Baler HP Requirements

[Anonymous-0]

Was wondering why all the JD model small square balers the 328,338,348 all have a 35 HP requirement and the NH 565 has a 35HP 570 has a 62HP and the 575 has a 75HP. I am looking at a 570 w/ thrower and am a little worried my 50 HP isnt going to be beefy enough. Thanks.

 

[Casey in Ky]

I have no experience with the JD balers, so I've got no advice on their HP requirements. I use to bale with a NH 565 and it was one heck of baler. In a pinch, I could bale with an olf Ford 3000 gas. HP wise it would handle it fine, but weight wise, it would push me around on hills. I know the 570's are heavier, and they have the rotary feed system, which increases capacity(along with a bigger mouth so to speak, the pickup is bigger). I'm assuming the rotary feed system is what takes more HP, that, and the added weight. With the thrower you'll be towing a wagon full of hay at times. If you're in flat country, not that big of a deal, hill country, I'd say it'll depend what 50hp tractor you have. Depending on the baler as well, you might not be able to run it at full capicity.

 

[rankrank1]

I have never owned a Jd baler, but I have read that the 348 will really tax 50 hp from other posters - or in other words 50 hp is not enough to run one in most average conditions. The 348 is really a high capacity baler so it makes sense that it needs 60 hp plus to work to its potential. The 33? is a slightly lower capacity so it may be okay with 50 hp or less depending on your stiatuation.

A search should help you find more info. and as always you can sometimes skimp on the hp requirements depending on your situation (e.g. hills? wagon in tow?, utilizing full potential of baler, how fast you want to bale?, etc.).

As for me, I am really really limited on my tractor HP input (26 max PTO, or 23 hp PTO at 540 PTO rpm) so none of the modern JD balers would work for me. If I just had to have a JD baler for some reason, then I would have to stick to the vintage 14T or possibly the 24T which are much lower capacity than any of the modern JD balers.

In short, high capacity baler usually requires more tractor hp to run them. Vintage balers on the other hand will run with much less hp because they were designed for what was popular tractor wise during their era. In the late 1950's and early 1960's most tractors were under 35 hp. Jump to the late 1970's early 1980's or after and the average farm utility tractor is at least 60hp minumum usually even larger hp.

 

[rubberwrench]

New Holland dealer I questioned about 570 baler said not so much hp but tractor weight is needed to handle baler

 

[Shetland Sheepdog]

(quoted from post at 19:38:13 03/14/09) Was wondering why all the JD model small square balers the 328,338,348 all have a 35 HP requirement and the NH 565 has a 35HP 570 has a 62HP and the 575 has a 75HP. I am looking at a 570 w/ thrower and am a little worried my 50 HP isnt going to be beefy enough. Thanks.

I use a 62 hp tractor to bale with a NH 570 most of the time, but occasionally use a 42 hp tractor. Your 50 hp tractor should work just fine as long as you're not trying to bale mountain sides! The NH 570 operators manual says to get iniform bales you should be putting a minimum of 13 strokes in a 36 inch bale, (more strokes for longer bales). Your 50 hp tractor should not have a problem with that kind of loading. Here's a picture of my baler and the 2 tractors that I would use.
Dave

 

[TractormanNC]

I pull a NH 575 with 60hp, no problems. Wouldn't want any less weight in front beacuse of the way the baler shakes the tractor. Don't use a thrower though. The 50 hp will pull the baler just fine but may be marginal pulling a wagon if you have hills. Controlling it going down hills would be the problem.

 

[JDYS]

What model tractors are you using?

 

[LAA]

I ran a 570 with a 60 h.p. tractor -- the tractor was under powered. I bought the baler new and it would bust strings, choke down, make uneven bales and you could tell by the sound and jerking around that there was not enough tractor. Tried every kind of adjustment -- wound up going real slow the first season and got through, bought 85 h.p. tractor the next year and took off. Several have said that the extra h.p. would not have cured the string busting, but it did, only thing I can figure is the uneven running and jerking and choking down got the whole process out of whack and it could not do what it was supposed to do.

 

[olgentdc]

Dad and MOM baled with a VAC and a NH68 just a singin a song ,day after day ,YEAR AFTER PROSPEROUS YEAR !,no problems,,, THESE MODERN BS balers ain't worth payin for , My 2 cents

 

[Shetland Sheepdog]

That would be a Ford 5610, 1982 and a Ford 3910, 1984. I lied, I've never run the 570 with the 3910, But have run the 315, that I sold when I got the 570, many times with the 3910 and it did just fine! The 315 is the same as the 570, just older!
Dave

 

[jimgoddard]

I run a NH326 (predecessor of the 575) w/ a TN75. The tractor seems to have no problems keeping up w/ the baler.

As some one already said I think its more a matter of tractor weight then hp.

 

[495man]

You'll see "PTO HP requirements" and "tractor weight" requirements on newer baler lit as the smaller compacts are putting out what a "full size" tractor did years ago.