Trailed silage harvester outfit

I'd say if you interviewed the long term residents in any institution. Lads making their own silage and lads

Are they making their own bales or getting someone to do it now.
One of them does all the baling at present.
 
I put in a good number of years with a pottinger mex 6 in the nineties. It was a good reliable machine. We powered it with a 150 horsepower ursus. Always thought we could have done with more power even though we only picked 10ft rows. 35 acres of first cut would have been a good day back then. I reckon the jt would be the way to go. We picked up a spanner with the mex 6 and bent the flywheel and frame of the harvester in a knot. Insurance write it off but I got it going again. Heard the jf won’t self destruct as badly when a foreign object Joe’s in. As for a an old sp harvester, I currently run a 1996 jag 860. I’ve had it for years and it’s been a great reliable machine but you need to be good on the spanners and occasionally spend big. I put 13k into mine one year and I don’t cut big acres. I don’t think a machine like that would suit a few lads doing their own unless they were prepared to spend a couple of grand every year before they go out. Even something as simple as cam bearings can be a major issue if left to fail and cause other damage. Really I try thread this.
 
I put in a good number of years with a pottinger mex 6 in the nineties. It was a good reliable machine. We powered it with a 150 horsepower ursus. Always thought we could have done with more power even though we only picked 10ft rows. 35 acres of first cut would have been a good day back then. I reckon the jt would be the way to go. We picked up a spanner with the mex 6 and bent the flywheel and frame of the harvester in a knot. Insurance write it off but I got it going again. Heard the jf won’t self destruct as badly when a foreign object Joe’s in. As for a an old sp harvester, I currently run a 1996 jag 860. I’ve had it for years and it’s been a great reliable machine but you need to be good on the spanners and occasionally spend big. I put 13k into mine one year and I don’t cut big acres. I don’t think a machine like that would suit a few lads doing their own unless they were prepared to spend a couple of grand every year before they go out. Even something as simple as cam bearings can be a major issue if left to fail and cause other damage. Really I try thread this.
used to run a mengele 30 here in the 90s until my uncle took off for canada. my old man and the neighbours bought a jag 690. when it first turned up, the man that owned it was showing the controls on the day they were cutting silage here. swarth were still 10ft and the harvester left the trailer in the dust. werent used to the speed. couple years after, dad went and bought a 1360 with an autoswarther so had 20ft swarths going. the harvesters limit was there. bought a 2nd 690 for spares. spent a good few years swapping chopper boxes, headers, blowers between the 2 foragers. they then bought a 695 mega (the 2 690 were still around in the yard for a good few years) and that extra power was worth every bit of penny. still gave its issues. when it ran, it ran. good handy pace. different story when it either blocked or had some other issue. on a good day, be lucky to get 50 acres done in a day. one year it broke down and was gonna rain next day, still had 20 acres to cut for ourselves and 30 acres for one of the neighbours. local contractor rang my dad saying if he needed the grass brought in. dad said yes and left the contractor in with the forager and we drew away. did the grass ourselves that 2nd cut and the next year but after that, we got the contractor in and never looked back
 
I put in a good number of years with a pottinger mex 6 in the nineties. It was a good reliable machine. We powered it with a 150 horsepower ursus. Always thought we could have done with more power even though we only picked 10ft rows. 35 acres of first cut would have been a good day back then. I reckon the jt would be the way to go. We picked up a spanner with the mex 6 and bent the flywheel and frame of the harvester in a knot. Insurance write it off but I got it going again. Heard the jf won’t self destruct as badly when a foreign object Joe’s in. As for a an old sp harvester, I currently run a 1996 jag 860. I’ve had it for years and it’s been a great reliable machine but you need to be good on the spanners and occasionally spend big. I put 13k into mine one year and I don’t cut big acres. I don’t think a machine like that would suit a few lads doing their own unless they were prepared to spend a couple of grand every year before they go out. Even something as simple as cam bearings can be a major issue if left to fail and cause other damage. Really I try thread this.
Neighbour runs an early 860,1st one blew up big style and the insurance wrote it off,stupidly they offered £10k towards repairing it (total cost £29k😯ten years ago mind) they only did a couple of cuts with it and traded it in against another 860,in all fairness it’s been a better machine,as you posted you need to spend to keep them going.
 
