Kubota TE4052T Tedder Walk Around

Neil: Neil from Messick's here. We’re out today with a Kubota hay tedder. Joining me is Anthony Rhodes, my local Kubota hay tools product specialist. We do a quick walk around this piece here to show you some of the features and functions of it. I talked a little bit about hay tedders, what they do and why you should use one. If you watch a lot of our YouTube videos, we do videos on construction equipment and compact tractors and zero turn mowers and all kinds of stuff but if you've not been initiated to hay tools before you might think that a rake and a tedder look very similar but they actually have very different functions. Anthony, what is the difference between a rake and tedder?

Anthony: When tedders first came out years ago, the farmer would buy the tedder, he'd park it in his barn. If they got rained on you get it out, you'd fluff the hay up, you basically throw the hay behind you. The dry hay that's on top lands on the bottom, behind the wet hay that's on the bottom carries a little further lands on top so it was that purpose. It was it was strictly to turn the hay if it got we. What farmers have found recently is it's become more and more part of the haying process. A lot of times you mow the hay down, let it dry a little bit go ahead and ted it and speed up the drying process, put up a higher-quality crop and get it in before the rain comes on.
Neil: Well rake, rakes hay together, a tedder simply spreads hay out.

Anthony: Correct. At Kubota, we've got a full line of tedders. This is a 17 foot, one inch working with, all the way up to 36 foot. We’ve got four rotor tedders, a couple of six rotor tedders, couple of eight rotor tedders. Like I said, 17 foot, 25 foot and change and up to 36 foot. One of the things you'll notice a little different than from some of our competitors, we use a flat tine arm here. Gives us more contact here to the rotor itself so, that way you're not going to get as much flex which will give you a longer life here. The other thing we have are our actual tines. We use the same length. Number one, they're interchangeable right to left across the length of the tedder. The other thing is the inner tine is going to reach a little lower on the ground but the outer tines would be a little higher so, you're going to pick up two different levels of hay to help get that hay back there. We also use a little little bit larger actual steel in this tine and our coil is a little larger. All that equates to a little bit longer life on our tines.
Neil: We were running this fuor spinner today behind an M760 or 70 horse tractor. This is a little overkill for this piece though right? I mean, how big the tractor do you need to run something this size?
Anthony: I mean in all reality I'm a small 40, 50 horse tractor as long as it's set up correctly that'll easily do the job from a horsepower perspective. A little larger tractors is going to go across the field a little more comfortably but 40, 50 horsepower channel will easily get the job done.
Neil: The horsepower demands of these things are really really minimal but we should be looking for something with a just a simply good-sized tractor that you can comfortably travel across a field. Even though a BX could probably spin it, that would be pretty miserable.
Anthony: Yes. Do you notice we do use universal joints here in our wings? This gives us a direct transfer of power from the inner gearbox on out. You don't have the play that you would have in a fingerstyle drive that a lot of the competitors use. Talked to a customer this morning that has some of these tedders and he said that's he absolutely loves that, he thinks that's a really good design. We do use a double bush bearing here at the joints which is a nice feature. The other thing you'll notice, our gearboxes are bolted on the underside of the frame. For some reason we've got to service this gearbox or something goes out, we'll pull a couple bolts to drop that out. Another thing I'd like to say is you’ve really got premium style tedders and you've got entry-level tedders. You got a wide range of tedders. You spend a little bit more money and you get a nice tedder like this or some of our competitors. It's going to last you a lot longer. It's going to be a general part of your haying process and it will pay you back in the long run. Another thing you notice here the spring here, this is what we use. This tedder does hydraulically tilt, you fold it down and it tilts forward. We use this spring here instead of an accumulator to maintain that. A lot less expense, for some reason you've got to replace that, you've got a spring versus an accumulator. That’s one advantage over some of our competitors out there.
Neil: You can run the whole thing with one hydraulic remote, right?
Anthony: Correct. You’ve actually got one hose so it folds down. You actually pull this cord, put your leases here, allows it to fold down and then it tilts forward. If you come up to a ditch, you hit your hydraulics a little bit, it levels back out, go across it, tilts it back forward.
Neil: I'm going to put you on the spot. When I do walk around, because I like to not walk around and act like a piece of equipment, is completely perfect and while we were picking around this thing out here today we found something it seems like maybe it could have been it done a little bit differently. That was this rope back here right? You want to come tell me about the rope?
Anthony: What about it?
Neil: The rope is a little short, isn't it?
Anthony: Yes, ropes a little short, we could maybe add a little bit more rope to it.
Neil: A little bit more rope.
Anthony: That's a pretty simple fix buddy. The one we got here today, the rope's definitely a little short, no question about it.
Neil: If you're looking at a Kubota hay rake, particularly this one right here.
Anthony: Rake?
Neil: Rake tedder. An extra six feet or so of nylon rope here would probably do you some good and note back to the guys that are putting this thing together just to give a little extra measure here when you're cutting the rope. That's a Kubota hay tedder. If you have any need for hay tools, we can help you with any parts or service for your equipment give us a call at Messick's. We're available at 8002223373 or online at Messicks.com