Gehl 1475 round baler

[dirtpusher]

I have a gehl 1475 round baler. I have had this machine for 15 years and overall it's been a good baler. The problem is for the last 3 years I've had a lot of problems with it plugging when starting a bale. I've had the air pressure any where from 150 to 120, starter fingers work properly, and as far as i can tell everything is adjusted properly. The hay gets to the packing roll and just stops. I've put some non slip tape on the smooth roll and that helped last year but not this year. I'm ready to get rid of all my hay equipment because I'm tired of fighting with this baler. Does any one have any ideas or similar experience? I don't know what else to do and am willing to try about anything. I parked the baler today after making 7 bales in 3 hours

 

[rrlund]

Rank first cutting with a lot of grass in it? I thought I'd loose my mind trying to bale hay like that Monday and Tuesday with my 1475,and I've had mine since 97,nothing but Gehl balers all the way back to 1979. Sometimes it was taking four of five tries with twenty minutes in between to pull the mess out before I'd get a bale started. The stringy mess was getting up in front of the starter fingers and wrapping around those so it couldn't roll. I had so much shoved in to it one time Tuesday that the roller on the starter fingers was all the way up and it still wouldn't start. The belts came right to a stop and were starting to smoke. One thing I did find,if the windrow was narrower and I'd put it right in the middle of the pickup,it would start better. In fact,a few times,I got off and kicked the windrow in narrower before I tried to start another bale. If it was wider than the pickup where the crowder wheels would have pulled it in alright if I'd been moving,it was a guaranteed misstart.

I baled clover and alfalfa in a new seeding yesterday and it never messed up once.

One thing though,the first two days I baled this year it was giving me the same fits. I kept messing with belt tracking on the rack on top and air pressure until I noticed I couldn't hardly see any oil on the air tank. I put a gallon of ATF in it,plugged it back up,put air in it and the oil disappeared again. I had to add another 3 quarts to get it up to where it should be with 120 pounds of air pressure. I have NO idea where all that oil went. There are no apparent leaks anywhere. After I got the oil level up there and the air pressure up,it worked near perfect until,like I said,I got in to some hay that should have been cut and baled three weeks ago if the weather cooperated.

 

[dirtpusher]

I used to always bale in 3rd gear over drive with my 2-70 white and I can't even start a bale in first under now. I can't afford a new baler and I kinda think it's time to give up on hay and sell some equipment.

 

[rrlund]

I'm on my second 1475. Had a 1450 and a 1500A before this. I never had hay give me fits like those two fields did Monday and Tuesday,Friday too come to think of it,before I got them finished up. Had a total of 230 bales on them. The heat and humidity Friday,combined with having to be up inside that thing pulling hay out with an old bale hook had me rethinking my whole future too. Like I said,different kind of hay yesterday and it was a whole nuther story.

 

[Bobl1958]

On my 1875, I start a new bale at an idle until I see it starting to roll. It used to be I could start a bale at any rpm, but all of a sudden it got to where it would plug up ahead of the rolls. I believe it was Randy here that said slow down when starting the bale. As I said I now start the bale with the tractor at pretty much idle, and so far it starts every time. It's been 3 years now and I think I have had only one plug, and I attribute that to being in a hurry.
It's not the greatest thing to start slow, but short of looking for a newer baler, it keeps me going anyway. Good luck - Bob

 

[dirtpusher]

I've had 3 seasons like your Friday. This baler was trouble free from 2003 until 2015. Now I can't believe that gehl didn't quit making the damn things 30 years sooner and I certainly wish I'd never seen mine.

 

[dirtpusher]

I can't even start a bale at an idle. I've tried every gear and rpm combination except road gear and reverse. I am completely lost here

 

[rrlund]

Is there enough oil in that tank?

I must have changed a belt late last year on mine and had one on the outside that was a little shorter than the rest. That was throwing off the belt tracking and I had one side backed off quite a ways. After the first two days of it not working right,I switched the far right belt with one in the middle. I straightened the tracking out where it should be when I did that. It helped a little,but very little until I discovered the oil was low.


