# B&D crusher rolls



## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I have had it with the steel rolls in our haybine that were supposed to make hay dry quicker than rubber rolls. This on a NH 8060 haybine 416 head. At first, I thought about simply putting the rubber style from NH in, but then it occurred to me to check elsewhere. I check with the 2 manufacturers that I could think of, and the B&D is just a few hundred more expensive than the NH alternative. If I would install their rollers in my machine, and use the existing tension system, how fast could I realistically dry hay? Would it do a complete crush, or would I be wasting my money? I would like to be able to make hay in three days, and I can easily do that in grass hay, and I could always do that in the past with alfalfa, but not anymore with these steel pieces of junk. One of my customers had a set of Circle C in their machine and they claim that the hay was much softer to the touch and it dried a lot faster. Is the B&D the same design - they claim 100% contact. Is the stock conditioning tensioner able to do the job, or do I need to go with something that will put more force out? I know that some guys on here have talked about them, I never heard of them till a few years ago, and don't know anybody that has them.

Rodney


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Way to burst my bubble we were just talking about going to steel rolls . I just cannot remember a year were we had this much trouble with moisture inside the alfalfa stems


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

I have a set in my hw340 and also had them in my 926 deere pull type. Had a total failure on stock deere roll and the drydown difference was huge when I switched over. That may not be saying much because that urethane deere setup had huge gaps between rolls from new. I could crush stem easily end to end on alfalfa. On tender crop it would crush stems into several pieces with too much pressure adjustment . High pressure on the rolls also took quite a bit more power and wear on drivetrain. For these reasons I felt the stock pressure setup was adequate if your goal was just to apply pressure. Possibly the air bag deal would apply more evenly across different volumes than a spring, I don't know.

When I got the hw I got the stock rolls recovered immediately so I don't know how drying on stock NH would compare. Same as before you notice the power demand when you crank them tight but haven't had any drive failures yet. After 3 seasons you can't see light or slide a piece of paper between them. Never had issues using original bearings on either machine. I don't think the crush is as good on this set because roll width is a lower is a lower percentage of cut width. Early this season was the only time I had trouble feeding in wet wild oats. I actually plugged the rolls and auger several times. Theoretically a well conditioned crop will rewet easier and lay tighter on the stubble. How do you measure such things? I am not satisfied with my drying rate this year either but outside of relocating west about 2500 mile......


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Running the Circle C's in my 1431. Huge advantage over stock rolls. For alfalfa the stock tensioner is more than adequate. The entire length of teh stem can be crushed if cranked all the way down as well as the leaves so rarely have I found I need to use all the pressure available with the stock tensioner.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

Rodney, we are running one NH 7450 with steel rolls and one NH 7450 with rubber rolls. I really have not seem much difference in the 2 machines. We have had a terrible time this year getting hay to dry down. Our problem is green spots and stem moisture in fine stemmed grasses. Our tedders don't seem to be picking all the hay up but the rakes are. I tried running our crusher behind the mower on some 3rd cut it did not pick all hay up and seemed to bunch the hay. This year has made me feel pretty stupid when it comes to making good hay. What I have learned there is no substitute for dry ground, sunshine , low humidity, and a 10 mph wind out of the NW.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> This year has made me feel pretty stupid when it comes to making good hay. What I have learned there is no substitute for dry ground, sunshine , low humidity, and a 10 mph wind out of the NW.


That's been about the size of it here too. For alfalfa hay better make that 4 days of good weather.


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## RockyHill (Apr 24, 2013)

Bob M said:


> This year has made me feel pretty stupid when it comes to making good hay. What I have learned there is no substitute for dry ground, sunshine , low humidity, and a 10 mph wind out of the NW.


You haven't cornered the market on this! It has been a year that nothing seems to work.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I know it's almost apples to oranges, but I was cutting some alfalfa with the old 1499, and that has the stock rubber rolls..... My dad cut one field with the discbine, and I cut 3..... So they were all cut at the same time, and the maturity should have been about equal, and it was treated the same after cutting - tedding and raking was all the same on all 4. The only difference was the 8 or so hours before tedding, as his was a 16ft width, and mine were 12 ft. When baled his was about 6 points higher in moisture. We turned the tension down, and applied more acid. I noticed that his stems were just 'pinched', and not crimped like the ones from my machine. I tightened those steel rolls as much as I could - I ran them down until they touched and made noise, then backed them up until the noise stopped, and I have the pressure at H. I feel that there is nothing more that I can do to make it better, hence my quest for better rolls. It sort of sounds like the B&D rolls and the stock tensioner are going to work for us.

Rodney


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Rodney, thanks for explaining that side by side trial. The recent hype has been all steel. Was this a later cutting? Any different opinion on steel performance in heavy first cut grass?

