[AT] baler trouble and balers for sale

[John Hall]

My ancient Super 66 New Holland baler is getting to be more trouble than 
its worth. Long story short, one side of the knotter is acting 
up--again. The top knot lets the other end of the string slip through. I 
changed and shimmed out the disc cleaner today as it had 3/16-1/4" of 
slop, this effectively changing the timing. Even flipped the gear over 
as it was pretty well worn. The knife arm has less than 3,000 bales on 
it. I may have replaced the bill hook on this side, as the chrome 
platting looks pretty fresh. I replaced the flat spring that hold 
tension on the 2 fingered piece that runs in the twine disc (is that 
called the twine finger?). Any way we have adjusted the heck out the 
baler by the book, nothing really seems to help. Its not the twine as it 
switched over to a new ball after the problem started. I kept adjusting 
things, the last was to adjust how close the needle was to the twine 
disc cleaner--it was hitting the old one.

2 weeks ago we baled 160 bales, it missed 3 bales--I can live with that 
on a 60 year old baler. Today it started out missing 1 out of 20, and 
then went to missing 1 out of 3. After changing parts and adjusting 
things I got it to bale about 10 in a row before it was too damp and we 
had to stop. Maybe its working OK now, maybe I just got lucky.

By the way, the timing appears off on the other side, but it ain't 
missed but 1 or 2 bales  out of the last 2-3,000! And yes, I've tried to 
copy its settings, doesn't work either.

We are baling fairly stemmy fescue that is exceptionally dry--the low 
humidity made it so the hay will crackle. I'm making a bale about every 
17-18 plunger strokes. Using sisal twine--9,000.


Take a look at these balers and tell me your opinion of such 
models--regardless of fixing mine, I need to begin plans for an upgrade.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/grd/5627641040.html

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/grd/5581835426.html


Thanks,

John Hall