Some pics of my new M150 with 13' R80 header
Gday, very nice looking equipment there 12Caterpillar!!!!! What size front is that Macdon? If you want to me to post up some pics of my haying gear in Aus just send me a line. Best of luck with the hay, fingers crossed no rain in on the way cheers alex
The faster they go, the better they cut!
How many acres of hay a year do you put up?
Thanks FarmerAlex it has a 13 foot front or header and i beleve that the M150 was 130Horse Power and peaks at 140 Horse Power I would also like to see some photos of your operation I have always had a lot of interest in Australia... Ur ablolutly right clay digger that is if your ground is smooth enuff to the speed that they are built for I had some meadow ground I was runnen 10.5 MPH on about as fast as she would go... EGS I Put down just over a 1,000 acre's last season all flood iragated meadows... Hope to post more Photos of our operation soon.
One of my former coworkers tested the M150/M200 in California for MacDon. Spent 3 years living out of a 1ton truck! On several occasions he was cutting sorghum so high he couldn't see where he was going. ISZ
Haying Downunder, Victoria, Australia Heres some Pics of my equipment Tractor : Merecedes Benz MB Trac 900 turbo, produces 90 hp, Front and rear linkages, front and rear pto, 16 speed 8 gears with pneumatic splitter, True 4WD. Mower : Kuhn GMD 702, This is the hydro pneumatics, center pivot model.
Baling Pictures The Baler is a Gehl 1465, The driveline is nearly new now, all new sprockets, chains and bearings. Pickup has been fixed. Belts repinned Any questions just ask I'm making a netwraper for this baler now!!!! Will post pics and drawings if you are interested cheers Alex
More Baling This is home in Victoria, rolling the Lampton oats, with the 1465 it can get a bit tricky as it has no rotor feed, rather a variable displacement type setup. The day turned out to be 40+degrees celcius, with very strong north winds, very high fire danger as i remember it. After about 10 am the material was purely breaking up so had to stop. Cheerio Alex
More baling again The haybine was hired off a neighbour, to do our hay, that was the 2008 season. I purchased the Kuhn mower to make a better job of our hay. Very happy with the mower, any questions you have feel free The Ford Tractor is an 8000 model
Nice MB trac FarmerAlex. I would love to have one. Would be great for spraying and pulling a fert spreader. A 1500 with twin mounted mowers sure would cut roading times down when cutting hay. I'm pretty sure MB tracs only ever made it to Canada, so there isn't much chance of getting a hold of one. ointhead There is a guy west of Melbourne that has 2 stretched 1500's and an 1800 setup as drybox mini-floaters. I think he is the same guy that enters a clean 1800 in Mercedes owners shows.
Gday Hvy 1ton, look i can't give enough praise to the designers of the Mb Trac. I have had it for a year now, have done baling, scarifying, hay raking, hay mowing, bale carting, bulldozing, towing trailers, harrowing, seeding, the works really. When i bought it, my boss said to me that he didn't think it was suited to doing real ag work, well i took it to his place, put on a 7 tyne deep ripper and proved it can handle it as well as a brand new Case 95 JXU. The transmission is brilliant, the gears are placed ideally where i need them, the front and rear linkages are very powerful, the front will actually lift 1 ton. The high road speed is great for a contractor, visibility is second to none, roll down windows are a huge advantage!!!!! To be honest i would not sell this machine ever, does everything i want, runs on the smell of an oily rag. I would consider going to canada and importing it back. To be honest, i have driven cases, john deeres, fords, david browns and a daedong and the mercedes for me is the best in build quality, comfort, reliability and is a real pleasure to operate and own. Any questions please feel free to ask Cheers Alex
Nice pic's Farmer Alex, just goes to show you don't have to have brand new equip to get the job done... all though We did go from useing two nine foot New Holland (Kune) mowers and one seven foot Kune mower a year down to one nine foot on a 3020 John Deere and the M150 this year it dose save on fuel and man power to have a little newer and bigger equip, we still have plenty of good old iorn on the place that still keeps on going and going though. I found some more pics of last season... :drinkup
A few more pic's of putting up second crop alfalfa and some new alfalfa,oats,and peas
Nice work 12Caterpillar, the season this year has been super good for us, had the best spring break in 10 years. The oats, vetch, ryegrasses and clovers are all performing really well, hopefully if the rain stops we can get into the swing of haymaking Cheerio Alex
Well this hay season is a complete wash out, have had the tractor just sinking in the mud. Luckily the FWD and full diff lock has been able to pull me out. Most hay is overdone or baled too green as we try and get around all the weather events. Hope its not too cold in your part of the world Cheers Alex
Sorry to hear about your hay and weather over there iv been hearen some about it on the news ol mother nature just dont seem to be agrean with most of the world these days. it just started to get cold over here the last few days the coldest ive seen so fare is -10 but that dont hold a candle to some of them other places like Alaska. well hope the luck starts to flow your way this year and happy new year.