Something else that crossed my mind was the tilt on those starter fingers. Like I said,the hay was wrapping around those and hanging up. I never messed with it,but is there an adjustment to tilt those ahead or back? I don't think the manual mentions it. At least if it does,I never paid any attention.

 

[RickB]

Your belts and starter rolll are too smooth.

 

[ptfarmer]

We have a old GEHL 1470, it does not like to start bales right after you rake hay when the hay is "loose". It starts bales a lot easier when the windrow is more like a mat rather than fluffed up. If we have to rake it, we let the hay settle down for a day, or two.

 

[rrlund]

The belts are textured and the lower rolls have bars on them in those balers.

 

[RickB]

Just reporting the experiences of others. Belts get smooth over time. Seems these complaints come from older balers: something is wearing out.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I've been shopping around for a round baler, and see lots of these threads like this. NEVER a solution. Always "go slower" or "get a different baler" or "quit." Those are not solutions in my book.

If the baler worked before, unless it's totally clapped out and not worth repairing, you've got to be able to do something to it to get it working again.

Is it just not worth putting new belts in these balers?

 

[rrlund]

I doubt it's the belts. I'll be interested to see if he's lost the oil from the air over hydraulic system like I did on mine. Like I said,refilling that took care of it until I got in to some super heavy rank grass hay in high humidity. As soon as I got back in good hay,it worked like it should again. There has to be an answer,but God,when you're on your knees inside of that thing pulling hay out with a bale hook in 95 degree heat and high humidity,it puts you at wits end.

 

[dirtpusher]

I didn't have time to mess with it after work today. I highly doubt the belts are the problem. We bought this baler in 2003 and it was year old with only 100 bales on the counter. I rarely make more than 250 bales a year and it only has less than 3000 bales on the life time counter. I do want to check the oil level as i was told to do. A friend who had a 1465 years ago told me the starter fingers caused him problems and he ended up removing them and his baler worked well without them. There must be a solution some where because this baler used to eat hay at an unbelievable rate. When I get time to work on it I will let you know what I find.

 

[JD Seller]

Dirtpusher and Randy: I have helped my Brother-in-law fight one of those Gehl balers for years until I got him to just let me bale his hay for free. LOL

Here are some things I found that helped it bale better as it aged:

1) The biggest thing was the front edge of the cross bars on the starter roll. The corner wore off and was not square anymore. So it did not grab the hay as well so it would slip rather than start to turn. What I did the first "fix" was took a angle grinder and sharpened the edge back to square. You had to grind between the welds on the bars but that helped 100%. Then after several years it started to act up again and I took my wire welder and ran beads across the tops of the bars. I welded in small sections and turned the roll so it did not bend with the weld contraction. This made the bars rough enough that they worked well until he sold the baler.

2) Check your belts really close. While they still have good cleat on them the leading edge gets rounded too. Just like the starter roll. Easy fix here. take the belts out and turn them a half turn and reinstall them running the opposite way. The back edge will not be worn. So just like rotating your tires turn the belts. This actually applies to all belt balers. I turn the belts every winter in my JD balers.

3)The tension on the belts. Have your checked the length of your belts??? They stretch with time/age. So if they are too long they will be looser than they should be when starting the bale. After the bale is started it does not cause any major issues. This is a BIG issue on the narrower belt balers. I have had to take several FEET out of the belt before on some of the earlier Vermeer balers. So find out how long they are supposed to be. I do not know if the Gehl manual tells you the dimension. The lack of oil in the tension system causes lose belt at bale starting too. There is too large of an air pocket in the cylinders so they can move easier than they should. Once again making the belts not grip the hay as well at the very start of the bale.

These things where the main issues when it would not start a bale. Randy the grass hay you has was slick compared to the alfalfa hay. That mature grass hay lets the belts slide on it before it will turn. When that happens you can usually have better luck with a higher ground speed with lower PTO speed and the bale will usually start to spin. I bet that if you try to bale straw you have trouble too???

