Center Delivery Rotary Rakes

Hey folks, I am starting to work out the idea of getting a center delivery rotary rake and need some suggestions on what models to focus on. Currently using wheel rakes, and would like to upgrade due to the amount of dirt that always seems to end up in the windrow. Rollbar rakes are an option, but slow operation and the fact that it ropes the hay and seems to be hard on alfalfa pushes me towards rotary. It would be nice to demo a rotary to see if it lives up to my expectations, but I highly doubt there is a dealer in this area that has a two rotor center delivery models in stock. 

 

Speed is important, hence why we have been using wheel rakes. I typically swath about 40-45 acres of alfalfa in a day, so the rake needs to be able to cover that much ground in about a 3 hour time window. Swather is a NH H7450 discbine which on paper has a 13' cutting width, realistically without using a tractor with GPS and auto steer to pull it the cut width probably ends up more like 12'. So I am thinking a rake with a 20-24' working width would be about ideal for putting two windrows into one. 

 

Hay is also not tedded, that is why center deliver rather than side delivery interests me more as it will end up in the middle between the two cut swaths. It will also be used for grass hay, not just alfalfa, but that seems to be less sensitive to rake types. My understanding is that the two rotor rakes can also be used with only one rotor down in operation, which would be good for when we end up with a heavy first cutting in grass and don't want to rake two into one. What brands and models should I be looking at? It would be nice to find a used one, but not sure if that will be possible or not. 

 

Parts availability is very important, I've had a lot of issues with sourcing parts from large European and even Canadian manufacturers. They make an excellent product and we buy based on the performance of the equipment, only to find out when I need a certain part there is nothing in stock anywhere in the USA and it is 3 weeks out coming from Italy or held up on the Canadian border at customs for a week.

 

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, and feel free to tell me about other types of rakes might fit my uses better than a twin rotary would. Thank you

Center Delivery Rotary Rakes