Low r.p.m.; extra benefit
If tedding is done too aggressively, the loss of crop material can be seen immediately by all the dust that is thrown up. This is to do with the effect of the tedder tines on the crop. Decisive factors are: rotation speed of the tines, their position as well as the amount of steel that is in contact with the crop.
Due to the trailing tine position the crop material gains speed more gradually than those tedders fitted with straight tines. The tedder is ideally operated between 400 and 450 r.p.m. Due to the nature of the hook tines there is less crop contact but where the rotors overlap the separation of the crop material is much greater. Resulting in a very high backwards speed.
