Teagle tomahawk 8100 or McHale c460

[SteveE]

Hello one and all.

Looking at getting my father a straw blower to help him litter the cattle up at his place and local dealers have given us these as an option. The teagle tomahawk 8100 or McHale c460. Looking to throw the straw 16m to far side of the shed and were looking to get peoples opinions on either one before we make a decision.

Would mainly be running round bale straw through it but may do some silage also.

Any opinions on either machine (advantages and disadvantages) greatly appreciated as real life experience is always better to hear than sales bumpf.

Many thanks again.

 

[Hampton]

We’ve got an 8100 and it’s great, although I don’t put any silage through it. If it’s his first chopper I would recommend just using straw until he gets used to it as silage needs a gentle touch.
I think (although many will disagree) that the McHale is a better silage machine, but the teagle is a marginally better bedding machine.
I don’t think you will regret either, but just remember, it’s a chopper, not a tub mixer!

 

[SteveE]

We’ve got an 8100 and it’s great, although I don’t put any silage through it. If it’s his first chopper I would recommend just using straw until he gets used to it as silage needs a gentle touch.
I think (although many will disagree) that the McHale is a better silage machine, but the teagle is a marginally better bedding machine.
I don’t think you will regret either, but just remember, it’s a chopper, not a tub mixer!

Cheers Hampton for getting in touch.

 

[Victor]

Got a 8100 here first straw chopper
Had no problems
Have blocked up a couple of times with silage so as said got to be gentle
Don't know much about McHale
Buying decision was mainly down to trying to walk the talk and buy a British built machine for once to go on the back of my German built deere

 

[holly smoke]

Looking at the same here for next year and was told by the dealer that a teagle 8500 as if you are thinking of silage that’s the better machine

 

[hally]

We’ve had both, of you are only using straw don’t really think it will matter which machine but if intending putting silage through the Mchale looks an infinitely better machine long term. The build on the Mchale is far better all round but if the teagle was cheaper and a more local dealer then it would suffice. Our teagle was great in silage for about 3 to 4 thousand bales then it just self destructed and cost us a lot of money but we have not had the Mchale long enough to compare but the teagle used to block regularly and was a pain to unblock whereas the Mchale has never blocked in 1500 silage bales and is a monster for blowing them through. Hopefully @DrDunc will be along soon as he knows more about them than anybody on here.

 

[DrDunc]

Don't know about that @hally

Teagle will blow straw slightly further. It has 8 bolt on paddles to the McHale 6 welded. Neither of them will manage 50 feet if there's a wind in the shed even if you up the PTO revs.

I had a teagle before the McHale. As already said, they're fine for straw, but after a few thousand bales of silage, they wear out. McHale by comparison is designed for silage, so handles straw practically without wear. Teagle paddles do wear the edges for some reason, hence being bolt on for replacing. The wear reduces the effective blow distance.

My teagle after 3000 bales of silage and about 500 tonnes of straw needed floor chains, a new side chute, the (non replaceable) teaser fingers on the comb were worn out, the paddle edges were worn, and I'd lost count of the number of sets of blades I'd put on it.

McHale has done about 7000 bales of silage and roughly 900 tonnes of straw. It got new floor chains last year, it's had 3 sets of knives, and I think 3 belts, but might be 4.

The belts are about £120 a time. However the belt drive arrangement (that they illegally copied from Kuhn) means that it's near impossible to choke. You save hours compared to trying to get the flywheel to turn back on the teagle after you forgot to reverse the floor before switching off the pto when you still had a some stuff in the thing. If you do block the McHale, it has a bar you insert into holes in the flywheel, and you're going again in minutes instead of hours.

If you're looking for something that'll blow good dry straw, the teagle will do the job grand. For dodgy straw with a bit of mould, or any silage/haulage, the McHale is the machine.

Basically McHale looked at all the other brands of blower on the market, copied the best bits of design from each, then added a few clever ideas of their own.

They didn't copy much if anything from the teagle.

 

[SteveE]

Thanks all for the replies! Helped alot in the end. Did go for the McHale as worked out a better deal and with it easier to unblock should it block etc made sense. Thanks again

 

[HarryB97]

Got a new Teagle about a year ago now. Great on dry straw and chopped round bale silage but wet straw or long stemmy silage in round or squres it does really struggle with and takes a long time and a lot of stop and starting the bed to gently feed it through! If you block it which i've done once on straw or a lot of times on red clover square bales it can be a nightmare to unblock, make sure you wear gloves and a jacket or ull rip yourself to pieces trying to unblock it! Neighbour has a Kuhn which is a completley different animal to a Teagle and very similar to the Mchale

 

[An Gof]

Thanks all for the replies! Helped alot in the end. Did go for the McHale as worked out a better deal and with it easier to unblock should it block etc made sense. Thanks again

You won’t regret it. I’m Cornish and bought a McHale

 

[Bill dog]

Having jammed my Teagle last week feeding a silage bale, and looked like I’d been through a mincer by the time I got it un blocked, my next one will not be a Teagle !

 

[hally]

Having jammed my Teagle last week feeding a silage bale, and looked like I’d been through a mincer by the time I got it un blocked, my next one will not be a Teagle !

Impact driver, wagon strap and handler will be your main tools for that job

 

[Bill dog]

Not a pinch bar that nearly fitted in the gap of the jammed rotor, lots of knuckle skin, and copious amounts of French language ( as my kids call it ) then !

 

[mattydraw]

Anyone got a Kuhn?