New Holland 66 vs IH 50T

[A . M. Aitkins]

Hello all, I'm considering replacing my New Holland 66 baler with a International 50t baler and I was hoping to get some of your feedback on which baler is better.

Both are engine driven and both are twine Balers

If I kept the 66 I would need to put all new chains and bushings on it whereas the 50t seems to be in pretty good shape. I have heard that a lot of the international balers had troublesome notters but I don't have any first hand experience with IH Balers so I don't know how true the claims are.

So what would you guys do? Keep the 66 or move on to the international. Thanks your input is very much appreciated

 

[flying belgian]

Hello all, I'm considering replacing my New Holland 66 baler with a International 50t baler and I was hoping to get some of your feedback on which baler is better.

Both are engine driven and both are twine Balers

If I kept the 66 I would need to put all new chains and bushings on it whereas the 50t seems to be in pretty good shape. I have heard that a lot of the international balers had troublesome notters but I don't have any first hand experience with IH Balers so I don't know how true the claims are.

So what would you guys do? Keep the 66 or move on to the international. Thanks your input is very much appreciated

I just have never heard anything good about those IH balers. Nobody had them in our neighborhood. All New Holland and JD.

 

[Leroy]

Hello all, I'm considering replacing my New Holland 66 baler with a International 50t baler and I was hoping to get some of your feedback on which baler is better.

Both are engine driven and both are twine Balers

If I kept the 66 I would need to put all new chains and bushings on it whereas the 50t seems to be in pretty good shape. I have heard that a lot of the international balers had troublesome notters but I don't have any first hand experience with IH Balers so I don't know how true the claims are.

So what would you guys do? Keep the 66 or move on to the international. Thanks your input is very much appreciated

Forget the international, never enough of them around for anybody to have parts for them. Cannot beat a 66 New Holland Had one for years.

 

[caterpillar guy]

From loading behind an IH 46 I think it was it would not tie a tough bale even a little bit tough hay. Get another NH baler and let someone else fart around with the IH baler.

 

[DanielW]

IH balers used 'All-Twine' brand knotters. You get the occasional chap who says they were heavily built and work just dandy if everything's adjusted and sharpened perfectly. But 80% of folks despise IH balers because the knotters gave so much trouble. Most folks agree you had to hold your tongue just right and spend too much time making sure they were adjusted absolutely perfect. It's too bad really, as the IH balers were built very well in all other aspects.

New Holland used and still uses Rasspe knotters, just like Deere, Ford, Allis, and almost all modern large and small square balers. Rasspe knotters are very tried and true. Some differences between them (Deere and NH, for instance, used slightly different models of Rasspe knotters). But they're always quite reliable. And as Leroy points out, NH balers are a dime a dozen, making parts readily available and allowing them to be bought cheap, as there are far too many to become unique collectors items.

I'd lean strongly towards keeping the NH myself, but you also don't want to ignore condition entirely. If the rest of the NH is rusted out, plunger and chamber are worn thin, bearings are full of stiff grease and not rotating properly, knives are notched/dented, etc., and if the IH is mint, it might be worth leaning toward the IH. Condition means a lot on a square baler, and sitting outside in the weather is murder on them. I'd take a baler that's seen 20 extra years of use if it's been shedded and lubed regularly over one that's sat unused outside for 3 years. So if the NH has seen a lot of weather, that might also lean me toward the IH. Is the price reasonable, and do you have room to shed both? A backup baler never goes amiss.

 

[formerly ny bill]

IH balers used 'All-Twine' brand knotters. You get the occasional chap who says they were heavily built and work just dandy if everything's adjusted and sharpened perfectly. But 80% of folks despise IH balers because the knotters gave so much trouble. Most folks agree you had to hold your tongue just right and spend too much time making sure they were adjusted absolutely perfect. It's too bad really, as the IH balers were built very well in all other aspects.

New Holland used and still uses Rasspe knotters, just like Deere, Ford, Allis, and almost all modern large and small square balers. Rasspe knotters are very tried and true. Some differences between them (Deere and NH, for instance, used slightly different models of Rasspe knotters). But they're always quite reliable. And as Leroy points out, NH balers are a dime a dozen, making parts readily available and allowing them to be bought cheap, as there are far too many to become unique collectors items.

