IH 440 baler

[gotmyfarm!]

Anyone ever owned an IH 440 small square baler? This is the one and only I've ever seen for sale, so I am wondering if it would be hard to find parts for it. Seems rare for around here at least. Anyone know anything about this model?

 

[JOCCO]

Yes me, very good baler There were 430 435 445 and a host of others. Looks like just not popular in your area.

 

[gotmyfarm!]

jocco, ok, thanks! I've been browsing balers for sale since last year and didn't find just the right one. This one looks so nice and matches my tractor!!!!!! Very important to match, you know

 

[SVcummins]

Have a 440 all twine I?ve only ran it one year but it?s
been good . Parts are expensive I need a hay dog
for the bale chamber 75$

 

[gotmyfarm!]

SVcummins, oh ok. With the costs for parts then, sounds like it'd be nice to have another junk one just to take parts off of. Sure looks like a nice baler. This one is 3 1/2 hours from me, so need to consider that, too.

 

[Texasmark1]

I had a Case/IH square and as I recall it was a 4 something, may have had the 404 nomenclature. Was used but in perfect operating shape, little wear.
Problem I had was that the pickup tines weren't durable enough and regardless of how I adjusted them, I'd loose about 1 per acre baled. I had JD square
balers and seldom did I break a tine.

 

[VicS]

We have a 430 IHC. I think it has good
capacity, a 440 surely is more. Ours is
wire tie. Never misses a bale if the
splice is small enough to make it through
the needles. Took all the wedges out and
will still make a 80 lb. Bale. We just
want 50 lb.bales. when we got it, could
just bale in low and 2nd. The cam and
bearings were worn out on the pickup.
Repaired this and now can bale in 3rd and
4th. Which is 4.5 mph.

 

[JOCCO]

Not sure what your baling or how much but any of the IH EXCEPT 45 ARE OK (FOR THE MOST PART) THE DEERE 24 214 224 AND 300 SERIES ARE GOOD TOO.

 

[SVcummins]

I found a junk one I?m going to try and buy for parts .
Parts are expensive for anything anymore it seems
like . I?ve ran straw windrows out of a combine with
a 36 foot header so I think they have plenty of
capacity

 

[Paul swpa]

I've run one since mid 80's. If it has problems, will more than likely be the inside Knotter, I don't know why but that is the one that always gives us the most problems. Switched to plastic twine couple years ago and many issues went away. The few issues that remained where fixed with a needle adjustment, bailed real good after that. Didn't get as much run through it last year due to the rain thou.
I like the knotter being all shaft drive - no chain to mess with for timing. Paul

 

[Texasmark1]

Mine were 24 and 214 twine.

 

[gotmyfarm!]

Thanks all. Good info. Now I'm concerned with the bale size this one produces. Are you saying they are huge bales? I don't want really big bales. Can you adjust bale size on any baler? How about tightness of packing? I've bought some tight heavy bales and also have had some fall apart loose fluffy bales. I never thought that a square baler could be a wire tied one because I've never seen wire on a bale. Are there a lot of balers out there that use only wire? Most common balers for sale around here are JD 14 and 24T, and various New Holland models.

 

[RedRoundhead]

I have a 430.

Good machines, better if they have the All-twine knotters.

Pretty basic machine.

If you get it - get an operators manual for it.

 

[Leroy]

All square balers can be adjusted for bale length. What you cannot adjust is size of bale chamber and some balers are 14x16" while some are 16x18" and some larger and one model of New Holland had I think a 12"x?' chamber. So a bigger bale chamber on short length pack as many pounds in as a smaller bale chamber in a longer length. I myself would not want a bale chamber of over the 14" x 16" size as even set short 30" they were too heavy for me to handle 40 years ago. Now if you are a body builder weight lifter type of person then the big bale chamber would be OK.

