[music] Neil from Messick's here. Now, today with Anthony Rhodes,
our Kubota heavy tools product specialist. We're going to do
a little a walk around today on a Kubota Disc
Mower Conditioner. This is a DMC 8028R roll-type machine
that we have out here today. Anthony, can you tell us
a little bit more about the other models
that Kubota has in this line? Okay. You look at our
mower conditioner lineup. We've got 9'2" up
to 13'1" machines. We have a four-width conditioning
with both Chevron rollers as well as
semi-swing tines. What is the difference between
a roll and a tine-type conditioner? What kind of customer would want
what type of conditioning system? Generally speaking, most people
that do alfalfa are going to prefer the rolls as it's a little
more gentle on the crop. However, our semi-swing tine
can be configured. We can adjust our hood to adjust
the aggressiveness on the conditioning from our tine conditioners
as well as we can swap the poles to slow down that conditioner
on the tine unit. Like I said, in general, Chevron rolls
are going to be an alfalfa application. Mostly, semi-swing tines
or a flail-type conditioner is going to be more
of a grass hay. Looking at this here,
it's kind of hard to miss the huge springs
for the flotation. How mechanically does
the floatation work on this? Our floatation system
is real simple here. We attach it back here
at the back, and it attaches here at the front
right above the cutter bar. Then we rigidly connect it
back to the frame. It's like that
on both sides. On the smaller units, it's in
the one spring on each side. On the larger units,
there's two springs on each side to help lift that cutter bar. The way it works is, as the cutter bar
floats to the field and follows the different
undulations in the field, this spring that's linked back
into the frame here, it actually helps lift up
that cutter bar to help it follow the contours
of the ground very well. You're going to see
each side is completely independent
of the other side. The right side here,
it could float up 18.5” while the left side
would get down about 6”. It’s going to follow those
undulating conditions very well. You can dial in and out
your ground pressure then how, by changing that adjustment there
in the back of the spring? Corrects. Right, back here
at the back of the spring you typically you're going to set
that one time for the customer, and that point you're going to be good
to go but you can adjust. Typically, the general rule of thumb, you can be somewhere
around 100 pounds weight on the ground there
at the front. If someone wants to run faster,
wants a little more down pressure to maintain better contact
with the ground, we can adjust that. If someone wants to go slower and be
a little more gentle on their machine, we can stretch the spring out
for that application as well. Each vendor has their own preferences
for cutter bar design and Kubota's choice for this has been
a low profile, thin cutter bar kit. Can you tell us a little bit
about how it works? We've got a fully
loaded cutter bar here. We've got intermediate gears
in between each hub. These hubs can be
removed from the top, four bolts underneath this disc and you can remove it right out the top
if we have to service it. There are shear hubs
in there too, correct? Right through to
the middle of this hub, we have a shear key
which is our protection. If you do happen to
get a loose rock up here between the disc or something,
and something has to give, that keyway right there
is what will shear. It is sealed inside
of that hub. You’ve got to actually get a bolt up
through the bottom with a washer, seals it all together. If something is going to have to
give it will be sealed inside of that hub. The triangle-shaped design,
obviously that's fairly unique. I don't know that
I've seen that before. What's the pros
and cons to that? One thing that's really nice
about our cutter bars from our disc mowers all the way up
through our mower conditioners. We use triangular shaped disc,
three blades, and we always rotate
these discs in pairs. Counter-rotate them in pairs. This is an eight-disc machine. We notice
we- make sure. We can't rotate them there
and you see how much overlap we have. Lay the blade, how much
overlap we have here. That will help us with streaking issues,
help us with better overlap, help us get that crop up
across the cutter bar for a nice clean quality cut
in our conditioners. As you're turning here too, you have--
One knife is leaving the cut path when
the next one is coming in, collects your-- There's always
a knife cutting in there? Correct. There's always
a blade out in front. This blade, by the time
it is disappearing, the next blade is appearing. That's going to help us create lift, help get
that crop up to get a nice quality cut. You look at a
two-blade designed disc, they’re going to be times where both blades
are going to be across that cutter bar and you're going to
lose that effect. This is a little bit different to
a cutter bar because typically a lot of other companies
would use modular designs. This is one solid oiled
bath in the bottom. Do we run into problems with that