Farmer Alex, hope you are to close to all the flooding, over there. That much rain makes for real poor haying conditions, and poor hay usually. I grew up on the farm in N. IL fed out cattle so chopped all the hay and oats and put into Harvestor for storage. #12 Cat looks like some pretty good hay ground you have and real nice equipment. Used to go Antelope hunting around Laramie for a few years, then the fellows I went with didn't want to hunt any more. The trespass fees got crazy to many people with lots of money, the cost doubled also. Thanks both of you for sharing the pictures, lots of good memories making hay. One smell you can never get enough of, to me.
heres some pics of our ih 1066 with a combine engin in it but its engin clasifys it as a 1486 even tho its a 1066 chassie well anyways heres some pics from ky using our vermeer equipment
sorry guys it didnt upload my hay pics but at least you see the 1066 and the 424 we got 3 424s
Gday all, its been a bit wet over here in Australia. Queensland has copped it the worst by far. Down in Victoria, where i am we haven't had too many issues with rain, although we had some minor flooding. 30% of our hay is now ruined, have no idea what we will do with it. Any ideas out there to dispose of ruined hay???? Hope you are faring better in your part of the world Cheerio Alex
ah you guys run some beasty equipment...sweet...like real farmers. how many acres yall runnin?? what is this mercedes tractor? what year? it looks a little like a jcb fastrack...did they compete back in the day? how fast does it go?
Gday Dave, i run only 30 piddly acres, but then i contract out a fair bit. The Mercedes Benz i have is a 1988 Model, its a 90hp turbo, its a 16 spd transmission in two ranges with four gears in each plus a high low preselector (like a truck). The machine i think is very similar to a JCB fastrac. My machine has front coil spring suspension, and the cab is suspended completely on rubber blocks. It has all round disk brakes with an air over hydraulic system. Parking brakes are again air, exactly the same as a truck type system, all components for the air system are Wabco, which makes it extremely easy to get parts for them. All hydraulic pumps for the tractor are belt driven and run off the front pulley, again making it extremely easy to access if there is a problem. The air compressor works off the crankshaft i believe and has a separate cylinder head on the side of the engine block. The road speed for my machine is about 42km/h in miles thats 26.1mp/h. The machine can easily be fitted with a ring feeder for trailers, theres ports on the back for trailer air brakes, up to 6 hydraulic remotes can be fitted to the machine, i have two. The front linkage is of a quick hitch design, very sturdily build, i have lifted 800kg with no issues what so ever. The front PTO is a standard six spline, the speed can be controlled in the cab 540 or 1000 rpm. The choices i have for pto engagement are: Front, Back or Front and Back together. From what i've read through the net the MB TRACS did compete with the Fastracs. My understanding of the downfall of the MB Trac design was that they were too far ahead of their time further compounding their woes their marketing was not that effective and with the high initial price tag, Mercedes Benz ceased to manufacture the MB TRAC line. After production ceased i believe the designs and tooling were sold on to other German companies finally ending with Doppstadt. Doppstadt is a manufacturer of recycling equipment and produced a newer version of the MB TRAC, it had full electronics for everything, the cab design was brilliant, but again they ceased production due to lack of sales. Mercedes Benz / Unimog does now produce a similar product the U400 and U500, these are very similar to a smaller truck, although they have 250 to 320hp engines in them. They have a four wheel drive capability, with all the bells and whistles of a good tractor. There are options for both front and rear linkages, with up to 6 remotes both front and back. PTO's can be optioned in the front and back as well as the underneath the center of the vehicle. Road speed for it is 70pkh but can work at all the slow field speeds required for doing tillage and other agri operations. I think it has an infinitely variable transmission, with all different modes to suit the application. I hope this is interesting for someone, i can give more details if you'd like more information best wishes Alex
Sorry Farmer Alex for not getting back to ya i cant belive how time flys thanks for the info on your tractor sounds like its a very versital machine to have around the farm. I shure would like a front PTO and Three point hitch on one of my tractors. how did you end up by the time things dryed out and slowed down if any. Spring is just getting started here in wyoming we have been hard at work dragging meadows and cleaning ditches getting ready for the water to turn on the first part of May. i did get out and get some ground ripped and disked down in preperation for some new alfalfa nothing to magor just about fifteen acers. Im going to plant some barley in the patch when the weather breaks and a few weeks after that ill go in and brodcast the alfalfa seed. it should work i hope :beatsme don't know till i try it
Gday # 12 Caterpillar, well the hay season was ok on the hills, everywhere else is was a soft as soft could be, had the baler sink a few times. Mowing was quite exciting had to do that in 4wd to keep moving in some parts. Baler worked flawlessly so my complete rebuild the last season paid off. Just put in a complete brand new clutch pack for the Mercedes today, was quite a fiddly job as the engine is squeezed in between the chassis. But in 8 hours the job is done except all the engine life support gear has to go back in place. Got a lot of work lined up for it, tillage, post driving and towing trailer loads of bricks. Looking at a bigger tractor for baling this year, something round a 150 hp anyone got any ideas for a brand or model? It will be used for both tillage and hay work. Probably will go with 2WD as im covered for 4WD conditions. Cheers Alex
My cousin ran 2 4455's with MFWD and loaders when we were younger. They were solid tractors and would run a 15' hydraswing or 5x5 baler all day without complaining. I could see getting a 2wd if it was only a baler tractor, but as your main tillage tractor MFWD would be a big plus. If it's gonna be a loader tractor too no way i'd go 2wd. Loading and unloading hay trailers with the 2755 makes me beat my head against the steering wheel.
