Taurup grass rakes

[Richard Smyth]

Has anyone used a taurup 9177s rake. Need a rake and have found one of these at not silly money just wondering if they are any good.

any information on taurup rake helpful too

 

[Gerbert]

I have a 9577s.
Good: Rotor undercarriage is great on undulating ground. Nice square rows and ability to make a very dense and small, high row when you put two in one. Oil immersed crown/pinion. Build quality seems heavy.
Bad: it is a very long machine, however with some care I get into all gateways, wide as well, mine is almost 3 meters with 380 wide tyres (I bet that is not a big problem for you). The steering bars have a tendency to bend when you hit something with the wheels making the rake go in crabsteering mode. They easily bend back to but they should've just made them out of steel instead of aluminium. Steering isn't what I was used to on my old pottinger mid delivery anyway but that might just be because of its length. When you want to rake from one side you need to take the revs down to get a decent row. Breaking arms, have had it 4 times now. Easily weldable but a pain of you do not find it again, and they are not cheap, €167 for the arm alone.
However my biggest problem with it, I find that you can't drive all that fast with them. Hence I am looking into a 4 rotor.
I bought mine with the intention of taking some more time for raking and having to spend less time picking it up with the wagon. Well, it does exactly that but the capacity just is really dissapointing to me. If you are used to a mid delivery it is also really something else to work with, had to learn raking all over.

 

[Richard Smyth]

Thank you for this. All good information.

how slow would you say it is. What sort of forward speed would be achievable in a 4-5 ton ha crop. Mostly cereal hay here with some vetch hay.

I would prefer a center delivery rake but they are all mega money. This one is good value if it’s mechanically sound. I also like the idea on being able to put 3 or 4 rows together in lighter crop

im guessing the steering legs could easily be made from steel to make more robust.

this would be my first rake as we are just getting into the Hay baling game here. Most people use wheel rakes which are cheap but I’m trying to do a better job and build a good reputation for the hay export market

 

[Gerbert]

Well if you are doing light crops it is great being able to just go on and on making a row, but it further decreaces capacity.
I can do about 8 km/h, if the crop doesn't stick to much a bit faster, on sticky clover I need to slow down.
I guess if you have higher stubble you could go faster. I mow at about 7cm. If it is fluffy stuff you might then need a roller in the front of the baler tractor but that's easy.
I am quite happy with the technical side of it, seems very well built and I haven't heard of any failures. Steering indeed should be easy to make a bit more robust, being so wide certainly doesn't help with hitting things so hey, I just leave like it is because now it is easily fixed if it goes wrong, maybe something else will break otherwise.
If it is cheap enough I would take a gamble. Even if later on you get a center delivery it is usefull in lighter crops.