 

[SVcummins]

I can make bales as light as 50 pounds and as
heavy as 75 with my 440 could probably go lighter if
I shortened them up a hair

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 21:01:07 05/14/19) I never thought that a square baler could be a wire tied one because I've never seen wire on a bale. Are there a lot of balers out there that use only wire? Most common balers for sale around here are JD 14 and 24T, and various New Holland models.

Back when I was employed by a dealer in the 60's-80's the majority of small sq balers were wire tie. I only remember a very few twine tie small sq balers being sold. There are are still a lot of small sq balers around utilizing wire. Only type small sq baler I've owned is wire BUT I'd like to own a twine tie just because of the high cost of wire & heavy weight of the box of wire plus the wire made for balers today isn't the highest quality.

 

[gotmyfarm!]

Great! Thank you all so much for answering my elementary questions. Sounds like this baler would work. It just is SO far away. And so big to put on a trailer. Said it should have new knot knives put on. Sounds easy? Or, I could go with a closer-to-me-for-sale green baler and look all red and green like a chritmas tree.

 

[SVcummins]

Well I?m green and red opposite a Christmas tree
and always have been and it never hurt me any IH
made good implements in the day . If you really
wanted it I wouldn?t trailer it I?d find out what size
tires buy two new ones take with and put em on I
drill a hole for a 1/4 inch grease zerk in the hub
caps put a zerk In each wheel grease em and head
down the road

 

[gotmyfarm!]

And if I get a green one, my green neighbor will think it's his and come over and take it. I would've thought they already have zerks. Listen to me talk about zerks. Two years ago I didn't know what that was.

 

[gotmyfarm!]

Why not the 45? There is a 46 for sale near me. It doesn't look as nice condition. Is that model ok? Doesn't look so well kept.

 

[Leroy]

Very few wheel bearings have zerks as that was found out to be a bad idea for everything except a boat trailer that you dunked the wheels in the water every time you used it. And some boat trailers did not go for the zerk either. On all other wheel bearings you used a special wheel bearing grease and the bearings were hand packed with it. Then you take that zerk if you greased it you used a different type non stikey grease and if you pumped in enough to fill the cavity in the hub you were mixing grease of different kinds not a good idea. But if you pumped in enough grease to fill that cavity then likely you would come up with enough grease pressure to blow out the seals. Even if you did not do it pumping the greae in if it was packed solid the expansion of the grease heating would blow out that seal. Now on that boat wheel the idea was to push out any water that got in while dunked and for that you needed to push grease past the seal to get all the water out. A good seal should not let the water in tho. And most implement bearings the seal is already slightly wore out so some grease leakage is likely and if the bearing is slightly wore that will ruin a seal. But to mix the wheel bearing grease with gun grease is not a good idea. They do make a special grease for those boat wheels instead of the gun grease but it comes in a cartrige like gun grease but made differently and is high priced. Best if you do pull it is to pull the wheel bearings out and check for any wear play then clean them completely, big job, and repack with new grease using sonething like the red & tacky grease. It is very sticky unlike gun grease and also a high temperature grease. and then put new seals in if the old bearings are not worn too much to be good with proper adjustment, if bearings are worn then you need new bearings. In the old days it was not uncommon to have to pull the wheels and bearings on your family car every 1,000 mile and repack them because even if they had the seals and some did not they and the grease were not a very good quality. On the new trailer axles with the grease zerks it is just something to make the buyer that knows nothing feel good. best on them to forget they are there and do the hand packing. In the factory they have a machine to do like the hand packing does. On the models they are too new for me as quit baling 39 years ago. But wheel bearing tecnolage is still the same but better grease. John Deere did put those zerks on the front tractor wheels but the ones that knew how to take care of things never used them and they quit putting them in.

