[AT] Hay baling fun...

[Cecil Bearden]

Long story.  My 648 New Holland round baler baled 47 bales and about 
Noon, the knife would not cut wrap.  Baled another 3 bales after 
installing new roll of wrap.  Climbed up on top of baler each time to 
try to get knife to cut.  Called my buddy at Chickasha who is a baler 
expert.  He had not worked on that one. Called Local New Holland dealer 
and baler guy said he had not worked on that model and it was to old.  
Only a 2000 model.    I opened up the side covers and looked at main 
drive chains and they were coming apart and cutting a slot in main 
frame!  and had cut grooves in the teeth of the Drive sprocket. It was 
fine when I started..

Wife asked how much is a new one??  Just take it out of your 401k before 
the gov't gets it all.  I made a few calls and the local NH dealer did 
not have anything in a 4ft wide baler.   I have 12 rolls of Net for 4 ft 
wide.  So the Vermeer dealer delivered a new Vermeer 504R Premium at 
3:30pm.  I finished at 11:30 that night.  I still like my old one 
better.  This one has a touch screen that drives me nuts in the cab at 
night.  It is so bright on the lowest setting it is like a house of 
mirrors in the cab.  No night setting.  It seems to run slower on the 
belts than the old NH, so it takes longer to wrap but bales may be a bit 
denser.  This one has  a hyd pickup that is a pain in the butt since I 
have to disconnect my loader to connect the pickup.  And with a loader 
on I have to drive with the loader at 7ft above the ground to see the 
windrow.  No fault of the baler.  I got 128 bales baled..   The monitor 
tells me how many bales per hour, how many minutes per bale, and the 
moisture.  15 % on one field and wet on the other.  Really tells me a 
lot!!   I really want my old one running again..    I bought my old one 
in 2005 for $10K  I baled for 12 years and spent about $3500 for 
bearings gears and belts.  It needs about $1500 in chains and sprockets 
now, and the knife problem is something on an adjustment.  The knife 
drops by gravity, and I have looked at it so many times trying to figure 
out what raises it when the chamber opens I finally gave up.  I have not 
found a dealer who can tell me yet.   The new one is not better by the 
$26500 difference in price.  I had 30 acres of hay down that resulted in 
121 bales at $50/bale, so I had to do something.  Forecast was for rain 
that evening and it only sprinkled for 5 minutes.  I had another baler 
in a shed that I bought but it needed some parts and I did not  know 
anything about it.

I started laying hay down again yesterday and after 3 acres the swather 
pitman oscillator bearing went out and during removing the collar the 
shaft broke on the oscillator.  I have another on a salvage swather but 
the bearings seem to be frozen on the spindle.  Then we had a cold front 
come through and an inch of rain.  Heat and humidity and more rain 
today......
Cecil