Thoughts On JD Hay Fluffers

Check these things out... They have been bouncing around on CL for awhile.. He says he has three of them, $75 OBO for them? Looks to me like I would get ONE good one out of the three..

He also has a nice JD No. 5 mower, it is partially torn apart, but he claims to have everything. Has the original "JD Quick Clamps" on it too... Those are worth some money aren't they?

Anyways, what do you guys think/know about the fluffer?? Look kind of rinky dinky to me!! thinking they would perfectly fluff a 9 foot swather trail though?

They are HAY pile makes around here. Save your money and buy a hay tedder of some type. The fluffers where made for sickle bar mowed hay. Not thicker windrowed hay from behind mower conditioner.

Also once again you have a mower conditioner not a swather. LOL

Seriously those fluffers will bunch the hay up and not scatter it with the heavier hay we have today. They were designed for the thinner hay before fertilizer was used on hay as much. Also a full spread out hay from a sickle bar mower.

Leave them right where they are at. Get a side delivery rake or a rotary rake.

Thats kind of what I thought... They look kind of dinky, and not all that effective to me!! I don't believe they will out work my No.5 IH rake, nor will they a hay wheel rake...


ya, ya, ya... I know...

You have to realize though, it is a regional thing! EVERYONE in North Idaho has a "swather" or a "MoCo" (but those are JD Only people).

Whether it is Case, IH, NH, etc, they are "Swathers"!

I always wanted one when I was farming and making hay. Never got a chance tho. They just fit a 7' bar mower swath. I think would have been good for alfalfa, red clover might have been a bit heavy for them as it is taller. The one with the wheels on the outside is a No. 2 and the older, the other is a No. 3. I think that too many of the people that did not like them were trying to use them for something they were not designed to do. They were just supposed to pick up the hay and stand it on end,and not beat the hay up. I think they would have been better on tedding the swath first time over than the New Idea No. 4 rake-tedder that I had. But they would not work on a rained on winrow of hay like the New Idea did. Each had it best place and if used properly did the job they were designed for. You would find the lifting part to be about 6' wide, just wide enough for a 7' bar with the grass board. That diminsion is same as the pull type conditioners.

Thats interesting...

They are about an hour away, North that is, and there seems to be a LOT of Alfalfa up there, we don't have any down here in the Sandpoint area.

I think I would be better off with a windrow turner, like a 2 wheel rake for the 3 point or something.. I see those all the time.

Several guys in the club have told me that the side delevery / basket rakes "rope" hay and make it really hard to bale. I call bs on that myself. I have raked with 6 or 7 different rakes, and have never had that happen... But anyways, I think I will continue to look for a 2 wheel rake to just "flip" rows over... NO one around here has a tedder anyways!!

Thanks!

You couldn't get one good one if you had a dozen of them.

Not sure where you live - but we can't bale hay (well) around here without tedding. If you can bale without tedding - these might help you a little.

These reel type tedders are more delicate with the material than the basket type. Just kind of puffs it up a bit as opposed to thrashing it around and spreading it.

They have limited use around here since we need to spread the material out for more surface area. But that's why they're good for alfalfa and crops like that which are more susceptible to high losses through overworking.

As for side rakes "roping" hay - I say try baling "roped" hay in a curvy field and you'll learn to LOVE it. You don't have to get a kink in your neck watching the windrow constantly - the roped hay will pull in even if you go off track a few feet - like one long hay snake. I say it's a pleasure to bale like that because I do a lot of odd shaped fields with sharp twists and turns. Unroped hay would require constant attention and skillful driving - once it's started, roped hay just pulls right in nice and easy no matter what you do.

I'm a big fan of nice and easy. Hay is hay once it's in the bale.

The one complaint that's true about "roped" hay is that it won't dry well in the windrow since it's tighter. But - again - around here, we need to spread it out anyways. You only rake immediately before you bale, we use two tractors, the person raking gets a few windrows head start on the baler who follows. There's no drying in the windrow.

If you dry in the window, you want a rotary rake - no question about it.

As you say more gentil with the hay. What they are designed for the hay is already spread out so that is a non isue, not designed to be used on a raked hay, use only before you rake. When they were built there were no mower-conditioners that put the hay in a swath of narrow size. Around here the only machines used to put the hay in a row is for silage an not dry hay as it will not cure in row. If they have a unit fot that they also have a unit that puts it in a swath just a foot narrower than the cut for dry hay. As for the ropeing I always wanted a nice tight winrow, not a wide fluffy one and you only got that nice tight row with the 45 degree angle basket rakes, a parrallel bar rake will not do it so I would not want one. We would rake the field just before baling usually so same operator could do both raking and baling. That fluffy ror if the slightest breave was torn up before you got there with the baler. If wind was bad enough still had the blown away row but not as bad. Had times had to try to rake only 50' ahead of baler because of blown rows, usually worse in straw. A wile back someone asked about a AC round baler and was told to put two rows side by side. AC actually said 3 of the tight roped as they are being called rows against each other. So for that fluffer to work corectly you mowed with a 7' bar mower followed up with a pull type crusher, next morning you went out and lifted it, then following morning you raked and started baling in afternoon. If you got rain on the row after it was made to dry it out you used something like the No 4 New Idea rake-tedder and it realy beat the hay in tearing the row apart, then after drying you took that rake back in and raked it to bale. Only other company I know of that built a rake-tedder was McCormick but only in a 3 bar open gear rake. And Bryce is in northern Idaho just a few miles from the Canidian border up in more forest land.

never put our hay in a windrow behind the haybine. Took the "wings" off and threw them away. Nice flat hay so it dries down quick. A fluffer would work nice after the old 467.
Local antique machinery dealer had one of these fluffers on the lot. Wanted 600 dollars for it.. Selling point was he had the manual too.