I'd lean strongly towards keeping the NH myself, but you also don't want to ignore condition entirely. If the rest of the NH is rusted out, plunger and chamber are worn thin, bearings are full of stiff grease and not rotating properly, knives are notched/dented, etc., and if the IH is mint, it might be worth leaning toward the IH. Condition means a lot on a square baler, and sitting outside in the weather is murder on them. I'd take a baler that's seen 20 extra years of use if it's been shedded and lubed regularly over one that's sat unused outside for 3 years. So if the NH has seen a lot of weather, that might also lean me toward the IH. Is the price reasonable, and do you have room to shed both? A backup baler never goes amiss.

one of my childhood memories (@7 yrs old) was when Ma had to take parts to Dad who was working on his 50T baler waaaay down in a rented field. She left me in the car on the road, listening to "Love letters in the sand" by Pat Boone, among others. When I was 8 yrs old, Dad had a JD 14T baler. Working on that baler seemed to be very common. You couldn't give me one if I needed to use it for baling.

 

[FarrviewSouth]

I agree. With old balers you need to know their personality, have parts easily available and a spare one ready to go. For me that means stay with the New Holland and find a parts machine for the fence row

 

[showcrop]

I had a JD 336 for around five years, then I got a MF 224, mainly because it had a thrower. I had found that the JD knotters, which are the same type as on the NH, had two points that caused problems. First was the tucker fingers and drives, second were the wipers that pulled the knot off from the bill hooks. The IH-MF type knotters have neither of those. Because it has no tucker fingers you never need to adjust them, but you do have to keep your needle adjustments in spec. They need to be checked and adjusted annually for trouble free operation.

 

[A . M. Aitkins]

So a little more about these balers. I purchased the 66 a couple years ago and up to that point it had not been ran in about 20yrs. it was shedded though so it wasn't in terrible shape aside from no paint and the gasoline had pretty much turned into jelly. I cleaned the tank, carb and fuel line out made a few other small repairs. At that point I put some fresh gas in it cranked the motor over a few times and it fired right up. It seems to work good it just has lot of play in the bushings.

As for the 50t I don't know a whole lot about it. but i do know that the baler has been shedded over the last 10yrs up until this month. The motor was rebuilt about 10yrs ago and was also painted. I don't think it's been used much in the last 10yrs if at all. Over all it's in nice shape. The guy selling it is looking to get $800 for it

Here are the two balers in question

 

[casecollectorsc]

The New Holland all day....

 

[DanielW]

Seeing that IH has tweaked my memory a little and I have to amend my earlier reply. I could be wrong, but I believe the older two-digit IH series like that one used a different knotter than the later All-Twine ones used on balers like the 435, 440, New Ideas, etc. Once again I could be wrong, but I think the older IH's like that 50T used the old Deering design that was a slightly modified version of the ones used on the Deering grain binders. I believe the All-Twine knotters they later used were a beefed-up version of the McCormick knotter design. There's a chap near me who rebuilds and sells a lot of grain binders to the Amish & Mennonites, and he told me the Deering knotter style was less persnickety than the McCormick ones and is thus the preferred knotter for the Amish he sells to. I don't know all the differences, but I know the Deering knotters had a stripper to pull the twine off the billhook (similar to the Rasspe knotters) while the McCormick/All-Twine knotters didn't (they relied on the bale being pushed out of the chamber to pull the twine off), The lack of a stripper was one of the primary sources of frustration with the later All-Twine knotters: If there was a little slop in the linkages or if you didn't keep the revs up, they weren't happy at releasing the twine.

If my memory's correct in all that, the Deering knotters on that 50T a might be more reliable than the later IH's, but I suspect parts are nearly impossible to find for them.

