Curved bales?

[FTV]

Hello, I just spent four frustrating days baling with my "new" IH 440. Lost a lot of knots on the cut side and had the twine wrap around that knot holder a lot. But worst of all the bales were all curved. They were curved out to the cut side as if that side's knots slipped or something. The hay was very dry and slippery so I had the tension set pretty hard tried it lighter too but then the bales were just looser and curved.
Set the hay feeder arm on every setting but it didn't seem to make much difference. Also banged pretty hard and rocked the tractor a lot. And broke a few shear pins, whenever it got too loaded up.
...apologies for the long explanation, still tired from all the work...
Any idea what could be causing my banana bales and how to resolve it?
Oh, the string on the non cut side seemed to end up really close to the edge of the bale ( probably because the ends were not 90 degrees. I wish I would have a picture of them to explain.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bcp]

I never saw that problem in my long but thin baling experience, but it must be more common than I thought.

Google had over 2000 hits when searched for "banana bales"

Bruce

 

[foreman Etexas]

Only thing I have run into is one sides tension set to heavy,came to find out one sides nut was backing off. The other thing was shearing bolts cause the timing was off just little(just 2 sprocket teeth) and was pulling on the brake cable to hard after a bale trip. That was just what I have run into on a NH

 

[Mace Canute]

There's several reasons why bales can be banana shaped but I believe the main cause is that the windrow is not thick enough. Best bales come out when the windrow is raked very thick, and forward speed is very slow. A constant, steady, thick feed does best.

 

[jagyzf]

Check the hay dogs and you should also have some other device that holds the hay in place. The dogs are spring loaded things that help to hold the hay that has already been shoved into the chamber in place. They are in the top and btm of the chamber usually close to the knotter on top. Some balers also have wedges or other things on the sides for the same reason to help hold it in place. I would say it could also be a feeder fork issue, but you said you adjusted that. Also make sure the tension on the twine is the same on boths sides and that you have the proper twine path to the needles.

As already stated make sure tension is same side to side on the chamber. Knife on the knotter is sharp and the hook scraper is set proper. This would be the device that pushes the knot off the hook.

 

[cowski]

i had a problem like that once.my baler was set right. but i used a kubota 9000 for the first time.it kicked out banana bales.it turned out i was not running the tractor engine fast enough for the pto to be 540 rpm.for my baler to work right ,it needs to be close to 540 pto speed.

 

[BeeferMan]

In about 99% of cases "banana" bales are caused by one thing - uneven feeding of the hay into the bale chamber. I'm not familiar with your baler, but there will be some adjustment of the feeder mechanism to correct an uneven feed - sounds like you tried adjusting that already, but that is the key. Windrow size was mentioned and that will indirectly affect the feeding - you can generally adjust the feeding to work with any sized windrow, but varying size windrows will usually not produce consistent bales for whatever the feeder setting is. That said, you certainly can have windrows that are simply too small or too large. So a windrow size, ground speed and feeder adjustment that produces a steady flow of hay into the bale chamber is what you're after. Sounds complex, but with most decent balers it's not that hard to achieve. Good luck!

 

[Rara Avis]

Hello, I just spent four frustrating days baling with my "new" IH 440. Lost a lot of knots on the cut side and had the twine wrap around that knot holder a lot. But worst of all the bales were all curved. They were curved out to the cut side as if that side's knots slipped or something. The hay was very dry and slippery so I had the tension set pretty hard tried it lighter too but then the bales were just looser and curved.
Set the hay feeder arm on every setting but it didn't seem to make much difference. Also banged pretty hard and rocked the tractor a lot. And broke a few shear pins, whenever it got too loaded up.
...apologies for the long explanation, still tired from all the work...
Any idea what could be causing my banana bales and how to resolve it?
Oh, the string on the non cut side seemed to end up really close to the edge of the bale ( probably because the ends were not 90 degrees. I wish I would have a picture of them to explain.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Banana Shaped Bales
1. Ground speed of baler too slow and/or windrow too small.
1. Solution. Increase ground speed, reduce baler rpm and.or make larger windrows.
1. Solution. Decrease baler speed.
2. Bale tension too loose.
2. Solution. increase bale tension.
3. Baling extremely light hay.
3. Solution. Travel in the direction that rake or windrower traveled to pickup hay in a head-first position.

 

[Rara Avis]

Hello, I just spent four frustrating days baling with my "new" IH 440. Lost a lot of knots on the cut side and had the twine wrap around that knot holder a lot. But worst of all the bales were all curved. They were curved out to the cut side as if that side's knots slipped or something. The hay was very dry and slippery so I had the tension set pretty hard tried it lighter too but then the bales were just looser and curved.
Set the hay feeder arm on every setting but it didn't seem to make much difference. Also banged pretty hard and rocked the tractor a lot. And broke a few shear pins, whenever it got too loaded up.
...apologies for the long explanation, still tired from all the work...
Any idea what could be causing my banana bales and how to resolve it?
Oh, the string on the non cut side seemed to end up really close to the edge of the bale ( probably because the ends were not 90 degrees. I wish I would have a picture of them to explain.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Banana Shaped Bales
1. Ground speed of baler too slow and/or windrow too small.
1. Solution. Increase ground speed, reduce baler rpm and.or make larger windrows.
1. Solution. Decrease baler speed.
2. Bale tension too loose.
2. Solution. increase bale tension.
3. Baling extremely light hay.
3. Solution. Travel in the direction that rake or windrower traveled to pickup hay in a head-first position.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Twine tension is also a factor. If one side is binding for some reason or loose it can cause bowed bales.