[AT] "Live" and "Independent" PTO's

[Spencer Yost]

Brian‘s comments about plunger strokes made me want to comment on one of the reasons I love baling hay. You sort of feel like a conductor at a symphony because there’s so many variables you’re trying to balance and juggle to get perfect bales for your animals and customers. I no longer sell any hay but my wife is a very picky customer :-)

I like to get around 14 to 16 strokes per bale; to generate bales that are 40-50 pounds and stay between 32-36” long.  To get that I generally run the throttle about 20% slower than is required to get 540 PTO RPM and i travel in second gear.  Drop to first for thick spots and up to third briefly in thin spots

Mainly because my windows are never that terribly thick that if I ran the throttle to generate 540 PTO RPMs I would be running in third gear as a general rule and have to go to fourth in thin spots.   Neither me nor my tractor are excited at the prospect of getting beat to death running a baler in fourth gear.

Also the pick up head on the Baler starts losing efficiency when you start moving too fast.

In essence:

  Windrow size  X
Ground speed   X
Throttle              X
Bale Length
Adjustment        X
Moisture             X
Temperature      X
———————-
34”, 45 lb bale
with 15 flakes.    =



So it’s an equation with 4 variables and two inputs you are constantly trying to solve for and I kinda like the challenge.


Spencer

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 31, 2021, at 12:52 PM, Brian <lesh at kci.net> wrote:
> 
> Baled some with Dad's Super M and New Holland baler with PTO. To set the throttle I used my pocket watch with sec. hand to count the plunger.  Maybe 55 or 60 plunges/min.