 

[Leroy]

Very few wheel bearings have zerks as that was found out to be a bad idea for everything except a boat trailer that you dunked the wheels in the water every time you used it. On all other wheel bearings you used a special wheel bearing grease and the bearings were hand packed with it. Then you take that zerk if you greased it you used a different type non stiky grease and if you pumped in enough to fill the cavity in the hub you were mixing grease of different kinds not a good idea. But if you pumped in enough grease to fill thativaty then likely you would come up with enough grease pressure to blow out the seals. Even if you did not do it pumping the greae in if it was packed sollid the expansion of the grease heating would blow out that seal. Now on that boat wheel the idea was topush out any water that got in while dunked and for that you needed to push grease past the seal to get all the water out. A good seal should not let the water in tho. And most implement bearings the seal is already slightly wore out so some grease leakage is likely and if the bearing is slightly wore that will ruin a seal. But to mix the wheel bearing grease with gun grease is not a good idea. They do make a special grease for those boat wheels instead of the gun grease but it comes in a cartrige like gun grease but made differently and is high priced. Best if yoy do pull it is to pull the wheel bearings out and check for any wear play then clean them completely, big job, and repack with no grease usinf sonething like the red & tacky grease. It is very sticky unlike gun grease and also a high temperature grease. and then put new seals in if the old bearings are not worn too much to be good with proper adjustment, if bearings are worn then you need new bearings. In the old days it was not uncommon to have to pull the wheels and bearings on your family car every 1,000 mile and repack them because even if they had the seals and some did not they and the grease were not a very good quality. On the new trailer axles with the grease zerks it is just something to make the buyer that knows nothing feel good. best on them to forget they are there and do the hand packing. In the factory they have a machine to do like the hand packing does. On the models they are too new for me as quit baling 39 years ago. But wheel bearing tecnolage is still the same but better grease. John Deere did put those zerks on the front wheels but the ones that knew how to take care of things never used them and they quit putting them in.

 

[gotmyfarm!]

Leroy, wow, lots of knowledge there! A little over my head! All I know is you put grease in the zerk points. I have read others talking about seal blow outs on things. Well, I have to get going out on the tractor now. I'll come back tonight and think about all of this some more.

 

[SVcummins]

I have grease zerks in every implement on the place
I use any high temperature grease either Lucas of
synthetic John Deere grease . Last summer I pulled
the disk 70 miles to a job I?ve never had a problem
from greasing an implement wheel I have from not
greasing . I also grease the tractor front wheels
everyday and never a problem there either

 

[Fritz Maurer]

A lot of people don't like the 45. Biggest complaint is the tongue doesn't swing. Next is the capacity. That baler was designed to bale a 7' windrow. Guys mow with a 9' Haybine and try to run that windrow through the 45 and wonder why it won't work. It will actually bale it, but you have to go real slow.
Most other complaints are the result of poor maintenance. You were supposed to oil about 3' of the twine and pull it inside the needle tubes, at the end of the season, to keep them from rusting where the twine had polished them. Nobody ever did that. The result was the twine arm was unable to control the twine tension during the tying cycle, and the knot is missed. The twine arm has to pull the twine backward a short distance and keep it taught, as the needles recede, so the twine can be picked up by the twine disk.

The next complaint was the shear pin. It should not break every time the baler is slugged. The PTO safety clutch was never inspected since the day they brought the baler home, and over time, it seized up. At the start of every season, the bolts on the pressure plate were to be loosened, and a wooden block was placed between the knives to stall the plunger. The PTO was then operated a few seconds, then the pressure plate bolts retightened. This was called "burnishing the clutch".

The 45 was maintenance labor intensive, but it did the job that IH built it to do in that particular era. It was a good little baler when it was well taken care of.

 

[fastfarmall]

I bought a new 440 all twine with the rubber, mounted teeth, super sweep pickup, which was great,But i had a lot of trouble with the knooter's, had to get rid of it!

 

[gotmyfarm!]

Fritz, really really good explanation. Thanks!

 

[Leroy]

They were new at time we got the New Holland 66 baler. I in my 75 years never heard to know why they would not work.