Calling all small square baler experts!

[DJL]

Recently bought a JD 336 small square baler. It had a small amount of sisal twine in it when I picked it up. The guy I bought it from said he ran both 7000 and 9000 twine in it. I bought 4 spools of 9000 plastic twine. Bailed 60 bales with it today and of that 60 had to rebale about 25 or 30 of them. I"m planning on honing up the knives on the knotters, but the question is this, do the knotters have to be reset or re-adjusted to run plastic twine when used to running sisal? The plastic twine is more desirable in my area so I"d like to run it, but had a John Deere guy tell me that you had to retro fit the knotters with different billhooks etc to get it to tie with plastic?? Any advice?
Thanks
DJL

 

[Anonymous-0]

Never fooled witha JD, but lots of balers will not tie plastic. A good IH 430 All Twine will tie either. I have a 276 NH that will tie both as well. The old Ford I had wouldnt tie the first knot on plastic twine.

 

[george md]

The twine discs (or what holds the twine in that
kotter) have to be in good shape or new. The
plastic twine is slick and will pull out of the
holders and the bill hook.
Had that problem with a case baler when the
plastic twine first hit the market somewhere
back in the 60's

george

 

[Anonymous-0]

You had to use different bill hooks in New Holland balers.Co that made plastic twine designed them.I dont use plastic twine,stupid cows eat it.

 

[msb]

I always found that I had to run a little more tension the twine when using plastic twine in my 336. Try tightning it two castelations on both sides.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Yes, John Deere had bill hooks that have a little notch under the gripper to enable a better grip on the plastic twine. I put a set in a 214 years ago. I'm surprised a 336 wouldn't have them as standard equipment. The new hooks are easy to install and work well. They will work just fine if you want to use sisal too.

 

[DAVID in WALES]

Hi;
We had the same problem here in the late 1960's & early 70's when sisal was replaced with plastic; had to modify the knotters.
Small square bales are almost finished here, I believe JD & Claas still make a few for special orders. Around the country some of the older agricultural machinery dealers will buy in old machines and rebuild them over the winter for (old fashioned) small farmers, especially New Hollands balers.
Sisal is still available in very small quantities mainly for the collectors's binders; and for the specialist long straw wheat which is cut by binder & threshed for use as thatch on house roofs.
David

 

[Walt Davies]

On my IH 46 I had to remove shims from the twine holding plates so that they would grab the plastic it took some adjusting but it works great now.
Walt

 

[TomTX]

First off, buy some sisal and put it in. See if it will tie correctly. If it does then you know it is a problem with the plastic. If it does not tie with the sisal, then you know why he sold the baler. You can then troubleshoot with the sisal first, and after you have it working fine on sisal, THEN switch to platic and try. Tom

 

[old]

Don't know about that one but I know in the 24T and 14T if you switched to plastic twine you also have to change settings and or the bill hooks for it to tie correctly
Hobby farm

 

[old fashioned farmer]

Howdy,

When we bought our 336 last summer we had some old brown sisal twine left over fromt he 14t we traded in. I then got a new bale of the 9000 plastic at work and just ran the last of the sisal into the new plastic. It didn't skip a bale and I didn't even know when it switched. I would do some looking at your bill hooks to see if they aren't wore. God bless.

--old fashioned farmer

 

[Anonymous-0]

I had to reduce my twine disk clearance to tie with plastic on my 336.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Small squares persist here in NY because the horse market demands them for hay and straw. Landscapers like small squares for chopping and blowing on reseeded areas.

 

[Larry NE IL]

Deere sells two kinds of billhooks. One for sisal and one is a combination. Most balers come with the combination billhooks.
My guess would be for you to try plastic, I don't think you'll have a problem.

 

[diblatch]

Do you know anything about the John Deere #10 balers? Thank you for your time.