Round baler guys

[flying belgian]

This is my first experience with round baler. How do you know how fast you can drive?
Is the pickup the first thing to plug up if you go to fast? Could not get it to start bale this spring. Finally got that figured out and made 78 non-stop, trouble free bales. I went from hating this baler to loving it in 1 afternoon.

 

[farmersamm]

Both New Hollands that I've owned don't like it when you start a bale fast. Start slow, and watch to see if it's feeding to establish the core. Once the core is established, you can run almost as fast as you want.

Inspect the sledge frame, and rollers, for wear. The sledge assembly is a weak point.

Nice looking baler for its age.

 

[Destroked 450]

Depends on the ground and hay quantity, normally I’ll run 4.5-5.5 mph
I’ve been in some rough fields as slow as 3.8 and a couple times in smooth field with thin hay running 6.1
I set my speed mostly for field conditions
But for average grass hay making 4.5-5 rolls of 4x5 bales per acre I’ll run 5-5.5 mph
In heavy hay making 7-8+ bales per acre I’ll drop back to 4-4.5 mph

 

[farmersamm]

"fast as you want"..........................I generally run about 4 1/2mph to 5mph once the core forms, and it starts sucking the hay smoothly. One caveat.........I run behind a MOCO which makes a windrow from 14' header.....so my windrows aren't as insane as some of the raked windrows I've seen. They generally run about as wide as the pickup, and aren't excessively heavy. I've never seen one of these able to take huge windrows.

One problem with heavy windrows is a not-so-dense bale. New ones might make heavy bales from fluffy windrows, but these old balers don't seem to do as good a job.

 

[farmersamm]

I ran an 846 for over 2 decades without a hiccup. Wonderful baler. Only real wear items were the floor chains. Easy fast fix.

My 650 has been a nightmare. Makes great bales when it runs, but literally cost me over a year in time to rebuild the sledge assembly, and other rollers on the frame. The design of the sledge system is abysmal. Uses spherical bearings as U joints. Absolutely stupid. Plus, the tolerances are crazy stupid close. Whoever built this thing thought they were building a Ferrari, not a hay baler. I believe they made it for about 3 years, then gave up on it.

I might love it when, and if, I ever get the stupid thing in the field this year. Been a bad coupla years equipment wise.

 

[Destroked 450]

They made the 650 for around 3 years but the sledge system up thru the BR models and possibly longer
My 2012 BR7070 has sledge rollers

 

[farmersamm]

They made the 650 for around 3 years but the sledge system up thru the BR models and possibly longer
My 2012 BR7070 has sledge rollers

I'll bet they're designed different. The 650 went through 3 different design changes in the follower roll bearing, and housing.

I went back to a hybrid original standard bearing. Same housing, and bearing, as the first design, but in the more modern larger support for the larger square bore that the BR uses IIRC.

This replaced the pillow block bearing that was in the second, or third, design. You cannot run a pillow block bearing on supports. They have to be run on a thru axle/shaft. Otherwise the bearing outer race constantly tries to pivot in the housing..........wearing the housing out. I don't know what they were thinking.

 

[farmersamm]

To be absolutely fair................I might have bought the most abused baler on the planet. It was an emergency buy with hay in the field.

It's been a ton of work, with a ton of workarounds, and tight tolerances. I've been less than thrilled.

 

[mtf]

What did you do to get it to start a roll?

 

[caterpillar guy]

these picture keep me wanting to keep rebuilding the old NI with the fixed chamber. It will take hay as fast as the pickup will cleanly take it up. Do wish some times it would run a bit faster on the pickup. I suppose I could change the pulley size or sprocket size to accomplish that.

 

[flying belgian]

What did you do to get it to start a roll?

Guy before me must have got a fence post or tree limb in the pickup bent the pickup wind tines all to pieces. Broke one out and crisscrossed two. They must have been bent down and pickup tines were striking them and no room for them to raise and let windrow in. In order to keep baling he adjusted them up to top of travel. So I rebuilt that and didn't think about adjusting it down.

Dealer sent their baler guy out and when we tried it and the hay wouldn't feed in he saw right away that the wind tines are way to high. He adjusted them down and we tried it. It worked better but I had to start the bale at half speed. He adjusted it some more and I haven't had any problem since. I begin every bale at top speed and it starts every bale every time without hesitation. Period.