I suppose it would be hard to pass a JF seeing as their the most common harvesters to see working nowadays. With the horsepower available somethin like a jf 1100 should give good output.

Keeping the knives sharp and tight to the shearbar takes the pressure off chains and reduces diesel usage.

On costings picking out of a ten foot swarth.

Harvester €40
Mower €20
Loader €20
Trailers x2 €20
 
I suppose it would be hard to pass a JF seeing as their the most common harvesters to see working nowadays. With the horsepower available somethin like a jf 1100 should give good output.

Keeping the knives sharp and tight to the shearbar takes the pressure off chains and reduces diesel usage.

On costings picking out of a ten foot swarth.

Harvester €40
Mower €20
Loader €20
Trailers x2 €20
werent the blow out the chute a problem for the 1100? sometimes see 1100 going cheaper on dd compared to the 900
 
werent the blow out the chute a problem for the 1100? sometimes see 1100 going cheaper on dd compared to the 900
Haven’t they changed something about the chopper box in the jf to improve blow with the newer models? A friend of mine has bought a new jf 1260 a few weeks ago to go behind a 230hp valtra. Looking forward to seeing how it perform
 
  • Like
Reactions: c4l
Haven’t they changed something about the chopper box in the jf to improve blow with the newer models? A friend of mine has bought a new jf 1260 a few weeks ago to go behind a 230hp valtra. Looking forward to seeing how it perform
i think they did. the lads in tullamore do conversions i believe as well. would love to see a vid of that 1260 going
 
I suppose it would be hard to pass a JF seeing as their the most common harvesters to see working nowadays. With the horsepower available somethin like a jf 1100 should give good output.

Keeping the knives sharp and tight to the shearbar takes the pressure off chains and reduces diesel usage.

On costings picking out of a ten foot swarth.

Harvester €40
Mower €20
Loader €20
Trailers x2 €20

Your charges would be fairly on the ball.
Maybe you'd give a brief outline of your history with the Hesstons ? The Good , the Bad , and the Ugly . Help was your problem I think .
Few others on here running older SPFH .
@agreid
@diesel power .
Interested more in the running costs, the financial frights that ye may or may not have had .

@TAFKAT .
Those men should bite the bullet , buy a JF 900, 1050 or 1100 . They should get a tidy straight machine for 5 grand , even 7 or 8 . Try it for 1 year , see how it goes . They won't go broke trying it .
 
i think they did. the lads in tullamore do conversions i believe as well. would love to see a vid of that 1260 going
I’ll get a video before the season is out. I took out my pottinger mex 6 last year to give it a run out. It’s 28 years old but still in good order. I put the Ford 8870 on it (dynoed at 310hp) and went down to pick up with a friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us. It worked away in 30ft rows. Had to be careful as all that power would be rough on an old machine like that
 
Mark 2 1100 ours is. Put 13 inch extension on top of the tower and got the spout extension too. Great blow off it. Haven’t worked it in 5 years.
1100 has a 5 knife wide chopper and the mark 2 has a bigger gearbox and cam bearings. Deere 6900 drove it in 20 foot rows grand. Then a 6920s no bother.
 
Mark 2 1100 ours is. Put 13 inch extension on top of the tower and got the spout extension too. Great blow off it. Haven’t worked it in 5 years.
1100 has a 5 knife wide chopper and the mark 2 has a bigger gearbox and cam bearings. Deere 6900 drove it in 20 foot rows grand. Then a 6920s no bother.

Contractor chops it now ,

Or , all black ba##ards ?
 
A 1050 will outperform an 1100 up to 200hp. The 1100 was a very hard drive with the bigger shear area and the steeper chimney to the chute causing more friction.

you really need 300hp+ on the 5 blade drum.
 
I’ll get a video before the season is out. I took out my pottinger mex 6 last year to give it a run out. It’s 28 years old but still in good order. I put the Ford 8870 on it (dynoed at 310hp) and went down to pick up with a friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us. It worked away in 30ft rows. Had to be careful as all that power would be rough on an old machine like that

@Wexfman in action.
 
