[AT] OT new holland rake teeth

[Greg Hass]

Myself, I prefer the old coil spring teeth. The rubber mount teeth seem 
to break the rubber far too soon. Years ago a neighbor bought a new John 
Deere rake when rubber teeth first came out. After a year so many of 
them had broken he replaced them with all steel teeth. I don't rake hay 
any more but do have two bean windrowers  for my black beans; a two row 
and a four row. Each has two rows of teeth. The first row picks up the 
beans and lifts them into the second row which helps take out the dirt 
and dumps onto a belt conveyor which puts them into a windrow.  The two 
row has rubber teeth on front and the second drum has coil spring teeth. 
I have replaced many rubber teeth but have never had a coil tooth break. 
The four row has all rubber teeth and once the conveyor stopped and the 
beans bunched up and by the time I saw it half the teeth were broke. 
When I was growing up we had a IH side rake on steel. It had double 
teeth much like the pickup teeth on a baler. In some ways they were 
smarter than we are now. That rake (I still have it sitting out back) 
had a safety wire that bolted on the tooth holder and went through the 
tooth coil. If a tooth broke the wire kept the tooth from getting in the 
hay and you would hear it banging around and remove the broken tooth. In 
the 20 years we used that rake I only remember replacing 6 or 7 teeth 
but none were lost. Another memory I have is grease. We raked hundred of 
acres in the life of that rake, before anyone heard of sealed bearings, 
and my uncles had three rakes in the same time period. Enter grease; my 
dad's rule was that in a 20 acre field, all the rotating bars were 
greased every 4 rounds and the whole rake bars and axles,etc. were 
greased every 8 rounds. Looking back it seems like overkill but the rake 
sure lasted a long time.
     Greg Hass