That's why I asked the original question. The wind tines are set so low that it seems there will be a pinch point between pickup tines and wind tines if I drive to fast.

 

[dcarp]

This is my first experience with round baler. How do you know how fast you can drive?
Is the pickup the first thing to plug up if you go to fast? Could not get it to start bale this spring. Finally got that figured out and made 78 non-stop, trouble free bales. I went from hating this baler to loving it in 1 afternoon.

I have dual range on my baler tractor. Start a bale in low 6.3 mph, travel about 10’, then up to high 7.2 mph. When the almost full alert sounds, 4” from full, downshift to low till full bale. I make 5’ x 5’8” bales that weigh 1500-1800 lbs. have made as many as 115 bales on 22 acres, never plugged the baler. I have only plugged it rebaling an unrolled bale. Baler is NH RB560. Most fields I bale, 7.2 mph is the fastest I can drive and still stay in the seat. Not many smooth fields in this part of Texas.

 

[Tx Jim]

The more posts I read concerning problems with NH rd baler sledge rollers & duckbill convinces me I'm glad I've owned a different brand rd baler

 

[mtf]

Dcarp is right in the same range of speed I run with my rb560. The manual says it will bale up to 10 mph! What ever speed is safe for your tractor on your ground, in order to safely stop baler. Also you will learn just how much hay your pickup can handle from usage. So to answer your original question of how fast to run, it varies depending on hay conditions, tractor size, field terrain to make a few.

Those are some nice looking rolls you got there. Oil the drive chains at the end of a long day too add longevity to chains and sprocket life.

 

[flying belgian]

Dcarp is right in the same range of speed I run with my rb560. The manual says it will bale up to 10 mph! What ever speed is safe for your tractor on your ground, in order to safely stop baler. Also you will learn just how much hay your pickup can handle from usage. So to answer your original question of how fast to run, it varies depending on hay conditions, tractor size, field terrain to make a few.

Those are some nice looking rolls you got there. Oil the drive chains at the end of a long day too add longevity to chains and sprocket life.

Thanks for the oil tip. I replaced all the chains this spring.

 

[Destroked 450]

Guy before me must have got a fence post or tree limb in the pickup bent the pickup wind tines all to pieces. Broke one out and crisscrossed two. They must have been bent down and pickup tines were striking them and no room for them to raise and let windrow in. In order to keep baling he adjusted them up to top of travel. So I rebuilt that and didn't think about adjusting it down.

Dealer sent their baler guy out and when we tried it and the hay wouldn't feed in he saw right away that the wind tines are way to high. He adjusted them down and we tried it. It worked better but I had to start the bale at half speed. He adjusted it some more and I haven't had any problem since. I begin every bale at top speed and it starts every bale every time without hesitation. Period.

That's why I asked the original question. The wind tines are set so low that it seems there will be a pinch point between pickup tines and wind tines if I drive to fast.

I’ll have to check mine, in dry thick hay sometimes mine doesn’t want to start the bale and ends up plugging the pickup

 

[Destroked 450]

The more posts I read concerning problems with NH rd baler sledge rollers & duckbill convinces me I'm glad I've owned a different brand rd baler

Never owned a net wrap baler but the 94 model NH 640 I had till 2014 made over 20k rolls with no sledge roll issues, present 2012 NH BR7070 has made 12k rolls
Helped a neighbor repair the top roll in his JD 468, probably not as hard of job as working on sledge rolls but I baled all of his hay while we were waiting on machine shop and parts

 

[Texasmark]

My JD will start and digest a reasonably sized WW about as fast as you can stay sitting in the tractor seat. If you have a clump, you need to pause and give it time to get digested then back to baling. My first baler was a Heston, 5560 or something like that and it hated to start a roll. I accused it of being a closed rather than open throat and refer to my Deers as open but never had anything to prove those points.......I mean like a person, if you have your mouth wide open you are ready to stuff some food in it.......at least I am...grin.

 

[Destroked 450]

How about a Hesston 5580 if it was a 5x5 baler
I had a 4x5 5545, they were open throat balers but the starter roll inside the bale chamber made them finicky about starting a roll