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I called BS on my uncle's 40 year old hay tedder till it outworked my new one in a 12 acre field
My uncle keeps this old ground driven tedder behind his barn in Yamhill County and I always figured it was junk. Last August my new hydraulic fold tedder threw a bearing halfway through first cutting and I was stuck. He said just take the old one. I laughed but I hooked it up to the 4020 and ran it anyway. That thing fluffed the windrows better than my 4 year old machine and never missed a beat across 12 acres. I was out there for maybe 6 hours and it just kept going. Now I am looking at what a replacement bearing costs versus what a whole rebuilt old unit runs. Has anyone else gone back to older ground drive stuff for tedding, or am I just lucky this one was kept up?
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tara64214d ago
The ground drive part is the key here, not the age. A ground driven tedder has no PTO shaft, no gearbox and no hydraulics, so there is just less stuff to break. Your uncle's unit probably has a few grease fittings and that is about it for upkeep.
One thing though, calling it outworking your new one is not quite fair. Your machine quit because of a bearing, not because the design is bad. On a good day your hydraulic fold is faster to move between fields and easier to adjust for different crops. The old one won because it was still running, and running beats fancy every time.
That said, 40 years behind a barn and no rusted up beaters tells you he took care of it. Plenty of those old units get dragged out and the wood is rotted and the teeth are bent all to hell.
If it were me I would price the bearing first. If it is under a hundred bucks you fix the new one and keep the old one around as backup. Two tedders is not a bad spot to be in during first cutting.
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