Which 3m front and rear mowerconditioners?

[Barleycorn]

Looking at a set of 3 m mower conditioners. Had quotes for these. All dealers that I'm happy to deal with, and prices not all that different from each other. Which way to jump?

 

[Matthew Britton]

Personally I would avoid McHale. I have one here that I thought would be a good replacement for my bomb proof John Deere. It is ok but just way too heavy, the tractor really suffers with it in my opinion.

 

[Half Pipe]

McHale rear mounted is 1470kg,
New style vertical fold JD 1475kg
May depend where weight actually is tho.
The older style swing round JD was good bit lighter at 1145kg
They were good mowers! Just bit clumsy folding out the back

 

[Matthew Britton]

McHale rear mounted is 1470kg,
New style vertical fold JD 1475kg
May depend where weight actually is tho.
The older style swing round JD was good bit lighter at 1145kg
They were good mowers! Just bit clumsy folding out the back

They were still available last time I looked. Pity they change things that work!

 

[deleted user 837354]

I believe the forum was firmly in the Pottinger camp last time.

Claas- check the cost of parts and condition of your kidneys soon after.

 

[marco]

No Kuhn?

 

[Wellytrack]

No Valtra?

 

[ColinV6]

Pottinger. Purely based on experience.

 

[Andrew]

Pottinger. Never tried Claas, but don't really want to either.

 

[Speedstar]

Looking at a set of 3 m mower conditioners. Had quotes for these. All dealers that I'm happy to deal with, and prices not all that different from each other. Which way to jump?

Claas or Krone, both good mowers

 

[Horn&corn]

Some of those brands will be worth a lot more than others in 5 yrs time. Good residuals will significantly help cost of ownership.

 

[FarmerFrank88]

Tbh Claas krone jd/kuhn and pottinger all have good reports and it would probably depend more on dealers and price than any machine as they are all pretty good. I'd go claas but would happily run any.

 

[Matthew Britton]

I find it Interesting that only a few years ago the McHale was becoming the mower to beat, they don’t even have one vote at the moment, owning one I know why!

 

[agri knives]

I find it Interesting that only a few years ago the McHale was becoming the mower to beat, they don’t even have one vote at the moment, owning one I know why!

I think mchale rushed their mowers out into the market before they were really ready for market, it backfired as they had issues which lads didn’t like, as far as I know they have since modified the faults and they are now going well, but it’s a competitive market and a hard hill to climb a second time .

 

[Farmer_Joe]

McHale rear mounted is 1470kg,
New style vertical fold JD 1475kg
May depend where weight actually is tho.
The older style swing round JD was good bit lighter at 1145kg
They were good mowers! Just bit clumsy folding out the back

ive got an old 328 fold round jd mower and think it great, sorry help the op much sorry!

residuals is prob worth considering,

dont pottinger have some weird bed design with a drive key down the bed rather than cogs or is that another brand?

 

[Andrew]

ive got an old 328 fold round jd mower and think it great, sorry help the op much sorry!

residuals is prob worth considering,

dont pottinger have some weird bed design with a drive key down the bed rather than cogs or is that another brand?

Thats Lely. Hated ours with a passion. Still have nightmares about them 8 years after they went down the road

 

[agri knives]

ive got an old 328 fold round jd mower and think it great, sorry help the op much sorry!

residuals is prob worth considering,

dont pottinger have some weird bed design with a drive key down the bed rather than cogs or is that another brand?

No pottinger have good big even gears which do get a good grip of one another , it’s a pith they didn’t put more steel in the bed housing, I broke a bed and I was surprised how light the shell was .

 

[James]

I've thought about this for a year or two now and I keep coming back to reckoning if I was to order a set today it would be claas.

 

[Frankzy]

I'd probably choose Pöttinger because they've served us well enough and I don't have any experience on any of the others...

 

[Martin Holden]

Residual on machinery like mowers, tedders and rakes are becoming less of an issue these days as ex Contractor models are more difficult to sell as smaller operators cant handle the wider sizes and many farmers now tend to buy new anyway. Some will be exported I guess but in the main the used market isn’t what it was. What creates residual values? Population of the brand, dealers, spare part availability etc etc. All these things are important. Again, most modern day machines are way more reliable than 30 years ago (I know this from experience in the trade) so many older machines as long as wearing parts are replaced when required can have a long life