[CharleyFarmall]

I am curious if anyone is haying with a 4520/ 4720 and to see how you like it and how it might compare to what you have used in the past. It seems to me that eHydro would be the cat's meow because of the infinite speed ranges but the short wheel base may beat the crap out of you mowing and tedding, raking too maybe.... I am downsizing from 100acres ( 60 ac. of field) to 40 acres ( 22 acres of field) and am not convinced that i want to keep my NH TN 75DA ( never liked the blue actually).

Charley

 

[Brian]

I do not use my 4520 for haying, but it does get in front of my neighbors bailer when needed.

I cut over 40 acres of field with it. Some with a sickle and most with a rotary cutter. Yes the shorter wheelbase does give you a rougher ride than an all out ag tractor, but the air seat is very nice. I would recommend the seat upgrade. By no means is it to rough.

For square bales, the tractor is heavy enough. My neighbor would rather use my 4520 than his 3010 when it comes down to it.

 

[CharleyFarmall]

Thanks Brian,

I used to have a McCormick Gx50/ Landini Mistral America which also had a 71.5 inch wheelbase. It has the same specs on paper as the 4320. I used it to to bale 30 acres for a couple of years when I first had it and found it acceptable but not great. It bounced quite a bit when raking and tedding. I would often use it on the baler and let my wife drive that and do the raking with the bigger tractor. The Deere uses the next size up ag tires and is physically a lot bigger although the weight is about the same. I sold the Gx when I moved since I was finding it to be the least used tractor and the loader was weak. It was cramped inside too. It had two cool features: Locking Front Diff and ground drive PTO which I used with the tedder.

I use a 7' sickle that I keep well tuned. I can match a disc with it for speed so I am curious about the ride. What is sucked at was hauling a wagon back to the barn because the wagon weighed as much as the tractor and I had hills at the last place. The new place is flat, plus I will be baling a lot less area. Probably 10 acres most years because the rest will be pasture, food, and blueberries. It seem to me that for cutting the eHydro would be absolutely fantastic. The Massey 1660 is a little bigger with a wheel base of 78+ inches so I will look at it to. It does not come with HST but does have an electrohydraulic transmission with pushbutton shifting.

I would love to have a 5065M but I am not really sure it is justifiable on such a small farm. I could keep the TN75, it does everything, there's nothing wrong with it, but I just don't like it much. Plus, it's still in TN and I will have to haul it here when that farm sells and at that point I would rather just sell it there.

Charley

 

[Brian]

I don't get much boucing and I do have the Ag tires. I have 220 pounds of iron on the inside of each rear tire. If you need wight, you could eaily run 3 on the inside and one on the outside of each tire. That would put 440 pounds per side.

 

[DennisFolsom]

I had a chuckle reading about the concerns about size, weight, wheel base and ride quality while haying. For several years, while growing up on a small dairy farm (milked 50 head), one of my jobs was to rake hay with my grandfather's Farmall A. That thing was a whole lot lighter and smaller than the John Deere 4600 I have now. I did get tossed around a bit on it. It was still one of my favorite tractor jobs, though.

We had a couple of larger tractors than the A - a Farmall H and a W-6. I ran the hay conditioner (crimper) with the W-6. Dad usually used that tractor for the baler as well. We mowed with the H primarily, but sometimes with the A.

I don't do any haying now. I've half-thought about volunteering to help one of the local farmers, using my tractor. I'm 64 and retired from a "career" job, but back to working nearly full time in construction engineering. While I'm doing that, I think I'll hold off on the "volunteer" haying. Maybe someday.

 

[CharleyFarmall]

I have super A and I couldn't imagine using it for hay! I have Super C and use it to rake very nicely. I had an H and used it to bale a couple times. I'm spoiled and want to work in more comfort though ;-)