Hay wheel rake vs bar rake

Wheel rake vs bar rake

  • Wheel rake

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bar rake

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Forced manual labor for the children!

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Total voters
    1

mystang89

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Posted in my journal but wanted to get a better idea of what you all thought.
I've owned a wheel rake before and wasn't very impressed by it. I really don't think it picked up as much of the hay as could have been picked up. I was thinking about a bar rake. I've heard different things about both; one person likes this one, another person likes that one, but what are your thoughts on regards to them. Do you prefer one over the other? If so, what do you like it dislike about them?
Of course I could just buy a bunch of garden rakes and give them to the children! :p
 

promiseacres

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We have a bar rake... getting a Tedder this summer...my DH has an opinion, I will ask him.. ;) I just want my horsesbfed :hu I let him worry about the hay making process.
 

farmerjan

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We have both. The "bar rake" which we call a side delivery rake will handle only one row. It will pick up both tedded and not tedded hay. It cannot get clogged up the same way that a wheel rake can, but can get a bunched section. You have to make sure all the teeth are there or it will miss spots. The wheel rake will actually pick up hay better, especially shorter hay like 2nd or 3rd cutting that is fine. Again, all the teeth must be there or it will leave spots. The wheel rake usually is used to put 2 rows together at a time; ours is actually capable of combining 3 rows if opened out all the way. It is 14 wheels, 7 on a side. Great for big open fields and gets it done fast with alot of fuel savings. It is more time efficient as far as getting the field raked. Last night I raked over 10 acres of NON TEDDED hay that was very dry in less than 3 hours. I was pacing myself to only stay 2 rows ahead of the baler because it was threatening rain and didn't want to have too much raked then get wet then have to be tedded out. I could have done it in about 2-2 1/2 hours. Have spent over 4 hours on the smaller Farmall H with the side delivery rake before we got this big rake. Not practical for small odd shaped fields, or tight spots. We also have a 12 wheel rake. We bought that one and want to trade it for a 10 wheel rake which will be more manueverable.(sp?) We bought the 12 wheel rake long before we bought the equipment from our deceased friend. I just don't like that one much. I use the H and the small rake on all the small parcels of ground that we do. Also, the SD rake does NOT need hydraulics. It is ground driven. The wheel rakes need at least hydraulics to raise and lower the arms with the wheels, or in our case, it raises and lowers the wheels and another set of hydraulics controls the width of the rows to be picked up.
So it depends on what you are raking. Also the principles are reversed. The SD rake you start on the outside and rake from out to in. The wheel rake you do from inside to outside; doing the outside rows last. We usually start 6 rows in, rake the inside rows straight, and when you get to the ends you have unraked hay to drive over to turn around and head back the other way. The good thing is being able to pick up the wheels to make those turns. Then when you get to the last 4 or 6 rows, you can rake around the field. It will "clean up" the hay at the end of the straight rows,making a row of the hay that you didn't get in the actual row, making it easier for the person baling. It took me several fields to get the mindset of raking with the wheel rake after learning on a SD rake.
 

WyoLiving

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We are starting to think about getting a "Hay Package" of equipment for the 15 acre hayfield that we have.
There are a couple of different options of equipment, so this is important info for us.

For a small operation and if for one of the mini-balers from Europe, would your recommendation for a wheel rake be the same?
 

mystang89

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I bought the wheel rake for about $100. It worked. I needed it now so that's what I went with. I would definitely like a bar rake in there future but for my little acreage, it does it's job.
 

farmerjan

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If you are going to invest in something that you don't need "yesterday" and you have a choice.... a side delivery/roller bar rake is probably a little more versatile. If you are looking at a wheel rake, the newer ones that are V-rakes are really great if you are going to cover alot of ground and if there are long straight stretches. They are not as useful/versatile in smaller fields and tight turning spaces. You can rake 2 rows "together with a sd rake just by going up one row and down the other row and turning them into each other in the center ground. I use the sd rake in alot of our small 1-3 acre fields and especially the cut up ones that have tight corners to get in and out of. The old Farmall H does a bang up job of pulling it and it is a narrow front end so can really be manuvered. No power steering but..... Don't need any hydraulics on a sd rake either. It is ground driven and very simple to use and replace tines that get bent and broken. The newer wheel v-rakes, need hydraulics to raise and lower wheels, but will rake 2 rows at once and save alot of trips across the field....which saves fuel and wear and tear.
Sometimes it is what you can find at a price you can afford. If you are at all mechanical, then used equipment is the way to go especially for a rake since it is pretty simple. Our sd rake is probably 50 years old.
 

YourRabbitGirl

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Posted in my journal but wanted to get a better idea of what you all thought.

Of course I could just buy a bunch of garden rakes and give them to the children! :p
You and me both, I didn't like ours too. Got rid of it in a month period. one of the worst purchase I did my entire life. I hope no one will do the same mistake ever.
 

farmerjan

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I still feel bad about telling you that a wheel rake was better, only to find out with your pictures that it was the real old style that really is not that efficient. I do appreciate it that you posted the picture so that I could "eat crow" for giving you that advise and that you were not upset about it. As you said, you needed it "now" and it was available and was not expensive. Everytime I see a post here or on your journal, I think about it because I was assuming that it was the newer kind that needed hydraulics to operate it and they do a very good job in the right circumstance. I sure hope that this years haying will be a little easier now that you have a little experience under your belt, even if you are still using that rake. It does beat using the garden rakes..... although there were a few times about 40 years ago that we used an old horse drawn type dump rake, pulled by the pickup truck, with someone sitting on the seat and "dumping it" every so many feet so that it could be forked by hand onto the back of the truck and then hand forked into the hay mow. Boy, I sure couldn't do that today......
 
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