If you're looking for a reliable baler that you don't have to do much tinkering on, can readily find parts for, and can count on to punch out a few hundred bales a day for several days a year without a fuss, then I'd stay away from the IH. But seeing the nice-looking barn and shop in the background of your NH picture and hearing that you're already dealing with the wackiness and unconventionality of engine-driven balers, I suspect you must like to tinker and rebuild old/unconventional equipment. And you probably don't rely solely on your square baler to feed your animals. In this case and if you can get the IH cheap enough (maybe try to talk him down a little), no harm in buying the IH to be another toy/tinkering project.

But if reliability, consistency, and parts availability are the primary goals, it'd still have to be the NH for me.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

So a little more about these balers. I purchased the 66 a couple years ago and up to that point it had not been ran in about 20yrs. it was shedded though so it wasn't in terrible shape aside from no paint and the gasoline had pretty much turned into jelly. I cleaned the tank, carb and fuel line out made a few other small repairs. At that point I put some fresh gas in it cranked the motor over a few times and it fired right up. It seems to work good it just has lot of play in the bushings.

As for the 50t I don't know a whole lot about it. but i do know that the baler has been shedded over the last 10yrs up until this month. The motor was rebuilt about 10yrs ago and was also painted. I don't think it's been used much in the last 10yrs if at all. Over all it's in nice shape. The guy selling it is looking to get $800 for it

Here are the two balers in question
View attachment 98417View attachment 98418View attachment 98419View attachment 98420

The 50T isn't a bad deal, just for the power unit (though I would talk him down a bit). It will also have a better capacity than the 66. There's enough of both left sitting around the country that parts units are still available. Still some parts available on shelves here & there. Get a hold of Balerman on You Tube if you have questions about either baler or are in need of parts. I can find some too, on occasion.

Balerman reworked a 50T in the video below to run plastic twine. The second video shows how to rebuild the IH knotter to do that job. Also has contact info in the description. Give him a holler, he loves talking balers.

Mike

 

[Leroy]

So a little more about these balers. I purchased the 66 a couple years ago and up to that point it had not been ran in about 20yrs. it was shedded though so it wasn't in terrible shape aside from no paint and the gasoline had pretty much turned into jelly. I cleaned the tank, carb and fuel line out made a few other small repairs. At that point I put some fresh gas in it cranked the motor over a few times and it fired right up. It seems to work good it just has lot of play in the bushings.

As for the 50t I don't know a whole lot about it. but i do know that the baler has been shedded over the last 10yrs up until this month. The motor was rebuilt about 10yrs ago and was also painted. I don't think it's been used much in the last 10yrs if at all. Over all it's in nice shape. The guy selling it is looking to get $800 for it

Here are the two balers in question
View attachment 98417View attachment 98418View attachment 98419View attachment 98420

Hello all, I'm considering replacing my New Holland 66 baler with a International 50t baler and I was hoping to get some of your feedback on which baler is better.

Both are engine driven and both are twine Balers

If I kept the 66 I would need to put all new chains and bushings on it whereas the 50t seems to be in pretty good shape. I have heard that a lot of the international balers had troublesome notters but I don't have any first hand experience with IH Balers so I don't know how true the claims are.

So what would you guys do? Keep the 66 or move on to the international. Thanks your input is very much appreciated

