get the flat 8 sledge working properly, but being a single rotor it was too slow and time consuming for most of my stuff that was going into big balers.

So now I get the contractor with a twin rotor to row up for big balers, and use my Haybob 300 if needed for small bale hay, it makes much much nicer rows for the small baler anyway.

I would honestly think hard and ask around plenty of people before buying a single rotor machine.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Have a KV single rotor here, coming up to it’s 3rd season, for small baler just work off 1 side of brick to get single smaller rows or for big balers rake up n down bringing 2 runs together or if thin crop you can rake a brick together from each side to make a thicker swath

 

[Thomas6180]

Awkward things to row up with! Hard to explain but not the easiest things to use.
Sold my 4.3m rake last year after just two seasons. The rows were too big for my small baler to get the flat 8 sledge working properly, but being a single rotor it was too slow and time consuming for most of my stuff that was going into big balers.

So now I get the contractor with a twin rotor to row up for big balers, and use my Haybob 300 if needed for small bale hay, it makes much much nicer rows for the small baler anyway.

I would honestly think hard and ask around plenty of people before buying a single rotor machine.

did use a lely 300 but found it untidy and not enough in the rows, have been using a contractor with a 6mtr twin rotor making as small rows as possible, it works well, but sometimes have to wait if contractor is busy, nearly all hay for conventional baler, and some hay for narow reel claas 46 round

 

[Thomas6180]

Have a KV single rotor here, coming up to it’s 3rd season, for small baler just work off 1 side of brick to get single smaller rows or for big balers rake up n down bringing 2 runs together or if thin crop you can rake a brick together from each side to make a thicker swath

what width is your rake ? and what baler do you use?

 

[Hampton]

Good evening,

Looking to buy a new single rotor rake 4.2-4.6m, and looking for some opinions before I make a final decision. I have narrowed it down to the Krone or Massey (as have dealers for both of these locally)

I wood go for the Massey. Don’t really rate the Krone.
I have a Pottinger and it’s dear, but very well built

 

[Hampton]

Twin rotors a vastly superior, but also costly. I just tend to go up one side of a row and down the other, putting about 3 into 1. This is adequate for our quadrant 2200

 

[Thomas6180]

I wood go for the Massey. Don’t really rate the Krone.
I have a Pottinger and it’s dear, but very well built

Massey is a better price, can have a 4.5mtr Massey for less than a 4.2mtr Krone, but krone looks a heavier build, also like the Krone has folding tine arms for transport which i thought was handy

 

[TripleSix]

I'm considering buying a new rake.
Local fendt dealer has them in stock.
I like the Fella stuff.

Plus I could say I own a Fendt...

 

[Hampton]

Massey is a better price, can have a 4.5mtr Massey for less than a 4.2mtr Krone, but krone looks a heavier build, also like the Krone has folding tine arms for transport which i thought was handy

I’m sure the krone would be fine. I borrowed a krone Tedder off a friend once and the safety bars basically fell apart. Had to replace most of them as they were held on with u bolts which wouldn’t stay tight. Can’t really judge a brand on that though.
I would probably go for the Fella, try it for a few years then trade it up for a twin. Will be worth same as krone secondhand give or take but will cover an extra 30cm now

 

[Pan mixer]

I bought the Krone for the arm folding ability, my old rake took ages to get through a gateway or up the road.

Trying it out yesterday grass not ready to cut though so just pretending.

I thought about a twin rotor rake but they are too much money, too big to get in some of my fields and only do the one width row, turning straw wastes one side too.

It does take a little longer to row a field when you are bringing 50 feet into one swath for instance but a twin row rake won't do it any more efficiently, if the small baler only needs 10 feet well just rake 10 feet then, you can't do that with a twin row rake.

 

[Hampton]

The rotor on the pottinger is probably the most well built.

 

[HarryB97]

Have a look at the twin rotor mounted rakes from Kuhn & Pottinger, I currently use a single rotor but will be upgrading as it just takes so long!

