My tractor's hitch is higher than Wyatt's tractors' hitches so he had to readjust the swather's hydraulic cylinder seen in the back on the left side. The cylinder's pin was a pain and we had to jack up the swather and remove the wheel to get the cylinder adjusted. Otherwise I wasn't able to lower the swather all the way to the ground.
Then I drove it to the ranch. That was tricky. It was after 5 pm and traffic was heavier. The swather swings in when not in use but I still had a wide footprint. All the mailboxes were on my side of the road and I had to weave in and out to avoid them and the oncoming traffic. I didn't hit anything, thankfully.
As you can see below it was a tight fit through one of my 16 ft gates.
The first row along the fence I had to cut backwards. Backwards because if I continued to cut in this direction the tractor would always drive over the standing grass and not the cut field.
Now I am beginning the second row. As you can see the tractor is going over the cut area.
The grass is tall and thick in the field nearer the barn and house. Even though I went in the lowest gear the hay clogged the swather. I had to shut off the swather before getting a rake to use to remove the excess hay. A short time later the swather's belt began to smoke. I took a break to let it cool off. When I started again the belt began to quickly smoke again. After talking with Wyatt I learned the sickle bar was stuck. I had seen that the tines and roller bars were moving but I didn't notice the sickle bar wasn't moving. Once I rotated the sickle bar with its wrench I was able to again swath hay. By now I was only able to finish the second row before the dew started settling on the grass.
And here I thought I would have all my hay cut on Monday. Not even close! It is nice that the grass is so tall and thick - but it does make cutting it slow.
Here is a 17 second video of the swather in action: https://youtu.be/Sh2JsmxsCCo
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