New Idea 270 Cutditioner questions

I'm looking at an auction for a hay mower. Because of uneven terrain, including cutting ditch hay, I was told that a flail mower would be the best. A local used farm equipment auction has three of these "New Idea 270 Cutditioners" They sell this stuff AS-IS. The auction is is this week Tuesday, so I'm trying to learn more about them before buying. One is complete, but the roller bearings are bad. Another has the roller missing (parts only), and the third one is complete, and appears to be in working order, except that most of the blades (are those called flails), do not swing. This brings up the question, ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO SWING? Or do they remain stationary?

I've never used one of these, so I'm in the dark about how they operate. Actually only a few of the blades swing, the others are mostly hanging down, and a few are folder upward. This would indicate to me that they are not in their proper place, or stuck. I tried to move a couple of them using a rock that was laying nearby, they did not move.

Another thing, how far from the roller should they be? They all seem to be 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" away. Is that the normal distance? The one that has the stuck blades also has a small dent in the roller. How critical is that?

If anyone has experience with these mowers, please advise me, and oif possible, provide an online manual that I can get for (hopefully) free, so I can get better acquainted with this mower before the auction.

Lastly, will a Farmall Super M have enough power to run one of these?

(I hope this is posted to the correct forum, I did not see a forum for New Idea or mowers.)

Thanks

I have a 7 ft. Massey Cut-Ditioner, It is a useful tool in making hay, here's what I have experienced. They are suppose to be able to cut grass and alfalfa, but I don't use it to cut because it tends to grind too much and the windrow lays tight to the ground and it won't dry, grinds too many leaves off alfalfa. To cut grass it has to be sharp and the grass has to be heavy or it doesen't cut and leave a windrow, just blows it out the back. I do. use it as a conditioner, cut with a 9ft. haybine and lay in a wide swath, skip a day and then run over it with this unit, it turns the swath and fluffs it and leaves a tall windrow, I have the shields adjusted narrow enough so I can bale from the windrow. It is the best hay drying machine I have ever seen, I wouldn't sell it for any amount of $$. Today I was chopping covering or bedding hay in the low ground where I haven't been in 3 years due to it being too wet, very slow going because its only designed for 35 HP. and will sheer the pin in a second, I'm using about 70 HP on it. But with a lot of patients it will make nice bedding out of canary grass, as I said the best use is for a hay conditioner in grass. By the way, the hammers are suppose to swing freely and the roller is only to keep it out of the ground.

Hi we had one about 25 years ago. It does a great
job of cutting down hay but requires a lot of
power.
We used a 454D with the fuel screw turned up to
about 50 PTO HP and in heavy hay it was 1st gear.
Re flails, the flails should swing freely when you
rotate the PTO. We went through 2 sets of flails
in the 5 years that we had it. Many $$ to replace
flails. Replaced it with a NH haybine. You could
cut twice as much in the same time with the NH and
use less power.

Personally would not buy one again.

JimB

They were made in 7 and 9 ft. The flails are supposed to swing. Tractor Data says a Super M has 47 horsepower on the belt. I would guess you might handle a 7 ft. but probably not a 9ft. Used to run a 9ft. and it seemed to take a lot of power in good heavy hay. Worked good in hay that was down and beat it up pretty good so it dried pretty good.
You have to have all the flails on it or it will be unbalanced and jump right up and down. Is that bent roller straight?? If the flails don't swing it's probably been sitting a while and the flails are rusted in place.

they are good machines.they are loud. replacing roller bearings is not hard.the "knives" should swing free. we used ours in heavy first cutting...just ate it up,sucks down hay off the ground. if used on lite hay,or 2nd crop,you must pick up your ground speed or it will pulverize it.

Like others said, they take a lot of HP.

Mine left a lot of stubble. I sharpened it from time to time, maybe I didn't sharpen it correctly.

I agree with the other poster that the hay WILL dry down fast! It "frays" the hay and I think also whips off the waxy coating.

I sold mine to a friend who needed a cutter, but he has since gotten a sickle bar cutter (ugh). Properly adjusted, the sickle bar probably does a better job cutting, but will not give the conditioning that the cut-ditioner does.

I currently cut with a 6' drum cutter, absolutely love it. Then I ted. Usually ted twice. But I'm thinking about buying the cut-ditioner back and trying it not as a cutter, but as a conditioner in a second operation. But maybe not. It takes a lot of HP, which means a lot of fuel.

I used one for 13 years. I wouldn't recomend them for uneven ground. You're gonna end up with a lot of dirt in the hay from it scalping.
That roller is supposed to be just to keep it from doing that on uneven ground,but you'll still hit the dirt before it rides up on the roller.

What type of uneven ground are we talking about? Land doesn't have to be perfectly flat and hill-free to farm, but the surface of the ground does need to be fairly smooth. Rolling hills, even some steep ones, are perfectly normal.

The problem is if you have lots of ruts, holes, lumps, and pockmarks. You can't farm on that kind of surface. It needs to be smoothed before you can expect to get anything out of it other than smashed equipment.

I may be confused, but I have a New Idea Cutditioner 290 mine has a 9 ft. sickle bar(No flails)not sure if they made them with flails however from the comments sounds like they did. Anyway, it is noisy but does a fabulous job even in the heaviest hay. I pull it with a Farmall H running second gear, but in heavy alfalfa have to dump down to first. Only wish the H had live PTO.

Fella I worked for in the 70's had one,7 foot, and we cut all the hay with it. 165 massey suplied the power , and it was none too much. As others have said, loud and spendy to replace knifes. Belt drive model is quiter than the chain drive.Bruce

I have one and love it. You can free those knives up. I am not sure you have enough tractor though. I run my 7 footer with an IH 656 and it works it super hard. Unless you are in some pretty thin stuff, you with have to take it slow. As was said ealier, going slow tends to chew it up a bit much. It dries hay like nothing else though.
Good luck!
Dave

I think you have a Mowditioner rather than a Cutditioner.

I used my neighbors for many years on first cutting. For second and third cutting I mowed and crimped. It worked very well in the heavier first cutting hay, really speed drying time. I ran it with my JD D, about 45 hp in low gear at 2-1/2 mph and no live PTO. Lack of a live PTO was not a problem as it is almost impossible to plug one of them. It was a good load and really cleaned the carbon out of the D. He ran it with an Oliver 1750, about 80 hp. Made a lot of super nice hay with it. I think he replaced the knives once in about 20 years use.