Round Baler Twine Wrap Technique

[Bill VA]

My JD 335 round baler is single arm hydraulic tie. Last summer I did it by the manual, move the twine arm to the right side of the baler (A), wait 4-6 seconds and then move the arm such that the indicator is at each hash mark, stopping for 2ish seconds and then to the left side to (B) waiting 4-6 seconds.

Seems to work OK, but is a little tedious to some extent with all the stops.

I read somewhere last night and got to thinking about it today - the operator of the manual or hydraulic tie baler would just run the twine arm across the bale, and repeat the cycle three or four times - not stopping at all, cutting the twine each time. Not sure I like that technique.

For those of you that have manual or hydraulic tie round balers - what is your technique for wrapping twine on your bale.

Just curious - thanks!

 

[rrlund]

I had two with hydraulic twine arms and did it like you said in the first paragraph. The last two have had computerized electric dual twine arms. Those twine arms are about three inches apart. When the sensors tell it to start putting twine on, that two arm device comes down to center. When both twines have started, the sensors tell it to go all the way out to the end. It pauses there until it makes a full wrap on the bale with both twines.

You can punch in on the monitor how many wraps you want on the bale. I put two on, that makes four wraps when you figure two twines at a time.

It comes back a quarter of the way, pauses briefly, then farther and pauses briefly again, then up to just before it cuts and pauses long enough to make about a revolution and a half of the bale, then it swings up and cuts.

The exact same amount of twine on each and every bale while I just sit in the seat and wait.

 

[jhwis]

My dad and I each have a JD 465 baler. Mine is electric tie and I do it like you do. I don't mind it. Dad has hydraulic tie. When I use it, I also pause with arms extended, but then run it straight back without pausing. You can adjust the speed of the arms. I should note both our balers have two twine arms tho...not one.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Our New Idea baler has 2 twine arms for tying also. I just run them to the center wait a for about a wrap or 2,, then work it out to about 3/4 the way out then go back to center and let it wrap it with the intervals as it goes. I hate handling sloppy tied bales. There is a happy medium between to much and not enough twine. Not enough doesn't hold together well for handling if you store them inside then load out to sell and if you put to much on they take a lot of twine and ad to your cost. It will probably be a thing you will have to determine for your self on how much you want to put on. If just going from the field to the barn then out to the feeder you can live with less twine on.IF selling then you probably need a bit more for the extra handling.

 

[DanielW]

Most of my baling is done with a JD 435 with the fully automatic twine arms. When the bale's done and the limit switch is hit, they run out to one side, let it wrap a few times at that side, sweep slowly across the bale, let it wrap a few times at the other end, then cut it.

I bale some at Dad's with an older Vermeer that's got a manual twine arm: I just mimic what the automatic JD arms do - let it wrap 4 or 5 times on the first end, pull it slowly across, let it wrap a few times at the other end, then cut. With a single twine arm I do that twice - that way if you break one twine during bale handing you at least have a second twine holding it together.

I have the parts to convert it to a 12V electric actuator with a rocker switch and dial speed control. I've wired it up in the shop and tested it: It works quite well, and you can dial down the speed to crawl across the bale or ramp whip it across, depending on how much twine and how good of a wrap you want to do. I haven't put it on the baler yet, as I only do 20-30 bales a year with that baler, so manually wrapping isn't a big deal. I know it'll work well, because I told a friend about it and he bought all the same parts for his baler (same model). He installed it and it works quite well. The actuator, DC speed control, and rocker switch probably cost about $250 total. Might be worth looking into for your setup - at least you wouldn't have to keep jogging and stopping it, and you'd have excellent speed control - being able to adjust speed, spacing, and twine use from the tractor seat.

Some new NH balers have a 'twine-tuck' feature: After it finishes wrapping the last end, the twine arm quickly move back about a third of the way across the bale, pause briefly, then quickly move back out to the end to cut. It's supposed to eliminate a loose/flying twine tail on the end of the bale. I sometimes mimic that with the manual tie on the Vermeer, but I think it's more of a New Holland gimmick than a useful feature. If the twine starts to unwrap, the tail might be a tad shorter, but not enough to really make any difference.

 

[steve in ok]

I had a vicon baler with electric tie and I did it like your first paragraph. Luckily for me my controller had a memory and I just had to do it one time and then it would repeat. Worked pretty good.

 

[Jim in NC]

I have a 335 with a single twine arm and manual tie. I swing the twine arm to the far side, or right, count to 4, swing it to the left to every other mark and do the same. When I finish on the other side after counting to 4, I swing the twine arm back to about a third of the way, then back to the left and cut the twine. This overlapping helps reduce loose twine ends.

 

[Sam Vastano]

I have a JD 510 Round baler and it is all manual. After I get to the point I want to tie the bale I stop forward motion and start the swing of the hydraulic arm. I get it to the farthest position count to 6 and move it a ways and count to 6 again and repeat until I go all the way across. I don't have any hash marks on mine so it is all by sight. Reading up on the newer balers I guess I am missing so much but mine works and that is all that matters.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

I had a new 335 and we sold hay so we wanted a nice bale. I would run it to the far side pause a little then move it back over stopping on each line and between each line. When baling a hundred or more per day your finger thought about it. In good corn stalks it took about as long to tie as it did to make a bale. We baled thousands of bales with and did very little to it. I now have a 467 but only make 4x5 bales dry hay or 4x4 of hi moisture. Tom

 

[Texasmark]

I have a JD 375 running a 5x4 bale, manually controlled. I often thought about what you said about just running across and back and forth several times then cutting the twine but I got to thinking, when it was time to feed, cutting all those cords would be a pain.....so I run the the baler at PTO rpms, and every couple of seconds I hit the feed arm and move it over a couple of inches. One of these days my hydraulic control in my tractor will wear out but I'll worry about that when it happens.

 

[Bill VA]

Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated!!!!