Put the Hesston proto windrower through its paces today

I swathed about an acre of oats for hay today with the old Hesston prototype windrower I picked up a while back. This machine was made in the late '60's and is a model that never went into production - as far as people know only two were ever built then the project was cancelled. It's got a few oil leaks on the hydros to fix and the steering linkage needs some work but green stuff was going in the front and out the back so I can't complain. The ground was loose and damp which required carrying the header a bit to prevent mud buildup under the sicklebar. This made it leave sort of a raggy cutoff but oh well, I just doing this for the fun of it.

Is it a sickle machine?? Reel under the hood??

Interesting and neat. Can you explain to us what is prototypish about it? Meaning does it have some unique features or what set it apart from the production models. It looks awfully compact.

Yes, under the hood is the normal sickle, reel, and full-length conditioner rolls. Due to how short the machine is and how close the operator was to the header I imagine that it could be very dirty to operate without the hood. I can't think of any other purpose for it.

The most unique thing about it is, as you indicate, the small size and the fact that it has hydrostatic drive. All of Hesston's production windrowers that were this size had a mechanical drive system. A while back I was talking to a retired person who had worked in Hesston engineering for many years and he remembered this machine and said the project was cancelled due to the high costs and resulting poor business case. Hydro drives are expensive and to have an acceptable profit margin would have resulted in a selling price that didn't correspond to the machine's small size and limited capacity. The machine is also unique in that it has the original "sit beside the engine" configuration but contains certain design features, such as the one-piece rigid frame and single lever joystick control for the hydro, that were in production only on later "engine in the back" models.

A neat fact about this machine is that my father-in-law and another farmer went together and purchased it directly from Hesston after the program was cancelled around 1970. He had always told me about the little windrower that he co-owned and it is neat to now have that same machine in my possession. Most prototypes get destroyed after the test work is done but back then they must not have been as concerned about liability and having one-off machines in the wild that had no parts support.

That is a Very unique unit you have Thanks for sharing, we sold lots of CASE/Hesston built units
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Hey Brendon - that is neat. I never thought about one of their proto-types. I would think that would be a great find and looks to be in really good shape for it's age. Lookin good! Take care - Bob