New Holland chain baler

[m16ty]

I know people like to give those old NH chain balers down the road, but I picked up a 849 at auction last week just because it was cheap. Wasn’t expecting much, but figured I’d haul it to the scrap yard and get my money back if all else failed.
Well today I greased it up, oiled the chains, and headed to the hay field. Ended up rolling 70 rolls without any issues. Good looking rolls too.
Only down side is it has manual tie. Not a killer but nowhere near as nice as an auto tie. I’d submit that those old NH will roll as good as any for the time they were made. They will still do a respectable job if they aren’t worn out. Granted, if they are worn out they can be a nightmare and expensive to work on.

 

[Welding man]

I have worked on dozens and dozens of them. Totally rebuilt a couple. One farmer I did a lot of work for had three. There were a lot of them in my area at one time. There are still a few being used by some small farmers. The ones with the air bags made the best bales. I will not touch a belt bailer. No desire to learn anything about them.

 

[DanielW]

I know I'm the biggest critic of those chain balers, but I will freely say those are some dang fine looking rolls for a chain baler.

I still stand by my usual arguments: If/when you have to work on the chains, they're much harder to work on and way, way more expensive than working on belts. And any of our belt balers have gone decades on the original belts with no issues or adjustment needed, and it's only an hour or so to change belts out when you finally have to. And if you're baling clover or alfalfa those chain balers can really knock a lot of the leaves off.

But if you have grassy hay, have one in good shape, the chains are good, and you don't have much money invested in one, they'll do dandy. I think you mentioned on another thread you only paid $300 for it? I think you did very well, and you must know how to drive a baler properly if the rolls are coming out that good from a chain baler. Keep those chains oiled and tensioned correctly and it'll likely be a great baler for you for many years.

 

[m16ty]

I know I'm the biggest critic of those chain balers, but I will freely say those are some dang fine looking rolls for a chain baler.

I still stand by my usual arguments: If/when you have to work on the chains, they're much harder to work on and way, way more expensive than working on belts. And any of our belt balers have gone decades on the original belts with no issues or adjustment needed, and it's only an hour or so to change belts out when you finally have to. And if you're baling clover or alfalfa those chain balers can really knock a lot of the leaves off.

But if you have grassy hay, have one in good shape, the chains are good, and you don't have much money invested in one, they'll do dandy. I think you mentioned on another thread you only paid $300 for it? I think you did very well, and you must know how to drive a baler properly if the rolls are coming out that good from a chain baler. Keep those chains oiled and tensioned correctly and it'll likely be a great baler for you for many years.

The field in the pic was mainly just grass, but the last field I rolled has a bunch of clover. I didn’t notice terrible leaf loss with the clover.

I agree when one is worn out it can be aggravating and a money pit, but I’d buy several more at $300 each.

The deal is I used to be pretty big in the hay business. Several years ago I worked out a deal with my neighbor to cut some fields on shares to supply my hay needs and I quit selling hay. Now my son is wanting to get into the hay business. I still had a square baler but had sold my Gehl roller. He has already put up a bunch of square hay but also had 100 rolls sold if he could make them. I found this old roller at auction and figured I’d take a chance at $300. I also had my neighbor on standby if the old New Holland flew apart. If my son decides to expand the hay business I’m sure we will need to upgrade, but at this point I think this old NH will do ok.

 

[m16ty]

I have worked on dozens and dozens of them. Totally rebuilt a couple. One farmer I did a lot of work for had three. There were a lot of them in my area at one time. There are still a few being used by some small farmers. The ones with the air bags made the best bales. I will not touch a belt bailer. No desire to learn anything about them.

Back in the day NH chain balers were everywhere around here too. There was a local Vermeer dealer but the vast majority of rollers were NH.

 

[Newgenerationdeere]

I know people like to give those old NH chain balers down the road, but I picked up a 849 at auction last week just because it was cheap. Wasn’t expecting much, but figured I’d haul it to the scrap yard and get my money back if all else failed.
Well today I greased it up, oiled the chains, and headed to the hay field. Ended up rolling 70 rolls without any issues. Good looking rolls too.
Only down side is it has manual tie. Not a killer but nowhere near as nice as an auto tie. I’d submit that those old NH will roll as good as any for the time they were made. They will still do a respectable job if they aren’t worn out. Granted, if they are worn out they can be a nightmare and expensive to work on.

That series of baler will make as nice a bale as anything and they have quite a bit of capacity to .

