I've been buying farm equipment at various auctions over the last few years.
The auctions have a great selection, BUT it's not easy to choose a good, well maintained piece of equipment.
It seems many farmers buy farm equipment new, immediately use the instruction & maintenance manual as kindling, and [ab]use the machine without ever spending any time or money on any kind of maintenance. Once it stops working it's OFF to the auction.
If you're lucky, you'll get one of these pieces of equipment that was so well designed originally, that even with the previous owner's neglect, you can still get years and years of good use out of it, after spending some time in getting back up to a standard where it should have been maintained at.
The last few items I bid & won at auction were still in Pennsylvania but too far away to attend personally; so all I could go by was the descriptions (almost non-existent), and the pictures.
Remember if you WIN at an auction it means there was no other person who was willing to pay MORE than you!
My latest 'victim' is this German-made twin rotor hay rake:
All hoses need replacing. All tires need replacing. One of the main hydraulic lift-cylinders is leaking badly. The rear guard was mangled and patched up horribly. The lighting and electrical wiring was chewed up somehow. Oil probably was never changed in its gear-boxed and rotary drives.
BUT, the thing still spins, and with some investment of time & money, it should make a GREAT hay rake for first, and second cut hay. This particular side delivery hay rake has the ability to either make one large swath or two small ones.
I have ~6 months to get it ready for the next hay!
The auctions have a great selection, BUT it's not easy to choose a good, well maintained piece of equipment.
It seems many farmers buy farm equipment new, immediately use the instruction & maintenance manual as kindling, and [ab]use the machine without ever spending any time or money on any kind of maintenance. Once it stops working it's OFF to the auction.
If you're lucky, you'll get one of these pieces of equipment that was so well designed originally, that even with the previous owner's neglect, you can still get years and years of good use out of it, after spending some time in getting back up to a standard where it should have been maintained at.
The last few items I bid & won at auction were still in Pennsylvania but too far away to attend personally; so all I could go by was the descriptions (almost non-existent), and the pictures.
Remember if you WIN at an auction it means there was no other person who was willing to pay MORE than you!
My latest 'victim' is this German-made twin rotor hay rake:
All hoses need replacing. All tires need replacing. One of the main hydraulic lift-cylinders is leaking badly. The rear guard was mangled and patched up horribly. The lighting and electrical wiring was chewed up somehow. Oil probably was never changed in its gear-boxed and rotary drives.
BUT, the thing still spins, and with some investment of time & money, it should make a GREAT hay rake for first, and second cut hay. This particular side delivery hay rake has the ability to either make one large swath or two small ones.
I have ~6 months to get it ready for the next hay!