when we run side hills and stuff? This is a fully
watered cutter bar, one solid oil bath here. We're going to be able to check that,
the oil bath at one place or here it sits a little there where
we've been running the machine today. You can check that
one place here, it acts like the Lucas Oil. Like flows across the gears as well. Correct. The gears work it up through there. They say from the fact you can
actually run these at 45-degree angle, and it will get enough oil up
through there to keep running it. You notice, we have
a gearbox here. It's tied to another
gearbox in behind it, you can’t really see it but they actually pivot. They're attached
to the rolls. It's a gear-driven
roller system here. It will allow it to
spread if it has to. If you get it- run a
rock through or something it will outspread to allow
that obstacle to pass, but it is gear driven. The two rolls
are gear driven. Also notice
this spring here. This is where you're going to set
your distance between your rolls as well as your tension
between the rolls. You got a spring here and you've got one
on the other side as well. Cutting height adjustment
is real simple. One point
just on this side. You actually get the tool ratchet
in the socket that comes with the machine, allows you to adjust
this cutting height, either run it up or down here,
in or out. It’s going run this pin up here
and adjust your cutting height. You can obviously adjust
these baffles in or out for the width of the swatch
you want to leave behind as well as this rear one, you can
just set that up or down. We've got it in
the up opposition. One of the really
neat kit that we offer, it's a flip over
widespread kit. You will take this
last section here off. You put that on. You have a pin
on each side of it, a spring-loaded pin, which allows you to flip it over.
One side will be flat. You could windrow. The other side
has veins on it. You flip that over and if you're on
that side you take these shields out. Mount them up top here and it will
pretty much spread it out just like you mowed
and cut it in the same pass. You can easily change from using that
to not using it just by rolling the-- Yes. All you do is you put a
spring-loaded pin on this side, spring-loaded pin on that side. It flips, pop
them back in, put these in. You're good to go.
Take them out- vice versa That is really easy to switch back
and forth between the two. Very cool kit. Standard equipment on all of
our mower conditioners is a swivel gearbox
at the hitch. All of our side pole units,
the 9'2" and the 10"6' machines come standard at 540. You can flip the gearboxes over,
readjust the oil, change the yoke
at the tractor, go to 1,000, and the larger units
are the opposite. They become standard 1,000,
so you can go vice versa. What this does, it moves the pivot point
back to the gearbox, allows you to make a really hard right turn,
keep that PTO shaft straight at all times, as well as
a hard left turn. You can make that hard left turn
if you've got to go down the road, make a left hand
turn into a field. You can easily
do that with this and it's standard equipment
on all of our machines. You said something there
that I think is important, this is set up for 540,
right now? - Correct. - If you want
to switch it to a 1,000, literally, all you go to do is flip-flop the gearboxes? All you have to do,
take these gearboxes out, flip them over, readjust
the breather plugs, check the oil, make sure
we adjust that correct. Put a 21 spline yoke on the front
and you’re good to go. Thousand RPM? All of our side pole machines
have this drawbar hitch. All of our center pivot machines
do have a two-point hitch, but you can get either option if you
don't have a drawbar hitch on it. A left 12” or 13” and that's an option as well as
a two-point hitch on the smaller machine, that's an option as well. For somebody who hasn't
run one of these before, might be looking at
their very first disc mower, what would cause you to choose
one hitch option over the other, is it purely
personal preference? If somebody is going to be pretty much
staying on their own field, sometimes it's easier
to drop a pin, snug up the bolts
and go to the field. I feel like you get a little bit more
stability out of a two-point hitch, but there are a lot of people
that want to transport between farms
behind a pickup truck. It's not really easy to do
that with a two-point hitch. That is really
about transport is what drives a lot of
people to the drawbar. You may find a little bit more stability
in performance from a two-point but- A drawbar
can get a better-- a lot of flexibility
from a drawbar version. Notice, all of our
hoses and cords are run underneath this shield
on top of the main arm here. For some reason you've got to
get to those, you take the shields off. You can set those right off. We don't snake them right down
through the middle of this frame or anything like that. See, they came out
the back right here. If you have any need
for hay tools, we can help you with any parts
of service for your equipment. Give us a call
at Messsick's, we're available
at 800-222-3373, or online at messicks.com. [music]