#12cat where in wy are you at? keep the pics coming
Farmer Alex glad to hear that things where not a compleat fizzel for ya, I mow several acers of meadows down on the river bottems that don't seem to ever dry out, so i can relate to you when you say ya have to keep moven or :shf as far as a good ol relable tractor for the money i would have to agree with hvy 1 ton on the 4400 serise John Deeres my brother has been runnen a 4450 for years with very little problems, i belive the 4450's are around a 140 Hp, with the 540-1000 rpm pto's. 637slayer i have a few pics of this spring i will try to get posted soon, i have been slacken on the pics this spring just to buzy to get off the tractor and shoot a few i guess. i am down in the south west corner of wy on the utah wy boarder. And where abouts are you in wy?
im in greybull mining bentonite i worked on i 80 in 02 livd in evanston for 2 years really liked that part of the state. my family farms in se wy if we could get along ide be farming too keep the pics coming
Nice to see the MB trac rockin Farmer Alex, their a great tractor and were very much so ahead of their time. i would take it over any fast-trac anyday. its too bad that they ceased production, my dad and i were interested in a 130 i believe but we decided on some new equipment instead. i might have missed it in a previous post but how many hours have you racked up on the MB? we'll be getting ready for the first cut this season over here, we have a brand new KRONE easy cut 320 lined up for this job (verry simple and rugged mower) before we had a pottinger 210 and a KUHN GM205 or something like that. both where very good mowers which have faithfully worked thousands of acres but they are too small for the higher horsepower tractor we have now which isnt good for fuel consumption on an otherwise already thirsty tractor. 12 Caterpillar, you have beautiful country side in your area, do you work some of those steep hills in the pics as well? hope the coming year will be good to you all Mike
Funkinalive, great to hear from someone in Europe, the MB Trac i have has 4950 hours on the clock, when i bought it the salesman said yeah its on its first time around, Anyway i have just done the whole clutch unit in it, and i would say its on its second time around now. I have a feeling that it also has a fairly new motor in it. The mower i have fits the tractor perfectly, it is just the right horsepower combination for both. Have you seen the new unimog they have brought out to replace the MB Trac, although not a complete tractor it is very much worth a look. All the goodies of the old MB Trac, plus higher road speed, more comfy cab, new CVT tranny. Any questions about the MB Trac please feel free to ask. Alex
sorry, but does that mean the clocks been turned once (14950hrs)? id imagine its fairly nice to work on for maintenance but the clutches letting go at 4900hrs?. there is a large following of the MB trac here in Europe especially Germany. that new unimog looks very cool but i was on the MB website and it seems to not have a rear 3PH... i think it would be great with a front mount mower for haying. i dont know about AU but here there's a lot of roading between fields so a design like this is very welcome. check out this video if you haven't already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_GmVdYf-ss my dad is very impressed and is tempted to consider this as the next machine purchase on the farm, just need to figure out pricing. thanks for the tip:thumbsup
Funkinalive, my machine i think has now got 14900 hours on it, i have put on about 300 hours on it so far, been very reliable until the clutch let go. Engine has heaps of life in it, starts first time every time. Being a hay contractor, some of the people wish to rake the hay themselves, and since they were such light crops the windrows were tiny. I remember once doing 20km/h down a hay row with the baler in the middle of the night... So a high speed gearbox is something i use all the time. Now i'm not sure but in Australia i think we can have an option for a rear linkage on the U400 and U500. There are quite a few brochures for these machines on the Australian site. I will post some pics if you would like. Cheers Alex
Hey Alex yes you can have them fitted with a 3PH and PTO front and back, the only problem is the tire size and weight of tractor. for ground operations like plowing and heavy harrowing there's quite a bit of wheel slip, the power simply cant get to the ground with its light weight and small tires. 20KPH BAILING!!! thats crazy! our field surfaces don't allow for such high speeds unless you want to bounce around a lot. thats why its critical to match the machine with a good sized implement for the operation at hand. We have had a lot of rain for the last week so were on hold for haying, our first cut is usually for dry bales then the second cut is for silage. anywho i decided id post some pics of the new equipment:
Thats a great looking mower you have there, i think my neighbor has one of those, or very similar, they look like a very solid machine. And baling at 20KPH is the sort of norm round here, most guys are pumping a bale out in 30 seconds, thats from start to a complete bale out of the back of the machine. Given my baler is fairly old, i can't get anything like that out of it. The high speed is good to a point till you find a big hole the bully had dug, felt like i had disappeared down a mine shaft, this was at 2am in the morning mind you. The MB Trac is finally running again after three months out of action, due to a clutch going. Most of the time was wasted waiting for couriers to bring parts. Will be getting a dozer to tow behind her shortly Cheerio Alex
i hear ya on the couriers taking their sweet time are you ordering through a dealer or the internet? what kind of dozer are you in the market for?
Well apparently they lost my clutch for a few days, when i finally got the full story, it actually went past my place to another major town then back to city... Thought it was a bit hard to loose a 40kg clutch unit on a small pallet. I am working through Unimog Australia, absolutely first class service from them, the couriers told them they would bring it on a Monday, it turned up on Saturday???? So the only issue was couriers. I'm looking at a smaller dozer, probs round a D4 6u, maybe a international TD14 or a Cat 955 Traxcavator. Preferably looking for something to do a bit of spanner turning on, i seem to gain a lot of pleasure rebuilding older equipment :crazy. I will get a tag trailer to put her on and tow her behind the MB Trac and pickup some contract work.
thats a good idea, i find that the more flexible you are in your work the more you will be able to cope with a bad year, for instance: on the farm we have livestock which brings in the majority of income, then we plant the left over acreage and log a sustainable portion of our forests for something extra. last year their was some severe weather here and we lost most of our crops, without livestock we would have been in quite a bit of trouble. We thought of a dozer on the farm and we kinda do have one (its a fiat 355c track tractor) but we use it for logging. my father and myself decided on a backhoe instead, its more versatile and can handle most of the jobs we'd need the dozer for.
Well all this week i have been splitting firewood, can't remember how many tandem trailer loads i have done... This week will be doing a lot more wood cutting, will be hiring one of those stand on mini skid steers and seeing how well they work. Has anyone had any experience with these machines? Will post some pics of the MB on the scarifier Cheerio Alex
Hey there Alex, we do quite a bit of wood ourselves, skidsteers are a good option, but be careful on those standup ones. i also just got back from the farm, terrible weather here, very unpredictable but was able to get something cut, will post a clip as soon as i figure out how. Mike
Decided to just make a youtube account to put up the video, heres a link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ2q8Cl1vPM
What sort of baler do you fellas run? It looks like a fixed chamber with only rollers? What sort of weight do you get in a bale? GREAT FIRST VIDEO, I WILL PUT SOMETHING UP WHEN I CAN Alex
Thanks Alex, i wanted to put music in it and all but was kinda in a rush, id definitely like to see some of your operations in oz. the baler is a "Newidea" built in France i believe. it is belt driven and i think it packs a bale to a diameter of 120cm. weight? the packer springs are relaxed because our workers don't like heavy bales, they say its harder to take apart when feeding, i never thought about the weight but id guess they are around 200kg each but that could be way off. we have another baler for wet (silage) bales its a gallignani from italy, its got the fixed chamber with just rollers as you mentioned, its also got a central lubrication unit for the chains and bearings which is nice while its working, will be putting it to work on second cut. here are some pics
Gday again, well i was going to hire a Kanga with a 4 in 1 bucket they were asking $230 per day (8 Hrs) plus i have to refuel it and if anything goes wrong i have to pay for all the repairs. So it looks like ill be back on the shovel, only 4 cubic metres to move about ointhead :Banghead :badidea Cheerio Alex
UPDATE, the baler i have is going to be cut up and made into a new machine, will post pics of what happens.