What is this equipment

[farmerwannabe]

Hi guys! I"m guessing this is an early sickle mower/conditioner set up. It looks like the sickle cuts one row while the conditioner works on the previously cut one? How old do you figure this is, and how well did they work? Thanks guys!

 

[rrlund]

That's exactly what it was. New Holland's first attempt if memory serves me right. Used to see a lot of them at the sale in Archbold. Couldn't tell you how they worked. I'd think the first pass was probably a bugger.
 

[wolfman]

Worked pretty well unless the mower plugged and you forgot and backed up! Had to make one round with mower and then hook to the conditioner. You had to make neat square corners or you'd plug the conditioner, and lose the grassboard!
 

[leej]

The one I had, you would cut the back swath first.With the crimper out of gear or disinguaged
The second round one would cut where the crimper was disingaged and mower both enguaged, Worked fine, providing mower scycle was in good shape.
Had very little problem using it. Am not absolutely positive but think it was a New Idea.
ggp
 

[WGWKy2]

I used a New Holland for several years only the mower was a trailer also,no haybines then. When I finished hay I hooked a Woods C-80 rotory mower in place of the crimper and clipped pastures, 14 ft. mowers were hard to come by in 1965. Pretty good load for a B-275 IH $.15 fuel cost about $1.50 a day. I may go back to that!
 

[DoubleR]

I believe the one in the picture is a New Holland. I never operated one but we had a couple neighbors who had them. They seemed like a better setup than what we were using. We had one tractor on the mower and another on the hay conditioner. They could do the same thing with one tractor and operator where we needed two. The late fifties and early sixties was the time period. We thought we were really moving up when we got a new 415 oliver mower with a hitch and PTO on the back. Then we could hook the conditioner on the back of the mower. Times sure have changed thinking back on it.
 

[DiyDave]

I had an old AC side-mount sicklebar, on a D-14, and I welded a stub PTO shart, out the back. Did much the same thing as the rig shown. Was also able to pull a grimm hay tedder behind the mower, used it on lespideza. They work pretty good, at saving a trip across the field. Key is to have that mower tuned up, so it cuts real good, and don't jam up!
 

[Leroy]

Cannot tell the make but Meyer (SP) was the first company to make that. They only were in the fields a couple of years before people got rid of the things and went back to the seperate mower and conditioner as they never worked as supposed to. Plugging all the time and you could not cut a square corner. I know where one is setting in a junk yard. Our neighbor bought one new and it was gone within 2 years because it was junk. No mater what you tried you could not make that backcut with the crimper part trying to run over the standing hay, you needed a mower to make that, then with the pickup it had and yes a tooth pickup it would not pickup up the hay laid on the first cut because it was running the wrong way. They would plug at every corner as you could not make a clead square corner. Years later my uncle was going to buy a conditioner and the dealer sold both New Holland and McCormick. He was going to go with the New Holland and dealer brought out for him to try the semi-mount version of that unit but as he only wanted the conditioner they did not put the cutter bar on. They hooked it to the WD Allis and the first thing they found out was that it had a mind of it's own and where it wanted to go it went, not where you wanted to go and it pluged something fierce. In less than 3 rounds it was gone never to be heard from again (think the company shipped it back just to get rid of it. They then brought out a McCormick conditioner and both my Uncle and Dad used that McCormick for years. With the seperate mower - conditioner hook up you would hook to the conditioner after you made the first round and those setup would cut a square corner without either plugging up. It's only value other than as scrap is showing what was a bad idea at tractor shows.
 

[showcrop]

[Ol' Gimpy]

Believe it to be a New Holland unit,if so,they used a I-H #27-V sickle bar mower,modified frame,to adapt conditioner unit. Like some of the guys mentioned,a couple other comapanies made similar outfits.
 

[farmerwannabe]

Thanks for the replies, guys. There is one by me for next to nothing I was thinking of fixing up and maybe trying out. Sounds like that would be a bad idea.