 

[Fred Werring]

I know people like to give those old NH chain balers down the road, but I picked up a 849 at auction last week just because it was cheap. Wasn’t expecting much, but figured I’d haul it to the scrap yard and get my money back if all else failed.
Well today I greased it up, oiled the chains, and headed to the hay field. Ended up rolling 70 rolls without any issues. Good looking rolls too.
Only down side is it has manual tie. Not a killer but nowhere near as nice as an auto tie. I’d submit that those old NH will roll as good as any for the time they were made. They will still do a respectable job if they aren’t worn out. Granted, if they are worn out they can be a nightmare and expensive to work on.

Bought my 855 27 years ago.
It was lightly used, nobody wanted it 'cause it was an evil chainer
Still makes a good bale, and since I'm lazy, those big bales mean feeding/setting in hay less often.
Had a couple issues with it over the years, but they never because of the chains.
Still makes a good bale

 

[m16ty]

Bought my 855 27 years ago.
It was lightly used, nobody wanted it 'cause it was an evil chainer
Still makes a good bale, and since I'm lazy, those big bales mean feeding/setting in hay less often.
Had a couple issues with it over the years, but they never because of the chains.
Still makes a good bale

I think those chain balers are sleepers. Nobody wants them so they are cheap, but they work fine if they aren’t worn out.

I was looking for a round baler, but didn’t want to spend a bunch. Every belt baler I looked at was was $3k plus, that were worn out in the $3k range. To get a decent belt roller I was looking at spending $5k. Picked this one up at auction for $300, figuring I’d scrap it if things didn’t work out. After using it, I don’t think I’d trade it for one those $5k belt balers, and for sure not one of those $3k belt balers.

Now I’m looking to find another one or two for parts. It would be nice to find one with auto tie.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

I know people like to give those old NH chain balers down the road, but I picked up a 849 at auction last week just because it was cheap. Wasn’t expecting much, but figured I’d haul it to the scrap yard and get my money back if all else failed.
Well today I greased it up, oiled the chains, and headed to the hay field. Ended up rolling 70 rolls without any issues. Good looking rolls too.
Only down side is it has manual tie. Not a killer but nowhere near as nice as an auto tie. I’d submit that those old NH will roll as good as any for the time they were made. They will still do a respectable job if they aren’t worn out. Granted, if they are worn out they can be a nightmare and expensive to work on.

What causes the cores to stick out on the ends?

And, is that causing an illusion that the end of the bale is slightly concave?

Mike

 

[m16ty]

What causes the cores to stick out on the ends?

And, is that causing an illusion that the end of the bale is slightly concave?

Mike

I had to go back and look at the pic, and I see what you are taking about. Must be an allusion because I didn’t notice it in person.
I think what we may be seeing is about the first 12” in diameter isn’t really “rolled” on these balers, the hay is just kind of wadded up. What causes this is that is as small as the empty bale chamber goes, the hay doesn’t really start “rolling” until this void is filled in the chamber and it contacts the bars all the way around.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Thought you could bale fence posts with those things.

 

[m16ty]

Thought you could bale fence posts with those things.

They will eat almost anything, but I bet fence post wouldn’t do the bars any good. I have no doubt it would eat a fence post though and try to roll it.

 

[Welding man]

I have actually straightened a few bars where fence posts and big tree limbs have gotten baled up in them. I do know that they will bale corn stalks.

 

[Fred Werring]

Thought you could bale fence posts with those things.

Almost, 2 days ago.
How I mowed over it, tedded it, raked it and still managed to not see the log before my 855 tried to eat it is beyond me.
The hay was very thick, that's my excuse.
My 855 is fine

 

[Fred Werring]

I have actually straightened a few bars where fence posts and big tree limbs have gotten baled up in them. I do know that they will bale corn stalks.

Many years ago I bent a bar on my 855.
Neighbor had a press, he straightened it.
I made a comment about painting it a different color so I could keep an eye on it.
He grinned, grabbed a can of JD green, and started painting.
Said the green paint would make it run better
That was 20 years ago. Ivan passed away maybe 10 years ago, but I still think of him when that green bar rolls around on my baler.

 

[m16ty]

Back in the early ‘90s I was right out of high school and working at the local Ford/NH dealer. Baler came in and needing a couple bars replaced. The service manager brought the new bars out and told me to replace them. He didn’t also give me some bolts so I just reused the old bolts and nuts.

About a week later the baler came back in and had a bunch of more bars bent. The service manager and I learned a valuable lesson that day, always use new bolts and nuts when replacing bars. What happened was one of the new bars I installed came loose and bent a bunch of others. The lock nuts had lost their locking ability on the old nuts and came loose.

The guy that owned the dealership had me replace every bar bolt and nut on it after that, to make for sure no more bars would come loose.