Home-Built Hay Rake Saves Him a Bundle

Home-Built Hay Rake Saves Him a Bundle HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Rakes 44 Even if you cut most of your hay with a mower-conditioner you still need a rake around once in a while says Bruce Parkes Eriksdale Manitoba     He wanted one big enough to get the job done fast He had a couple of older 5-wheel Vicon wheel rakes but they were worn and small When he priced new rakes he decided he couldn t justify the expense     Rather than buying a rake Parkes armed himself with his welder and a few pieces of new steel and combined the two old rakes into a single 10-wheel machine      We made just about everything except the raking wheels he says He patterned it after Vicon s newer 9-wheel rake     First he built a new frame from 4-in square steel tubing Then he added an arch of 3-in square tubing Finally he made axles for the raking wheels and ground wheels from new 1 1/4-in solid shafting      I machined out the hubs on the 10 rake wheels so I could fit them with ball bearings Originally they had needle bearings and we were constantly replacing them The ball bearings were sealed but we popped the inside seals out of them so we could grease them through the zerks in the wheels he says     Parkes put new-style Vicon springs on the rake wheels so they would float better He also stripped off all the old rake teeth and replaced them with current style teeth No modification was necessary to fit the new teeth to the old wheels     The new rake has one rear transport wheel that he borrowed from a scrapped Versatile 103 swather He salvaged two wheels that were the same size from an old harrow bar to serve as front transport wheels     For lift he put a 3-in piece of angle iron on the side of the main frame and ran a 1-in solid round shaft through that There are chains from the shaft to the axle to lift it He raises and lowers the raking bar using a hydraulic cylinder He used a double action cylinder for the lift but set it up as a single action cylinder by adding a oil reservoir made from a lawn mower gasoline tank to the retracting side of the cylinder Finally he used 2 1/2-in square tubing to make a tongue     The rake picks up a swath about 18 ft wide It works very well he says We did have a little trouble with it wanting to walk sideways We decided it was because the front transport wheels were taking some of the weight off of the rear wheel We solved the problem by putting fluid in the tire and adding a couple of wheel weights over the top of it     Parkes figures it cost him about $1 800 in new parts and steel to build the new rake in the spring of 1999     Parkes says while both rakes work well there are some things he might change On mine I d like to change the lift a little We have to be careful when we pick it up because sometimes the rake teeth hook in the lift chains he says We needed to make the knuckle at the back of the V-rake a little stronger It folds and pivots at that point We used 2-in diameter heavy-walled pipe and 1 1/4-in solid steel shaft to make it The pipe and shaft were heavy enough but we should have cut the pipe a little longer where we welded it to the rake frame That would have given it more strength and put less stress on it when it flexed     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Bruce Parkes Box 151 Eriksdale Manitoba R0C 0W0 Canada Ph 204 739-2616

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