Class round balers

[longmeadowfarm]

I've owned a couple of JD Balers over the years a 410 and presently a 447.. both purchased new. Both performed well.. and yes I liked my 410.. just learned how it worked and was disciplined to it's operational idiosyncrasies. However an acquaintance of mine has a Claas baler and likes it. I think it's a 260RC ??? ....any way, he has convinced me that I should look at the Claas before I buy another Deere baler. The reason for the change is I would like a net wrap with a bale push bar baler to speed things up a bit. My acquaintance has indicated that he bales twice as many bales per hour than I do. Perhaps part of the reason is that I take my time... I'm in no particular hurry ... and only bale about 600-700 round bales per year to feed my beef herd. Is the Claas baler line worth looking at? Thanks

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

He has to bale twice as fast as the Class is a soft core baler and only gets half the hay in it the Deere does. The Class is a good baler but not any better than a Deere. They might be better if you make hi-moisture bales to wrap. The Class will cost more and have less resale value than the Deere. Parts and service will be much easier to get for the Deere.Our IH dealer sells Class as well but sells very few round balers and two custom operaters who did have Class now have IH and NH.Tom

 

[longmeadowfarm]

That's a good point..amount of hay in the chamber. I have learned how to 'pack' my Deere baler.. with a combination of PTO and ground speed. If I'm paying attentions and not listening to talk radio... which is generally a bunch of crap anyway... I can really get a dense bale from my Deere 447. Thanks for the info.. Toms, et al...

 

[fixerupper]

Claas machinery is designed for wet European conditions. I assume that is the reason for the soft core. I haven't been involved with Claas balers but the Claas combines I have been around have very expensive parts though they are very well made.

 

[Pair-a-dice farm]

I know absolutely nothing about a Claas baler but if they are a soft center baler then I would pass. Like Tom said they just won't have the pounds per bale that a JD baler will have. I've got a JD 435 and bale about as much as you do. It would be really hard to beat a JD. The only other brand that I would consider would be a Vermeer. I'm not a JD guy when it comes to their tractors but their hay equipment is as good as it gets IMO.

 

[rrlund]

I bought some bales rolled with a Claas once. I don't know what model,and maybe it was the fault of the operator,but the bales were supposed to be the same size as my Gehl bales,there was just half as much hay in the Claas bales as there was in the Gehl bales. I was unrolling them in the feed alley of the dairy barn at the time. I could feed three times with a Gehl bale. Down the feed alley,back,and down again. With the Claas bale,I could roll it down and half way back and it was gone.

 

[MikeinKy]

I have owned New Holland and Vermeer, and have neighbors with John Deere, and that is what I would buy. They all three make good bales. I have heard arguments about which is the best and it usually comes down to the operator.

 

[JD Seller]

Look at the mesh wrap JD 459E baler. It is a good baler and it has the mesh wrap you want. You can get the baler with kicker ramps that will roll the bale back so you do not have to back up.

As for Claus balers. My first round baler was a Claus Rollant 56 with mesh wrap. That was in 1984. It was a good baler but it is a drum baler so you have the soft core. IF you run it correctly you can get a good solid bale. You have to give it time, just like any other baler, to compress the hay into a good solid bale. I used it on my Oliver 1655. When the monitor beeped telling me it was within six inches of full I would drop the hydraul shift into low and let the baler make more rounds while finishing the outside of the bale. The bales did not sag like many soft core bales. It was the operator that made the difference. The baler made a 4x5 bale. In dry hay I could easily get 1200-1300 LBS. bales. Now if you just kept a high ground speed you would fill the chamber without really making a hard bale. That is what too many drum baler owners do and end up with sorry looking bales. Their make lots of bales but they do not have the hay in them they should.

I Bought my First JD baler in 1992. It was a JD 535 with mesh wrap. I owned that baler for eight years and baled over 45,000 bales with it. I replaced it with a JD 566 with mesh wrap and the Mega pickup. That baler baled over 75,000 bales before I traded it in on a JD 568 in 2010. That baler currently has baled over 42,000 bales. So I can say JD balers are good balers.

New Holland and Vermeer make good balers too but in corn stalks neither of them will bale with the JD balers.

 

[Nick m]

I have a claas 46 roto cut. Makes 4x4 bales. 4th claas I've been around. Others were rolant 66's. All very trouble free. Fixed chamber balers. They make belt balers also. Have zero experience with those. Very good, simple to operate and maintain baler. Haven't had to buy many parts, but didn't think they were any more than any other brand. Parts aren't hard to get either as long as a dealer is close by. I believe a lot of models share the same parts, so easy to stock. Mine is 15 years old, but I think they still run the same basic design. You will not get as much hay into a bale as a belt baler. Our 4x4 alfalfa bales weigh in the 550-600lb range. You can bale very fast with it, but will have less hay in a bale the faster you go. I like it. I bale about the same per year as you, maybe a little less. Not sure on new prices, but used seem to run a little cheaper than NH and jd. I'd buy a claas again. It's all what you want, but this thing will gobble up anything that will fit under the tractor, and gives almost zero problems.

 

[oj]

I have a Claas 280 rotocut, which makes a 4x5.5 baler, 260 makes a 4x4 I think, my operators book calls for 100hp minimum, the 280 weight just over 6000lbs empty. They are.a heavy well made baler, designed for silage first and foremost, although they will bale anything.
My 4x5 bales of hay weigh on average 1300lbs, with the density control set at about 3.5 (out of a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being most dense).
If you are happy with your current baler, I see no reason to change, but if you are looking to change the Claas is worth looking at. Dealer support is as important as make in my opinion, and Claas dealers do tend to be thinking on the ground, and there is nothing worse that having to travel several hrs to get a part where. You should be baling.

 

[samn40]

My old Claas 46 without the rotacut option makes a real good bale in either hay or grass, the secret being to keep driving after the beeper until the tractor starts to drop off revs!....and it gives very little bother....it will work with string or net and has a simple cutting mechanism for cutting the net....

 

[RodinNS]

We've had a Class 44s for the better part of 30 years... I have yet to see any baler of it's generation make a better bale in spite of a lot of clap trap talk. I've weighed them and know the difference. As has been mentioned, if you operate it correctly you will get a very solid bale. And to be charitable.... a modern Claas with net wrap will probably outbale your present baler by 3 to 1 because the older one will outbale it by 2-1 or more with twine...
I have always found it helpful to maintain a stock of bearings in each size required.... and some pickup parts including cam followers. It doesn't need them frequently, but on occasion it will burn up a bearing; usually on the drive side of the roller. Aside from that you won't need too many parts. They're easy to repair as long as you know how to pull a gib key.... and they have a LOT of gib keys.... I've changed a few rollers and actually broke the shaft out of one roller last year but overall this has been a very reliable baler. I've never seen one burnt to the ground yet either.... and I can't say that about the others.
The Rollant's are made to bale silage. If that's what you're baling, you need one. If you're baling dry hay, the advantage will not be so great, but personally I see little reason to own anything else.

Rod