Seeing the picture that is a S66 and not a 66 baler. The S66 is newer and has some different parts, The yellow pickup tells methat unless it has been repainted to the newer collors that could havebeen done. Check the serial tag to be sure. Dad bought a 66 engine powered unit the second year they were built and used it untill1977 when Dad bought a Mcormick 46 baler with a thrower and that thrower was the only reason for the change as the previous year 3 of us got overcoime from the heat while handling the bales loading. We put several thousand bales a year thru that old 66 baler as Dad did coustom baling with it as well as our own. And where the wiscon is supposedly hard starting the secrut is every day take the cover of the engine and plow out the dirt as they like to get pluged and do colling and just get too hot to want to start. And the plunger slides are made of wood and easily made at home when they wear and worn plunger slides is the main problem with not tying.. We had been fiting that miseed bales for a fewyears and Dad finally got a hold of a GOOD NH baler person and when he first looked at it told Dad the problem was not in the notters but tose slides, Dad told him I don't believe it bit go ahead anbd replave themand he did. Doing nothing else except replacing the slides it worked like a new one.. If I rember correctly we had to do that a second time as that is how many bales a year it did..After several years the 36inch bales got to be just too heavy for us and adjusted it down to 30 inch bales and that is where the difference is between the 66 and the S66 is th the length adjustment of the bales. The yellow pickup if I rember correctly had a few more pickup teeth as well. Only used the IH for 3 years when the dairy herd left, Years later I wanted a baler around just in case so I bought a pair of them, a 66 and a S66 and that is when I learned the difference in the 2. I neverdid get around to rebuilding them as the farm had left at that time. If a thrower had been avaible probably would never have changed from the 66 to the 46 IHC baler and I never thought about measuring the bale chambers but the bales from the 46 , think older than the 50 and the T stands for twine as there was a 50W wire tie as well. But those bales were just getting too havy for us set about as short as possible. Grandpa was getting up to about the late 80's when we changed balers. And just could not handle thoe IH bales any more. And we put as high as a tousand bales a day thru the 66.

 

[chcase]

Hello all, I'm considering replacing my New Holland 66 baler with a International 50t baler and I was hoping to get some of your feedback on which baler is better.

Both are engine driven and both are twine Balers

If I kept the 66 I would need to put all new chains and bushings on it whereas the 50t seems to be in pretty good shape. I have heard that a lot of the international balers had troublesome notters but I don't have any first hand experience with IH Balers so I don't know how true the claims are.

So what would you guys do? Keep the 66 or move on to the international. Thanks your input is very much appreciated

I know nothing about the NH baler but the t50 will make a young strong guy work handing the bales. My dad had a t50 then traded in on a new MF 10 baler. My mother and older siblings were very happy. Neighbor bought the t50 from dealer for scrap price and used it one year until we started baling all his hay. We ended up with that old t50 again and I made alot of corn stalk bales and sold but never touch any more than need be. If you can handle a 75 pound bale go for it but otherwise look for something that makes a smaller bale.

 

[spacechem]

Ugh- 50T. We had one. The twine boxes on the sides of the bale case made a dandy seat for someone to ride and tie the knots...

 

[A . M. Aitkins]

So after hearing all of you guys input on the 66 & 50t balers I think I'm just going to try and rebuild the 66. Do you guys know where I might be able to find all the bushings for the 66? Thanks

 

[flying belgian]

So after hearing all of you guys input on the 66 & 50t balers I think I'm just going to try and rebuild the 66. Do you guys know where I might be able to find all the bushings for the 66? Thanks

I made most of the bushings when I rebuilt my 65 but the plunger bushing and twine knives I went to New holland dealer. He ordered them and I had them by the end of the week.

 

[A . M. Aitkins]

I made most of the bushings when I rebuilt my 65 but the plunger bushing and twine knives I went to New holland dealer. He ordered them and I had them by the end of the week.

How hard were they to make? Did you have to start from scratch and machine them down to specs? Or what was the process to make the bushings? Thanks

 

[flying belgian]

How hard were they to make? Did you have to start from scratch and machine them down to specs? Or what was the process to make the bushings? Thanks

Yep, start from scratch.

 

[Leroy]

The 50T isn't a bad deal, just for the power unit (though I would talk him down a bit). It will also have a better capacity than the 66. There's enough of both left sitting around the country that parts units are still available. Still some parts available on shelves here & there. Get a hold of Balerman on You Tube if you have questions about either baler or are in need of parts. I can find some too, on occasion.

Balerman reworked a 50T in the video below to run plastic twine. The second video shows how to rebuild the IH knotter to do that job. Also has contact info in the description. Give him a holler, he loves talking balers.

Mike

Here in Ohio I do not rember seeing a 50 in either T or W. The 45 about ended the McCormick baler sales. Did not know that when we bought our 46 baler but that was before computors as in late 70's. Dad wanted to get a JD but none avaible at that time and I was glad of that as I did not like the JD balers from first site. Was a few 55 but that was about it.