6.70 tires on a hay rake

[rockyridgefarm]

Hey all,

Bought a pair of old 6.70-15 traction planter tires for $12.50 at a sale a while ago. My New Holland 258 had bald car tires on it, so I figured I'd throw these lug tires on it. They *just* clear the frame and the basket. So far so good. I've raked 20+ acres of CRP hay today and the rake seems to operating fine. Anyone see any potential problems with running these bigger tires? Typically they have 5.00-15 or 5.90-15 tires. My New Holland 260 and John Deere 660 both have 5.90s.

6 weeks ago I only had the 258, but I bought a tandem hitch at Hennessey's August consignment sale, so I needed to buy more rakes to make it useful. I bought the 260 3 days ago. Pulling two rakes today was quite an experience. It cuts down on raking time, but I'm having trouble making effective turns the don't destroy the hay that's already been raked. That, and the rear rake does not like to be pulled on the uphill side. The hitch just slides down the hill if it's too steep.

 

[Part Time Pete]

The farmer I worked for as a kid had a New Holland rake hitch that was built light, and the second rake would push the hitch sideways on
steep downhills.
You can build or buy a hydraulic hitch set up that will work much better - Delta Red may post a picture of the rig he made.
With a good wagon running gear front end, some steel and hydraulics, you can build one yourself
Pete

 

[DeltaRed]

Made from scrap iron.....Baler tounge,cultivator toolbar,square tubeing....two ton truck front axle flipped,hydralic cylinder to 'steer'.As Pete said,is not hard to build The larger tires wont hurt a thing as long as they clear.They may slow down the basket a bit. I put smaller(14") tires on mine to speed up the basket.In this case,an IH#15 and IH#35 rakes are used.When doing a field,I always leave the outer end rows till last,cleaning them up as I leave the field.An advantage to this is you can vary the width of swath/windrow,and swing it in line for road transport and never leave the seat

 

[Brendon Warren]

It might not spin quite as fast but if they're a matched pair it
shouldn't matter. I think that I've got 6.70 snow tires on my 660
JD. I was running two rakes and just picked up a V rake for 2nd
cutting. I should've done it years ago.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Hey delta,

I have a shop built version of what you made. My front rake is a dolly wheel New Holland 260 that is RH delivery. My back rake is a straight hitch 258, which is the more common LH delivery. It's essentially a spread out V-rake. I was thinking of starting in the middle, but my fields are not square and they're on steep hillsides, so it's hard to find the middle. I think it'll get easier with practice, and when they're acually contour strips of hay next year, not big chunks of CRP grass.

I'll post a picture tonight.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Measure around the outside of both tires and figure the percentage of difference
and that'll be how much slower the reel of the rake will turn.

 

[hd6gtom]

not a problem-- we put dozens of tires that size on rakes

 

[Camozzi04]

(quoted from post at 08:53:14 10/04/15) not a problem-- we put dozens of tires that size on rakes

Any suggestions where to buy a set of good 6.70 x 15 relatively cheap?

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Off the back of a John Deere 494 or 1240 corn planter.

 

[draftx]

The taller tires are going to make a ground drive rake turn slower. Is your hitch the high arch type that has steering wheels on the back?

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Long time coming, but here's pics of my rake in my hills. I pulled it with my open station 4430 at first, but then wanted to see if 60 would pull it. It did pretty well even in the hills.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Oops forgot pics -