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Dang, that's wild. Around here you can't even think about baling until noon, one o'clock.

I recently replaced a 70s something JD 346 with a new JD 348. Both are good machines and the old one was still making pretty bales and hardly ever missing a tie. I had to go to twine machine since bailing wire has become too expensive to use.
I'll bet I've probably stacked more hay bales than lots of you have ever seen. That is ancient history. We use a Bale Baron bundler nowadays.

Pancho1, till I was 12 we put up oat hay in bundles. Think I'm one of the youngest whose stacked bundles. Bound and shocked in July, all close to the stackyard. Brought the shocks in with an M with Johnson loader and 12 ft hay basket. I'd get off the school bus, grab my bundle fork, and Dad would bring them in to me. We put up quite a lot of loose grass hay in those days too.

Then we got a worn out NH 273 with the Wisconsin engine. Not good memories. Traded for an almost new JD 336 in 1981, and life got better. It was a reliable machine.

I think something broke.

And no, I wasn't the operator. But I should have known better than to start talking chit and jinx the NH.

My dad's baler. It was acting weird last time we used it and I figured a bearing was going out and I was going to release tension on the belts and check the rollers before he used it again but I forgot and was sitting in the swather when it went to hell.

Upon further inspection I found two more rollers that have bearings starting to go. One of them is a royal bitch to replace so I guess I'll have to drag this thing 80 miles to the dealer for repairs.


#livingtheneverendingdream

I sort off wish I had a picture of the Amish. dad, and boy putting up the loose hay.

Wow!

Maybe you "need" a beaverslide. (Cue the laugh machine....)

JB, at least it was a nice cool and somewhat damp day.

That bad bearing did get a little hot before she blew!

lost attention roller and a br 750 and you got to take a few things apart and get it set just right to get the thing taken out.. not difficult after that the looks of your picture that may be the same roller. if it is you take the lower two rollers off the tailgate to get enough slack in the belts plus locking the belt holder thing to take the tension off and open the tailgate part way then you can get to that roller..

Not sure what they call this roller but it is a really easy one to access. Actually 2 of the 3 are easy but the third one is a bitch.

yeah there's three rollers on the piece that pivots as the bale gets bigger . if you have to pull the whole assembly out of the baler hell yes redo all the bearings on them rollers. price of them bearings just went way up to since 2020 I know this..

the roller that's plum out of the place laying there on your belts there's a good chance your ends are flared also and you'll have to have a new roller so the bearings will hold in place properly..

Oh yeah, the roller twisted up in the belts is toast.

I'm sure it'll be a nice repair bill but beats the hell out of replacing the baler. Dealer has a few that are a year or two old for $50-60k. No thanks!

I understand but this newer rb460 crop cutter is one hell of a baler.. I'm getting enough bales on it one of these days I'll have to make it my secondary baler and buy a new one , it's going to hurt


good luck with your repairs and maybe they'll be gentle on you...

This ^^^^^ Is what the daughter and SIL bought for their square bales. Good, tight well formed bales. Seldom misses a knot. They bought a Vermeer for round bales that can do dry hay, or wet for haylage.

I was probably 12 when I started hiring out to do summer baling. The worst bails to pick up were the round bales that came out of an Allis Chalmers round baler. They all landed on the ground and had to be picked up from the ground. The technique was to walk up to the bale ahead of the tractor pulling the hay rack and snag the bale with a hay hook and pull it backward at least 3 or 4 feet. We live in snake country and if the bales were on the ground for any length of time, Mr. No Shoulders would move in under them.

The best job was grabbing square bales off the baler as they came down the shoot. Working in the barn was the worst job. It was always hot and dusty. My haying career came to a stop in the fall of 1969 when I went to work at a local tire shop that also sold New Holland farm equipment. In the winter we would assemble New Holland farm equipment when the tire business was slow. My boss sold a lot of New Holland balers and for the most part they were pretty dependable machines and most farmers got pretty good at taking care of them.

The best job was off loading balers and elevators off of flatbed rail cars at the local train depot. It was always cold (December, January and February) and it seemed like we never had enough glove to offset the cold soaked steel. We used an old M Farmall tractor with a loader to get the equipment off the flatbed cars. The loader cylinders leaked like crazy in those temperatures and it was a constant struggle to keep the bucket up while moving that equipment onto our truck flatbed while our hands were almost as cold as the steel.

That was some fun times.

kwg

Well the mechanic went over the baler and along with the multiple bearings and a new roller he recommended a new set of belts. The belts were getting pretty worn.


Bill is gonna be $12-13k which is a lot considering the baler isn't worth a whole lot but we should have a bullet proof baler when it's done.


$12k versus $40-50k on trade for a new one.

kwg - you are correct about crossing the River Styx to work in the mow. One day when I was up there, filling my nostrils, ears, eyes, and lungs with dust and chaff, contemplating death by heat exhaustion, I became aware of rather intense pain located in the vicinity of my left ankle. A nest of bumble bees (the fat, yellow and black, fuzzy frickers) had been sent up inside a bale. They were less than pleased by the relocation of their nest and decided to express this displeasure by covering my ankle and poking holes in it. They were so intent on what they were doing that we could kill them without them flying off to attack other parts of our anatomies. The advanced medical procedure of immersing my lower leg in the stock tank did little in the way of achieving anything other than washing away the dirt and grime. At this point, the pain was replaced by a numbness. The next morning saw me unable to stand on that leg. Silver lining? I didn't have to finish baling that cutting.

Fugging new hollands.....