Gehl disc mower conditioner

[Phil T]

I've been looking for a disc mower or mower conditioner and a guy called me offering a Gehl 70's vintage mower conditioner. I know very little about these but he said it works good even though some of the rubber is missing from the rolls. Asking 2500 for it which sounds kind of steep tor something 50 years old. It is about 7 1/2 foot cut. Can someone offer information on this? TIA

 

[495man]

I personally would avoid anything Gehl, they are out of ag equipment and apparently do not support parts anymore.

I would also avoid anything with a sickle. Hold out for a disc mower.

 

[Phil T]

I have a good sickle but I have a lot of lodged hay this year and it doesn't like it.

 

[MJMJ]

Honestly, I doubt a 7.5 foot Gehl haybine with bad rolls would even bring scrap price at auction. Not only is it too much, I can tell you from experience that it won t be much of an improvement in heavy lodged grass. You want a disc or drum mower.

 

[Phil T]

That one is a disc mower

 

[Doug Wi]

I have had no trouble getting parts for my 2345 discbine Pricey though. Think the company is called manatiou [sp?]

 

[paul]

It would really help to know the model number of the machine we are talking about.

Your replies arent matching your initial message as to age and type of machine........

Paul

 

[Part Time Pete]

I didn't know they made disc mowers 50 years ago

 

[rrlund]

It'll ''work'' as long as you don't try to cut hay with it. If there's rubber missing, it's gonna wrap, and not just a little, a lot. No way in the world for any price. For $2500, the guy loves money a lot more than he likes his reputation. Don't even give him the time of day.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

(quoted from post at 19:00:41 09/20/23) That one is a disc mower

What model? Early on Gehl was marketing Vicon disc mowers with Gehl stickers. I have a 2350 9' mower from the 1980's. There is also a 7' 2330 model. Aside from knives, ZERO new parts available now.

Worst part about the original machine was the PLASTIC conditioner rolls. Dad bought this one with all new plastic rolls on it. First rock through the machine started a cascade failure of most of the plastic roll covers because they were brittle from being 30 years old.

Most of these end up with the conditioner rolls removed because of the stupid plastic, but Dad discovered that there were clamshell repair sections to replace the plastic. He found a few factory ones and had a machine shop bend up copies. So now the machine has 95% steel conditioner rolls.

The 2330/2350/Vicon machines cut well and if you can find one with a factory steel conditioner, you've got something. There are plenty of parts machines around. It's kind of a "cult following."

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Barnyard has it right. Your 2350 is a Vicon KM281. There are parts available for the Vicons. Ebay has manuals for both. Also saw someone on there with a complete cutterbar for a 281. That sounds like a place that might be able to help you with parts info.

As for the asking price? It's about $2K, too much. Especially with bad rollers. Those will have to get repaired/replaced.

Mike

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Say, how do you tow those silly things with a pickup? Was there a tow bar made to fit the hitch?

Mike

 

[Jim.ME]

Barnyard has a 2350, Phil hasn't told what model he is asking about.

 

[Phil T]

Thanks to all. I'm running away as fast as I can. Lots of good information on this site

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

(quoted from post at 06:36:52 09/21/23) Barnyard has it right. Your 2350 is a Vicon KM281. There are parts available for the Vicons. Ebay has manuals for both. Also saw someone on there with a complete cutterbar for a 281. That sounds like a place that might be able to help you with parts info.

As for the asking price? It's about $2K, too much. Especially with bad rollers. Those will have to get repaired/replaced.

"Parts available" meaning, some guy on ebay hundreds or thousands of miles away has something you might need someday, is a far cry from being broke down and driving to the local Gehl or Vicon dealer to get what you need to be back up and running.

Gehl has been out of the ag equipment business since 2006. You could not walk into a Gehl dealer and get parts for these machines THEN, and you sure as heck can't now.

There are no Vicon ag dealers in the United States according to Vicon's dealer locator.

So yeah, parts are "available" but there is no predictable, dependable source of parts. I'm lucky in that I have a salvage yard that specializes in mowers about 60 miles from here that has several of these machines and can supply me with just about anything I'd need. Fortunately I don't use that machine anymore, instead I use an equally-orphaned Vermeer 8020 disc mower...

 

[Destroked 450]

Vicon was purchased by Kubota to give them a line of hay equipment
It s been a couple years but the Kubota mower I looked at still have the Vicon style 3 blade cutter disc

 

[Pig]

(quoted from post at 08:32:28 09/21/23)
Vicon was purchased by Kubota to give them a line of hay equipment
It s been a couple years but the Kubota mower I looked at still have the Vicon style 3 blade cutter disc

Sort of.
Vicon was bought by Kverneland in 1998, Kverneland was bought by Kubota in 2011.
But yeah, essentially a Kubota is a Vicon now.