Just some ideas that help in the past on his Gehl baler. I do not envy you baling with those balers. They are too much work when in certain types of hay and they will not start the bale.

 

[SVcummins]

They still get smooth even on my buddy?s old 435 John Deere the roller on it had inch wide buy 1/4 inch high flat bar it still wouldn?t feed grass hay which is what we used it for mostly. so I took it and ran weld beads with a mig welder about 3 inches long then a couple inch space and then another bead on the leading edge of the flat bar all the way around on each piece on the starter roller and it never gave another problem feeding after that .

 

[SVcummins]

Belts for my 560 hesston pos are 3,000.00$ but a baler isn?t
much good with wore out belts people refuse or won?t believe
the belts are bad so they just keep fighting it that?s where
these threads come from .

 

[ptfarmer]

We have a couple of big hay operations around us that my brother, and I do major repairs for. They like to replace all the belts every so often, so we tell them to bring us their used ones which they give us. I worth a shot if someone around you who bales a lot of hay to see if they have any old belts that are still usable, even if you have to splice them.

 

[rrlund]

It's possible those bars are getting rounded. I never paid any attention. My belts have been switched out so may times,who even knows whach direction they're running. I have an extra set here out a parts baler and I always keep several laced up and ready to put in. They've all been relaced so many times that the belt rack doesn't come anywhere near even returning all the way to the front,so being too long is not a problem. It's not that the belts aren't getting a good grip on the hay on mine. Like I said,they're getting ahold of the hay to the point that they'll slip,smoke and come right to a stop. If anything,it's the bottom rollers,but even then,if you could see the way the hay was macerated when I pulled it out time after time last week,you'd have been saying WTH too. It was indescribable. If I shear a pin on that baler once every two years,it's unusual. Last Monday in that rank orchard grass,I sheared 4 of them rolling 120 bales. The hay was getting up in front of the starter fingers,then it'd get spit up over the packing roll where it would grab again and wrap on the roll. You had to be here to experience it. I never had a day like it in 40 years of baling with Gehl balers.

 

[rrlund]

The manual says to check that oil every ten hours of use. Honestly,I never did that often. Don't take those fingers out. I had a pivot on mine that wasn't taking grease and they weren't dropping down like they should every time. When they didn't,it would wrap on the packing roll and then I'd spend half a day cutting that off.

 

[rrlund]

They're not smooth,trust me. There's no friction against them to wear them down.

 

[RickB]

Belts too short and tight don?t deflect enough for the core to start. Lots of good things to check here.

 

[rrlund]

They're short on the top of the baler in the rack,not down in the chamber.

A side note to all those trying to be helpful,that 1475 is just a new incarnation of the 1450. Most parts are the same as far as the pickup,chamber and air over hydraulic system goes. The 1450 had flat belts not chevron like the 1475,and had a smooth table belt in them instead of the rollers with the bars like the 1475. I can't speak for dirtpusher,but I never had trouble with my 1450 in 17 years of baling my own and doing custom in all kinds of conditions,as I had with my 1475 last week. It was the rank,tough hay in mine. I'm still thinking dirtpusher's problem is the lack of oil in the system. I'll be surprised if it isn't.

 

[RickB]

I?m done here. I have no time for folks that ask for help then argue every point. Figure it out yourself.

 

[rrlund]

With all due respect,I don't think you know these Gehl balers and you're grasping at straws. I didn't make the original post,but I know these balers foreward,backwards and inside out. If there's a problem with them,I've had it,found the problem one way or another and solved it. I'm trying to help the original poster and tripping over people who don't know these things.

 

[SVcummins]

I was thinking of your starter roller I?ve seen belts look like almost like smooth conveyor belt and still bale . You could try running a weld bead in a few spots on your starter roller you don?t want to get it to aggressive because that can cause problems to tried that on my cousins 535 and de tune it a bit

 

[rrlund]

The starter rolls have bars welded all the way across them every few inches.