Scratch Built Hay Cuber by Jason Rhoades
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| One of a kind all steel model of a John Deere 400 hay cuber |
This month's feature project is a 1/16 model of a John Deere 400 hay cuber. This one of a kind model was built by Jason Rhoades.
Jason builds one of a kind farm equipment models. His business is named T&J Tractors. T&J Tractors was officially started on December, 28th 2000. Jason decided to get into the business after discovering all the neat custom pulling tractors on ebay. He has been scratch building models of farm and construction equipment for two years now.
The T&J Tractors is made up from Jason's fiancés first name (Tina) and his first name (Jason). Tina helps him out with my tractors in her free time. She also designed and maintains the T&J website at www.modeltractors.com.
Jason work's anywhere from fourty to sixty hours a week on my models. He prefer's to build in 1/16th scale but will also build the occasional 1/32nd scale model. He has also have built a few 1/64th models, but he does not think he will build any more of that scale in the future.
Jason's roots stem back to growing up on a Dairy Farm in Northeastern, PA. He grew up on and around tractors, and always had a passion for them. After high school, Jason attended two years of art school, where he learned many of the skills he uses today.
Jason latest project is a 1/16 John Deere 400 Hay Cuber . He built it as a one of a kind model for display. It has 1,567 individual pieces on it. The model is mostly made of steel, but also has aluminum, copper, tin, and brass parts. Turning aluminum parts such as air cleaners, alternator, and levers is always one of Jason's favorite parts of a build. The model took just over 174 hours to build.
This 400 served as Jason's model to create a steel replica
What is a hay cuber? It was built
by John Deere from 1965-1983. Most of the units were sold in the
Southwestern United States, in arid states such as Arizona, California and New
Mexico. Some were also sold in the Northwest. In these areas most
hay is sold off the farm. Hay like corn, wheat and soybeans is a commodity.
Like grain crops, hay is one of the top harvested crops in the United
States. Unlike grain, most hay stays on the farm for feed. Grain is
easier to transport, handle and move though augers. Hay is a bulky crop
that requires manual labor and multiple steps to move on and off of trucks.
For centuries hay was a loose crop. The shift from loose hay stored in stacks and barns began in the late 19th century with introduction of the hay press. During the 1940's the automatic twine-tie baler revolutionized in field hay production. The square baler reduced labor and made a more dense bale.
Commercial hay growers around the same time started to pelletize hay. This system kept the nutritional quality of hay while providing an easy bulk handling of the crop in bags. The draw back of pellets is the investment in a dehydrator and stationary pellet mill. Drying fresh cut alfalfa also has high fuel costs.
In the 1950's an in field pellet machine was researched. The idea seemed like the next big harvesting concept. Both John Deere and International Harvester pursued the concept. In 1958 IH showed an experimental "field pelletizer" to their dealers. John Deere spent several years in the laboratory and field testing machines. Field tests were conducted in Arizona and California. John Deere finally arrived at a hay cube machine. Alfalfa has a natural adhesive on the surface of its stems that can be used to cement a cube together. For this cementing to work, alfalfa must be dried to about 10-12% moisture content. Pure alfalfa is used to make cubes. Grass and weeds will work against the cube and cause it to fall apart. To help get the adhesive spread evenly the windrow is sprayed with water and then the hay is chopped for through mixing of particle sizes. Much like making concrete.
Complete crushing of the stems and good contact is provided by extrusion pressures of 5,000 to 10,000 pounds per square inch. Compression also adds heat that speeds up the cube forming adhesive.
The John Deere hay cuber was an impressive engineering achievement. John Deere produced the hay cuber for 18 years. Farmers like the 400 cuber because it cubed the hay in the field. The cubes come off the cuber and deposit into a dump cart. The dump cart will dump several loads in a semi truck. This process allows for fast bulk handling of dry hay. A truck full of cubes can hold twice as many tons of dry hay than a flat bed full of square bales.
1983 was the last year for the 400's production. With the advancement of large round bales the cubers popularity declined. While the cuber allows for greater tons hauled, the round baler has a greater capacity per hour and lower power requirement. Round balers can cover more acres of hay in a day. Modern big balers are even faster.
There is still a good fleet of used John Deere 400's on the market. Many farms in the Southwest and Northwest.
Jason did an outstanding job in creating a detailed 400. It looks great on his display
400 Hay Cuber on Jason's 1/16 scale farm display
 400 Sales Literature |
 400's Right Side |
 400's Left Side |
400
& Dump Cart
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| J&S
Farm Toys Specializing in 1/64 scale custom and scratch built
farm toys. Jason Jeffers and John Sampson build everything from
harvesters to trucks to lawn mowers in 1/64.
e-mail: toyfarmer2@msn.com 1874 Iowa Avenue, Rutland, IA 50582 Phone: (515) 332-4038 |
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TTT
May 2004 Page 13
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