I don't think B&D can recover a steel roll. It used to be the only thing they could do with those were to build a new core onto your stub shafts . You would save some freight by not shipping the complete roll. It used to be they couldn't sell you a complete new set because of patent rights . I'm not sure I would take a torch to a good set of steel rolls I think I would look for a set of delaminated ones and recover those and sell,trade,or keep your steel if you want to trade your machine in a few years and slip your B&D for the next one.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

I have been thinking of changing out our rollers also rubber and steel, but not sure what to replace with. Some guys on forum have had good luck with circle C. I had two fields of mixed alfalfa orchard grasss cut same day about the same time. Tedded both and raked one with single rotary rake and raked the other with big 35' wheel rake. Both raked on 3rd day at the same time. Both fields had little to no fall grass and yielded about the same. After 7 days each day re raking and finally re tedding we baled yesterday and wrapped both could not get dry enough. The field raked with the wheel rake was alittle drier than the single rotary raked field. This whole year has made no sense to me, hopefully I will learn some thing from this year.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

Kelly,

I have been disappointed with this thing since day one. I think so far as grass hay it does about the same as the ole chevron. I told the NH guys at APD that they could throw all of the steel rolls in the smelter so far as I was concerned, and they said it was a 50/50 split from what they'd been hearing...... As I was telling the company rep how much I hated them, another fellow came up and said that he wanted something that did a LOT better than the Chevron style...... My comparison was about 2-3 weeks ago, in 3rd cutting alfalfa, maybe 1/8 bloom.

I talked with Pete, and they are frustrated, like I am, with the big M. So they talked with Circle C about cutting the steel angles off of the steel rolls, and having them recovered. That seemed like a LOT of work to me. I contacted both B&D and Circle C about their rolls, and B&D is $3650 for 2 NEW rolls, I reuse my tension system and bearings. NH is just shy of $3200 for 2 new chevron style rolls. CC is $7000, $8000 for 2 rolls and airbags. I don't know what the freight would be on the B&D, but it almost seems like a no-brainer to me.

Rodney


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Freight was about $600 round trip three years ago, so maybe ya get by with 1/2. I think you'll be pleased. So if you were gonna do a big m with new rolls and air bags, 25k, yikes!


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## aarondeere (Dec 24, 2013)

Hey Rodney it's been awhile since we talked. I just found this site but have been floating over on the combine forum for awhile. Sorry to hear about the steel rolls. I think all of us were thankful this past yr is over with. We got everything done but it was really difficult. I like you were frustrated with dry down time. Our steel rolls are different than yours and it looks like NH changed to your design a few yrs after ours. We traded in our hw365 and are going back to rubber rolls. The discbine has always been troublesome but these last 2 yrs it seems to have become more problematic. I'm nervous about going back to rubber rolls but hope it works. Over all the yrs we used the steel rolls for the most part other than on thin crop like late cutting alfalfa I thought the steel rolls did a good job. They didn't wear down like rubber rolls do over time and other than replacing them once because of some custom work where the farmer said there were no rocks, I was happy. From everyone that I talked to don't go with flails. For every person that swears by them I seem to find 5 others that swear at them. lol Hows things going up your way? We've been busy down here. Aaron


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

Aaron,

I remember that you said that you liked the steel rolls, I guess this was a different design. I'll let everybody know how the B&D performs, they have a special right now, and other than the shipping, they were cheaper than the NH stock rubber rolls.

Rodney


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## dwarner (Aug 28, 2012)

Rodney, what kind of special is going on now if you don't mind my asking? Their website isn't working for me, but I am 2 hour drive from them. I was going to recover my JD rollers but put that plan off when I broke one in half this summer,


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I'm not certain if the special is the same for all machines, but for mine 2 new rolls were $3000, that was $650 off. I read elsewhere that the deal runs through the end of the month, so jan 31 would be the last day.

Rodney


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

dwarner, B&D can build a roller if you send your end stub shafts.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

Can anyone get to B&D Rollers website? I got their web address off a youtube video of theirs but it gives me a blank page.

http://bdrollers.com/


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Here is there U tube video.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

When I got mine done for my 1431 Circle C had a special with free shipping.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

The free freight through Circle C is Oct.-Dec.

I found the youtube video but it appears the B&D site is down.


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## dwarner (Aug 28, 2012)

I called B&D last summer and they said they needed my rolls to recover, and 3-4 weeks to do it. Wasn't a good option when I had only made 2 rounds out of my customers 30 some acres. I got a used one that matched mine good enough. I know a new roll from deere is well over 2k each and the B&D setup looks like a good deal. Seems everybody runs specials in Jan. and I am still trying to get into "hay mode" to figure out what I dare spend money on this year. Free shipping wouldn't entice me if I went the B&D route(looks like that's C-C anyway) but I am only 2 hours from B&D with lots of time to spare these days. Thinking I might try bale-skis this year and run my new-used rolls another season(with the cutterbar tipped back to avoid the rocks this time)


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