Working with the Hesston 1340
The Hesston 1340 is a conditioning mower — basically a flail-style conditioner attached to a mower bar — built by Hesston before they got absorbed into New Holland. It was common on medium to large hay operations from the mid-1980s through the late 1990s. If you own one now, you are probably dealing with it as a piece of equipment, and the paperwork you get with it is often incomplete. That is just how these things go. The original printed manual was distributed at the point of sale. Most of them have either worn out, gotten lost, or ended up in someone else's mailbox. The most reliable way to get a copy today is through the New Holland parts and documents portal. You can search by serial number and pull a PDF directly. Third-party scanning sites also circulate copies, but the quality of those scans is inconsistent and sometimes the pages are out of order. If you are struggling to find a clean copy, your local New Holland dealership can pull one from their archive using your machine's serial number. It is free and usually takes about an hour. Call ahead and ask for the operator's manual and the illustrated parts breakdown — having both at the same time saves a lot of back and forth.
What the Manual Covers and What It Doesn't
The Hesston 1340 Owners Manual is split into several main sections. The operator's section covers startup procedures, PTO engagement, ground speed recommendations, and basic maintenance intervals. The maintenance section has the grease zerks laid out by hour intervals — 50 hours, 100 hours, 500 hours. The parts section is an exploded view diagram with part numbers, which is the most useful thing on the machine when something breaks because you can call a parts counter and actually read the number off the page instead of guessing from a rusty casting. What the manual does not cover well is field troubleshooting beyond the basic level. It will tell you to check oil levels and tighten bolts. It will not tell you what to do when the conditioner drums are slapping the crop inconsistently across the width, or why you are getting material wrap on the right-side rotor after a wet cutting session. That knowledge comes from running the machine, not from the manual.
Common Issues and Practical Workarounds
The #1 problem with the 1340 conditioner is belt maintenance. There are multiple V-belts driving the conditioner drum assembly, and the tensioning system is a spring-loaded idler arrangement. Over time the springs lose tension and the belts slip. The manual says to check tension periodically. In practice, you need to check it at the start of every cutting season and probably twice during the season if you are running heavy acreage. A slipping belt on a Hesston 1340 produces a high-pitched whine that gets louder as the crop gets thicker. If you hear it, stop and check immediately. A slipping belt will heat up and melt the rubber in under twenty minutes on a hot day, and then you are pulling the drum to replace belts instead of spending five minutes adjusting tension. I had a situation last fall where the left-side conditioner drum would intermittently bind after cutting alfalfa in damp conditions. The manual pointed to bearing failure, so I replaced both side bearings with no change. The actual problem was that the crop was packing between the drum and the stationary concave plate on the left side, and the pack was hard enough to slow the drum rotation. The fix was installing a wider gap spacer kit that New Holland released as an aftermarket modification. It is not in the original manual. It costs about $85 for the set and took roughly forty minutes to install with basic hand tools.
Get the Full Details
Grease Points and Intervals
The grease zerks on this machine are not in a single obvious place. The main ones are on the drum shaft bearings at each end of the conditioner assembly, the PTO input shaft bearing, and the height adjustment linkage pivot points. The manual specifies a 50-hour interval for the drum bearings. That is aggressive for dusty hay conditions. In my experience, greasing every 25 hours during active cutting seasons prevents the premature bearing failures that show up around year three or four on machines that run hard. The PTO shaft has its own service interval — 100 hours for the slip clutch assembly inspection. Do not skip this. The slip clutch on the Hesston 1340 is a friction disc type, and if it gets glazed from moisture or over-torquing, the PTO will either not engage properly or will slip under load and burn the discs. Glazed discs look shiny and brown. Replace them. Do not try to sand them back. I learned that the hard way on a machine I inherited with a slip-clutch issue that the previous owner had been hiding for two seasons.
Parts Sourcing Reality
New Holland still supports the 1340 through their parts network, but lead times vary. Common wear items like belts, bearings, and conditioner teeth are usually in stock at most dealers. Obscure brackets and older castings can take three to six weeks to arrive, sometimes longer if the casting has been discontinued and needs to be special-ordered from a foundry that may not be running that mold anymore. Keep a spare idler arm and tensioner spring on the shelf — those are the pieces that fail unexpectedly and halt your operation until a part shows up. You can also source some conditioners and rotors from third-party aftermarket suppliers like B&K Manufacturing or Ag Parts Plus. The aftermarket parts fit fine for most applications, but I stick with OEM for anything involving the PTO input housing and the main drum shaft bearings. Those are precision assemblies and aftermarket tolerances have caught me out before.
Operating Notes the Manual Misses
The manual gives you ground speed recommendations based on crop type and moisture. It does not mention that the conditioning quality on the Hesston 1340 changes noticeably depending on whether you are running higher or lower PTO RPM within the recommended range. At 540 RPM you get more aggressive conditioning — better for thick alfalfa. At lower PTO speeds, around 400 to 450, you get gentler conditioning that is better for dried grasses and legumes where you do not want to shatter the pods. The PTO drives the conditioner directly, so ground speed and PTO speed are independent. Running the engine slightly higher at idle while conditioning delicate crops makes a measurable difference in windrow quality. Another thing the manual does not emphasize: the 1340’s conditioner gap should be set differently for different crop stages. Early vegetative growth needs a tighter gap — about a nickel’s thickness between the drum flails and the concave. Later stage, woody stems need a wider gap to avoid plugging. Start each cutting with the gap set for that crop's thickness and adjust as you go. A fixed gap setting works fine for one cutting but falls apart when conditions change mid-season.
Winter Storage
Store the machine with the conditioner drums elevated off the ground if possible. This takes the weight off the seals and bearings and prevents flat spots on any rubber components. Coat the exposed shaft surfaces and the concave plates with a light oil or grease to prevent rust. Remove the belts if you are storing for more than a season and store them separately in a cool, dry place. Belts left under spring tension for eight months lose their elasticity and will not maintain proper tension when you reinstall them. The Hesston 1340 is a straightforward machine. It does not have electronics, sensors, or hydraulic controls that require flushing and bleeding. It breaks when you neglect maintenance, not when it ages. The manual is a reference, not a comprehensive guide. The real operating knowledge is in the wear patterns, the sound changes, and the maintenance habits that keep it running. If you treat it like a machine that requires regular attention rather than something that just works, it will outlast most other conditioners in its class.
