8840 CaseIH swather information please

Bruce from Can. · May 27, 2018

Swathers sold by CaseIH from 1989 -1997 , were they built by Hesston ? anyone ever own one ? Were these swathers any good ? Looking at one with a Cummings Diesel , 15 foot sickle bar knife , auger feed , and conditioner . Bruce

JD Seller · May 27, 2018

Bruce several Neighbors around here had them. The drive unit was good. The headers with the auger feed work fine BUT they did not lay the hay out very wide so it was tough to get it to dry for dry hay. The augers are prone to damage from rocks and limbs/wood. Once some thing gets into the header it can not get out other than going thru the augers. If the object is not very big the auger fighting gets bent at the best or if it is a larger object the augers get bent. This is true for the majority of auger style headers so it is not a knock on Hesston's design. Straighten a lot of augers over the years.

Where you make the majority of your hay as bale ledge it would be a good fit for you if it is in good condition.

It would be hard for me to go back to a sickle machine after having disk cutter bars for 20 years.

Bob · May 27, 2018

Looks a lot like a MacDon of Winnipeg-built unit to me.

Brendon-KS · May 27, 2018

The CaseIH 8840 was identical to the Hesston 8400 and was built in the Hesston, KS factory. During this time the facility was called Hay & Forage Industries and was a 50/50 joint venture entity owned by CaseIH and AGCO together. They were good machines with the Cummins 4BT engine and Vickers hydrostats. The same basic hydro units carried over to the next models which were built until around 2004 so parts availability should be decent. Don't expect the cab comfort and ride quality to compare to a modern windrower but for its time it was very competitive.

The header was a dual-sickle, dual-auger hydraulic drive design available in either 14 or 16 foot versions - the 15-ft you reference wasn't an option so what you're looking at could be either size. Max swath width is about 8 feet which is typical of any self-propelled windrower. They could be had with either rubber-on-steel or steel-on-steel intermeshing conditioner rolls, the latter being the more durable of the two options.

oj · May 27, 2018

I've got a 94 8820, check the drive wheel drop boxes, they are prone to leaking and the hubs pulling out of the drop box if abused in a previous life. Rest of the tractor unit is usually fine, but mine has a habit of taking the bearings out at the front of the cab for the header drive.
If the header has a double drive for the sickle check the centre drive for play in the bearings and it will probably be a good idea to change the keystock as wear makes the drive line out of time which can take the knife out.
We swapped our knife for a SCH unit when we replaced the knives and guards many years ago, makes it a far better unit.

8840 CaseIH swather information please

Bruce from Can.

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JD Seller

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Bob

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Brendon-KS

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oj

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