 

[DieselRob]

Krone 3.8m here, brilliant little rake, used for hay, haylage and straw and does a good job for me, never had the contractor comment on rows being hard to bale

 

[DeeGee]

did use a lely 300 but found it untidy and not enough in the rows, have been using a contractor with a 6mtr twin rotor making as small rows as possible, it works well, but sometimes have to wait if contractor is busy, nearly all hay for conventional baler, and some hay for narow reel claas 46 round

Just my opinion, but if the majority of your hay is for a small baler then rakes do not make the best of windrows. Yes they rake very cleanly, but a Haybob will give a much lighter and fluffier row for small hay, and believe me the baler will much prefer baling after a Haybob than a raked swath.

Many people slag off the Haybob but if you know how to set them properly (simple) they leave the stubble just as clean as any rake, and for making light and airy 3m rows then IMO there is nothing much better for a small baler.

 

[Big_D]

Have a krone swadro 46 here, it's a very good rake, didn't like it at first, have a lot of very undulating ground here which meant it was either missing grass or catching soil, retrofitted the front guide/depth wheel and it follows the ground well now. 4.6m is a big rotor! I see pan mixer has the guide wheel on his in pic above. It makes a nice row, a lot more effort to achieve though than with a twin rotor. Only real gripe is output, we're raking for a trailed forager lifting double passes from the rake and the forager is chasing the rake. Would love a twin rotor, just hard to justify the extra cost.

 

[Thomas6180]

I bought the Krone for the arm folding ability, my old rake took ages to get through a gateway or up the road.

Trying it out yesterday grass not ready to cut though so just pretending.

I thought about a twin rotor rake but they are too much money, too big to get in some of my fields and only do the one width row, turning straw wastes one side too.

It does take a little longer to row a field when you are bringing 50 feet into one swath for instance but a twin row rake won't do it any more efficiently, if the small baler only needs 10 feet well just rake 10 feet then, you can't do that with a twin row rake.

what size is that Krone? quite keen on the folding arms

 

[Thomas6180]

Have a krone swadro 46 here, it's a very good rake, didn't like it at first, have a lot of very undulating ground here which meant it was either missing grass or catching soil, retrofitted the front guide/depth wheel and it follows the ground well now. 4.6m is a big rotor! I see pan mixer has the guide wheel on his in pic above. It makes a nice row, a lot more effort to achieve though than with a twin rotor. Only real gripe is output, we're raking for a trailed forager lifting double passes from the rake and the forager is chasing the rake. Would love a twin rotor, just hard to justify the extra cost.

im only planning to do single rows of hay, do you think 46 would be to big for massey 124 square baler

 

[Big_D]

im only planning to do single rows of hay, do you think 46 would be to big for massey 124 square baler

Sorry I wouldn't have a clue! Those of you who just do a single pass per row, how do you do it? Ie do you do occassional breaks with 2 passes? Or do you sweep grass away from the edge of the previously formed swath?

 

[Simon Chiles]

Just my opinion, but if the majority of your hay is for a small baler then rakes do not make the best of windrows. Yes they rake very cleanly, but a Haybob will give a much lighter and fluffier row for small hay, and believe me the baler will much prefer baling after a Haybob than a raked swath.

Many people slag off the Haybob but if you know how to set them properly (simple) they leave the stubble just as clean as any rake, and for making light and airy 3m rows then IMO there is nothing much better for a small baler.

Be careful. You’ll face the TFF firing squad at dawn for saying you can do a good job with a haybob. However I’d agree with you that it’s certainly possible.
I’m not keen on twin rotor rakes for hay, there’s always a small bit of hay that’s left unmoved against the ground between the rotors which I’m not keen on unless you intend to always ted the grass before you row it up.
I prefer a single rotor rake because it’s totally flexible. You can just keep moving the grass over until you have a big enough row for the baler, auto steer obviously makes this bit easier. If you want a smaller row you don’t need to use the full width of the rake. Sometimes we’ll knock two rows into one the day before we want to bale then just flip it over onto dry ground in the morning. I’ve got a 4.75m single rotor rake so rolling over two rows at once would give me the same output as a 9m rake, quite important if you’re a bit pushed for time on baling day. We only do conventional bales but because we have a bale packer the larger rows don’t cause a problem, we just drive slower. The packer can cope even if the bales are touching each other. A single rotor rake is also much cheaper, we only do about 400 acres of hay a year, I don’t think I could justify the price of a twin rotor, that’s silage contractor territory IMO.