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Windrow Merger Moves Hay With Auger
Merging windrows with a belt-type windrow auger can be a real pain, especially when the windrows are a little tough. Hay wraps around the belts, stretching them, tearing them and burning out bearings before their time. That's why Matt Stauber and his brother Mitch built an auger-driven windrow merger.
"We do a lot of custom chopping, and we got tired of fighting with belt-type mergers," says Matt. "The belts on ours would go bad every year to a year and a half."
To build their auger merger, the Staubers took the 10-ft. hay header off an old Deere 630 self-propelled windrower and lengthened it by 6 ft. They attached it to a Hesston hydra-swing haybine frame, using the Hesston hydraulic system, pump and motor to drive the hay head.
"We mounted it on a heavy walled 3-in. pipe that we attached to the Hesston frame," says Matt. "It's mounted to the back side of the bottom of the header, which allows the header to pivot as it crosses the field. Springs that were on the Hesston originally are now attached to the auger header to help hold it off the ground."
The Staubers also installed a center hydraulic ram to lift the header for transit. The extended length of the header allows them to pick up one windrow and move it up to 18 ft. to lay across a second windrow.
"We reversed the flighting on a second auger and connected it to the first one, extended the chamber and left the end open for the hay to exit," explains Matt. "It has worked fine on hay, straw, oatlage and soybean straw."
While the unit works fine for merging two windrows, the brothers would like to have the option of merging three windrows in a single pass. Matt says they should have bought a 12 or 16-ft. unit. Without knowing if it would work, they went with the lower cost 10-ft. unit.
"What we are hoping is that someone will see what we did and build a double one," says Matt. "We haven't figured out how to power one that big."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Matt and Mitch Stauber, N5808 Hwy 42, Kewaunee, Wis. 54216 (ph 920 388-0605).


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2004 - Volume #28, Issue #5