Your charges would be fairly on the ball.
Maybe you'd give a brief outline of your history with the Hesstons ? The Good , the Bad , and the Ugly . Help was your problem I think .
Few others on here running older SPFH .
@agreid
@diesel power .
Interested more in the running costs, the financial frights that ye may or may not have had .

@TAFKAT .
Those men should bite the bullet , buy a JF 900, 1050 or 1100 . They should get a tidy straight machine for 5 grand , even 7 or 8 . Try it for 1 year , see how it goes . They won't go broke trying it .

My hesston story started the day I seen two 16 ft kane trailers advertised on the farmers journal. There was a 7720 hesston parked beside them in the shed.

At the time we were cutting with a tarrup 622 backfilling 13×7 trailers so the bigger trailers made a big difference although we needed to bring a jack with us now as the hitch on the harvester wasnt able to drop off the heavier trailers.

I was drawing silage 4 miles at the time so in order to get 25 acres cut every day that we were there involved starting at 5am and working until dark to achieve this.
It would have been grand if it was just one day but there was 3 to 4 days like this to get all the grass gathered up. I started to think about upgrading the harvester into something like a mengele and driving it with the 8210 and sidefilling the trailers but I reckoned that I would be no further on as I was now down a tractor for drawing in.
So I bought the hesston. I started off picking up 8ft rows after the tarrup 306 and side filling into trailers with three tractors drawing in.
Of course we had a few teething problems like the first time we blocked her but output was increased to the extent that we were now cutting the same acreage at our ease compared to the 622. I decided then to increase the mowing output and bought a 1360 mower with a grouper and mowed alongside the 306 so we were now picking up 18ft rows instead of 8.
There was a 2.8 metre pickup on the 7720 and there was now more blockages were occuring on headlands as the row was always the full width of the pickup.

Bearing failures in the chopper box were becoming more common but I wasnt on for going back to the smaller row.
I decided to look out for a 3m pickup and after asking on here I came on a 7725 harvester with the pickup that I wanted. The seller wasnt inclinded to sell just the pickup so I bought the whole machine off him with the intention of cutting it up for spares.
I took the pickup off along with the chopper box and put it into the 7720. I cut away the first day and then the belt driving the chopper box went. I didnt realise at the time that the shaft driving the pulleys needed to be set back level after opening the bolts and I ended up breaking the rubber drive coupling that drove everything so now the harvester would barely move itself never mind pick up grass. I went home to the shed and got out the 7725 which luckily I hadnt broken for spares and got her going and picked up the last forty odd acres with her.

The rubber coupling on the flywheel was one of the biggest expense at €800 and I decided to buy one for each harvester and I got the two of them ready to pick up grass the following year. The lease was up on the land 4 miles away the following year and I decided to cut back on cattle numbers and just cut on owned fields around the house. I picked up the majority of it with the 7725 as it was the more powerful machine bit I did cut a few acres with the 7720 too.
Labour was and still is a problem for me. A cousin used to always drive the harvester for me so I was always looking for three lads to draw in while I done the pit. It was always hassle trying get lads and it ended up that I had to cut on the weekends when I had help which didnt go down well with them either. I bought the wagon and upgraded the tractor and now I just needed one other man with me and we aim to pick up 30/35 acre on an one mile draw.
In regardless the price of parts I have had a few shocks regarding the price of parts off pottinger. The wagon hasnt been the cheapest thing to run either. Doing up the knife bank cost me the best part of two grand along with bearings in the gearbox and replacing the main drive shaft out of the gearbox it doesnt be long about running into money either. The problem with the harvester was not as much the price of the parts but the availabilty of them.
I often get asked to pick up grass after a trailed harvester has self destruted after picking up a stone. The big plus of the wagon is that I can work away on my own. Any draw over a mile is a drag them so to summarise if I had reliable help here it would still be harvester.



Well you did ask..
 
My hesston story started the day I seen two 16 ft kane trailers advertised on the farmers journal. There was a 7720 hesston parked beside them in the shed.

At the time we were cutting with a tarrup 622 backfilling 13×7 trailers so the bigger trailers made a big difference although we needed to bring a jack with us now as the hitch on the harvester wasnt able to drop off the heavier trailers.

