AGSO Challenger Baler self destructed...WHY?

[ClemBert]

I'm posting this message on behalf of the fellow who bales my 12 acres. He doesn't have internet so I'm trying to help him out.

He has a 6 month old (new and under warranty) AGCO Chellenger RB44 4x4 baler. At most 100 bales have been put through it. The other day while baling the baler started acting like it was starting to jam. So he turned off the PTO to inspect it. He could not find anything wrong so he kicked out the partial bale and started again. Sometime into the next bale it happened again. This time the baler just locked up. A keypin sheared and the PTO spun but the baler did not bale (for lack of a better description). Since it was under warranty, he took it to a local dealer for repair and an explanation. He didn't have too much material in the baler nor was there any debris that could have jammed it, only hay. The dealer repair foreman was unable to come up with any good reason why this happened. He theorized that the baler must have hit a ditch but the there are no ditches and the land is flat. When the driveshaft and slip clutch were inspected it was found that whatever caused the jam had enough force to bend the U-joint pins. The slip clutch appeared to fail so a keypin snapped. Luckily, there was not damage to the tractor PTO. Does anyone know if this particular model is prone to unknown jamming issues or have a good theory as to what when wrong?

 

[Kelly Campbell]

all they are is a heston baler painted yellow

 

[RodinNS]

So he got into some bind with the PTO shaft that damaged the shaft? I'd say the shaft is too long...
If this was from a load, then the slip clutch needs to be losened off.
I'm not quite sure I follow exactly what the problem was...
Other than that, look the baler over very very carefully for loose/broken/missing parts. It's not uncommon for some parts to work loose on a new machine. That's why they recomend that they be checked after a short peroid of use for problems, and then periodically therafter.

Rod

 

[Bill in Colo]

Neighbor's 3x4 heston eat itself last week to the tune of several hundred dollars for no known reason. they been using big balers for the past 30 year to the tune on 30,000 plus bale per year,and have no clue to the cause.

 

[Anonymous-0]

What type of tractor was he using to operate the baler?

 

[Anonymous-0]

And now you know why its painted yellow! (lemom) :>) Seriously, it sounds like a bad bearing somewhere thats locking up intermittantly, combined with a slip clutch adjusted too tight.

 

[ClemBert]

It is a John Deere 2355. It has 56HP on the PTO.
Picture of tractor with baler

 

[Formerly PaMike]

I have had this happen on my NH round baler when you dont have the tailgate shut completely. Hay starts to push out the gap, but you can see it sitting on the tractor.The increased drag can load the tractor or break a shear pin. When you dump the bale, the problem goes away and you dont know what the problem was. Took me a little while to figure out. Not sure if this is your problem, but it could be.

 

[Hay Dr]

The distance from the end of the PTO shaft on the tractor to the center of the drawbar hole needs to be 12". That is standard drawbar setting for a 540 rpm pull-type implement. If you have you drawbar distance too short then it can bottom out and do just what happened to the baler. Also if it happened to be too long the PTO tubes could almost come unbuckled and jam up or temporarily seize up and damage the PTO just as you have described.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Distance from PTO to drawbar hole for 540 rpm should be 14" , for 1000 rpm should be 16". I really dont see anything in his posting that indicates a PTO shaft bottoming or over extending, other than the mechanic trying to blame the operator. Sounds like it ran hard on one bale and jammed on the next and then things broke and twisted. I could very well be wrong, often its hard to describe or understand what happenned in these postings.

 

[Tx Jim]

Geez Hay Dr I hope you don't tell your customer to set drawbar at 12 inches when you sell them a new Vermeer rd baler. There must 1000's of drawbars set wrong in Tenn. I'm just kiddin' you. Tx Jim

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

Our neighbour has that baler in red clothing and the bale full indicator is very inaccurate. I overfilled it twice yesterday and although the bales eject the next bale jams the baler hard and you have to cut hay for an hour. It gets up in the space where the belts tension when the gate is open and when the next bale gets full it tries to wrap in a 1.5" gap between the rubber roller and jams as tight and the slip clutch will let it.

If the slip clutch is stuck something would give.