Discbine Problem Cutting Oat Hay

[Formerly PaMike]

I just picked up a NH 408 discbine. Ran it over 4 acers of grass, and it worked great. Went to cut 4 acres of oats for baleage, and I had nothing but problems. The discbine wouldnt cut clean. Left uncut areas. It appeared to be between the last, and second to last disc, on each side. This is also just about inline with the ends of the rolls. Stems would be folded over, like they were run down, but not cut. I tried running fast, slow, opening the roll tension, sharpening the knife. Nothing worked. I left that field and went to a grass field and it cut fine. I did just reshim the rolls, and I got them darn close,but not touching.
Any ideas?
Here are my guesses...
1.Knifes are not the best,could use a new set. Probably not the problem, but didnt help.
2.Oats have thick stems,probably should have dropped the roll pressure further. Possibly causing a "backlog" at the ends of the rolls, and this would fold the uncut stems over before they were cut?

 

[Roger in Iowa]

Your previous machine was probably a sickle machine with a reel. Reels pick up down crop! Disc machines do not have a reel. Reality!

 

[Formerly PaMike]

There wasnt any down crop. Everything was standing when I cut it.

 

[Tx Jim]

Is it possible the oat crop was thicker than the grass and the slip clutch was slipping??? My neighbors mo-co cuts his oat crop clean.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Try varying the height of cut?

 

[Shetland Sheepdog]

Probably unlikely, but is the front curtain folding the oats over?

 

[keh]

Not familar with that machine but I suggest:

1. drive belt slippage somewhere.

2. worn knives.

3. something worn in the cutterhead(unlikely)

4. set angle of cut so it leans more toward the front.

My experience with disc mowers but not disc MOCOS is that they cut crops whether the crop is bent over, thick, of green. Something is out of adjustment. Good luck.

KEH

 

[Eldo case]

Not like it never happens but are the knifes on for the correct rotation? They have happened to get put on wrong sometimes.

 

[showcrop]

Here is something else to check. It is possible that the PO had the two last discs off at the same time and swapped them, resulting in the lifters turning backwards so that you get no lift on the last two. The lifters act like wedges or wings to create an upward breeze to lift the hay.

 

[Formerly PaMike]

How do you tell if they are on correctly? The narrow part of the wedge should be the leading edge?

 

[GordoSD]

Are you setting everything according to the manual specs?

 

[showcrop]

That's right, just like a fan.

 

[3020jd2955]

Not sure how much this will help, but at least give another example of this happening. This spring I had trouble mowing some rye off clean, sounded similar to your problem. I have a NH1410 discbine. I mowed two fields of rye that day and one of barley. Everything mowed off clean as could be except the one rye field that was much thinner/lighter crop than the other fields. Didnt matter what I tried, slowing down travel speed, slowing down RPMs, angling the cutter bar up or down...the field still streaked very bad in placces. Only thing I could figure was the crop was so light the cutter bar was "blowing" some of the crop down or pushing it down ahead of the knives actually cutting it. Like I said, the other two fields I mowed that day (both before and after the thinner field) were thicker and mowed off perfectly...never could figure out the problem.

 

[Formerly PaMike]

Yup, sounds like the same problem. The oats were tall, and stems thick, but it was a little thin. Must have been planted a little too light.

 

[RodinNS]

MAke sure that the lifters are on the leading edge of the disc and not the trailing edge if somebody might have changed them. The other thing.... make sure you haven't accidently switched left hand for right hand knives.... It generally doesn't matter too much but if you're in a crop that requires a lot of lift then it does matter.

Rod

 

[Formerly PaMike]

What do you mean by the leading edge? You mean heading in the right direction, or bolted on before the knives??

 

[RodinNS]

When turning the discs in the normal direction of rotation the lifters should be bolted to the upward slope of the disc or ahead of the knife. If it was after the knife it wouldn't lift. The discs themselves are interchangeable on Kuhn bars... but if you change the disc from a left to right application you need to change the lifters.

I don't really know what is wrong in your situation other than it's not the conditioner...
I found my Deere did rather poorly in oats as well. Same basic Kuhn FC bar as you have except I don't have any lifters. I do use the heavy duty Kuhn knives tho.


Rod

 

[kyhayman]

I get some skipping too out near the end of the bar in real thin stemmy weeds on a 1411. Its more than Id like but its tolerable. Thats with lifters on right, new blades (I change every 100 hours), and everything set right on.

 

[CB in central NY]

I have a NH 408, lots of folks swear at that model because the cut is often uneven. I have no complaints but I have found that the front curtain will bend the taller grasses over so that the knives don't cut them. Not that I would recommend anyone do this, but I tie my front curtain up and just let the metal shield underneath catch the occasional stone. All the cutting issues go away.