I was drawing silage 4 miles at the time so in order to get 25 acres cut every day that we were there involved starting at 5am and working until dark to achieve this.
It would have been grand if it was just one day but there was 3 to 4 days like this to get all the grass gathered up. I started to think about upgrading the harvester into something like a mengele and driving it with the 8210 and sidefilling the trailers but I reckoned that I would be no further on as I was now down a tractor for drawing in.
So I bought the hesston. I started off picking up 8ft rows after the tarrup 306 and side filling into trailers with three tractors drawing in.
Of course we had a few teething problems like the first time we blocked her but output was increased to the extent that we were now cutting the same acreage at our ease compared to the 622. I decided then to increase the mowing output and bought a 1360 mower with a grouper and mowed alongside the 306 so we were now picking up 18ft rows instead of 8.
There was a 2.8 metre pickup on the 7720 and there was now more blockages were occuring on headlands as the row was always the full width of the pickup.

Bearing failures in the chopper box were becoming more common but I wasnt on for going back to the smaller row.
I decided to look out for a 3m pickup and after asking on here I came on a 7725 harvester with the pickup that I wanted. The seller wasnt inclinded to sell just the pickup so I bought the whole machine off him with the intention of cutting it up for spares.
I took the pickup off along with the chopper box and put it into the 7720. I cut away the first day and then the belt driving the chopper box went. I didnt realise at the time that the shaft driving the pulleys needed to be set back level after opening the bolts and I ended up breaking the rubber drive coupling that drove everything so now the harvester would barely move itself never mind pick up grass. I went home to the shed and got out the 7725 which luckily I hadnt broken for spares and got her going and picked up the last forty odd acres with her.

The rubber coupling on the flywheel was one of the biggest expense at €800 and I decided to buy one for each harvester and I got the two of them ready to pick up grass the following year. The lease was up on the land 4 miles away the following year and I decided to cut back on cattle numbers and just cut on owned fields around the house. I picked up the majority of it with the 7725 as it was the more powerful machine bit I did cut a few acres with the 7720 too.
Labour was and still is a problem for me. A cousin used to always drive the harvester for me so I was always looking for three lads to draw in while I done the pit. It was always hassle trying get lads and it ended up that I had to cut on the weekends when I had help which didnt go down well with them either. I bought the wagon and upgraded the tractor and now I just needed one other man with me and we aim to pick up 30/35 acre on an one mile draw.
In regardless the price of parts I have had a few shocks regarding the price of parts off pottinger. The wagon hasnt been the cheapest thing to run either. Doing up the knife bank cost me the best part of two grand along with bearings in the gearbox and replacing the main drive shaft out of the gearbox it doesnt be long about running into money either. The problem with the harvester was not as much the price of the parts but the availabilty of them.
I often get asked to pick up grass after a trailed harvester has self destruted after picking up a stone. The big plus of the wagon is that I can work away on my own. Any draw over a mile is a drag them so to summarise if I had reliable help here it would still be harvester.



Well you did ask..

And a very informative answer you gave , Peter . Exactly the things I wanted to hear .
 
I suppose it would be hard to pass a JF seeing as their the most common harvesters to see working nowadays. With the horsepower available somethin like a jf 1100 should give good output.

Keeping the knives sharp and tight to the shearbar takes the pressure off chains and reduces diesel usage.

On costings picking out of a ten foot swarth.

Harvester €40
Mower €20
Loader €20
Trailers x2 €20
Would you keep a trailed harvester going with 2 trailers on reasonably short draws? If you needed a 3rd trailer what way would you break it down?
 
Just seen this for sale,not far from me.

Another very interesting machine just in this Keverneland TA ten x with deutz v8 power unit on the front! The engine is air cooled twin turbo runs sweet as a nut forager is very tidy with new flywheel liner that hasnt seen grass all controls for the forager n engine go in cab sharpening stone is like new blades and cutter paddles are worn but still useable machine is ready to go to work a very capable machine too! £5500 plus vat please don’t hesitate to call 07903824662 or pm me for details86EF2A33-1F31-4B00-ABD9-BDB89629D8A7.jpeg
 
Would you keep a trailed harvester going with 2 trailers on reasonably short draws? If you needed a 3rd trailer what way would you break it down?
you would easy depending on the size of the trailers. last year for us, 3 trailers just about kept the 900 going on a 6 mile round draw and that was with 2 18ft and a 20ft
 
Back
Top