More New Holland model 66 baler questions :-)

[kentuckydiesel]

It's been a while since I last posted about this baler. I pulled it out of a thick layer of vines next to the woods at the house of a guy I work with. He gave me the baler and a rake in exchange for hauling off some junk. To my suprise, the baler actually took grease in every zerk and out came some old grease. I have cleaned everything up and it all works. I have not loaded any twine yet because I don't think I'll do any bailing until next year but I think at most it might need twine disks. Everything operates without a catch. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Anyway, when i work on this baler I have been hooking it up to a '79 JD 2640 which is a 70-80hp diesel tractor. I've heard of these balers plugging up and I assume this usually happens when the tractor doesn't have the power to keep the hay pushing through. I have run some hay through this baler but it has all been semi-wet and moldy hay because I don't want to put any good stuff through the oil that I have sprayed all over the inside of the baler. At first I would just shake hay into the baler and let it work. It did fine. On Saturday, I hooked the baler up and baled up a long stretch of wet-moldy-dirty hay that had fallen off round bales as I moved them. It picked up every bit and baled it right through. Now I know this isn't the best thing to do to this old baler but I figure, if something is weak, it'll break while I'm abusing the baler. That way I can fix it before I actually want to bale good hay in a field. Here's my big question, what it the minimum HP rating that I need to NEVER have to worry about the baler getting the tractor loaded up. As always, any extra info, no matter how unrelated to this question would be appreciated. Thanks, Phillip

 

[rambler]

A baler of that vintage takes anout 12-15 hp to operate - just running the baler. They used 2 & 4 cyl Wisconsin engines to run them....

I'm not familiar with an issue in the way you post the question???? If you overload the baler, you will snap the shear pin. Get used to that - carry a box of spares, 2 wrenches. You likely will not lug down any tractor of 25 hp or more in a signifigant way just running the baler. The reason is the big flywheel - that stores about 50 hp in it, with your tractor shut off..... The tractor pto (or little engine on those with a Wisconsin engine) feed in about 10-15 hp all the time, and bring that flywheel up to 50 hp which is only used for the plunger push - then the plunger comes back, and your tractor is spinning things up again. Now, if you are pulling up a hill, and pulling a hayrack, and get a big wad of hay - a small tractor will get overloaded.

You are not putting much load on your baler without twine - there is nothing backing up the hay, so it just squirts out the back. You will see a _world_ of difference with twine in it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

With the twine in, after about 4 bales they will start forming solid, and the adjustable squeeze plates in back will offer resistance to the plunger, packing the hay tight. This will put the load on the baler. Currently, you really are not doing anything at all - really.

Does it help if I say I bale all day long with my IHC 300 tractor of about 36hp, and pull a load of 120 or so bales behind? I varry the gear speed to match the thickness of the windrow, and if I get into a thick clump I can stop or downshift with the live pto & works great. Oh, I have a 270 NH baler, much newer but probably close on through-put & power needs.

--->Paul

 

[kentuckydiesel]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( You are not putting much load on your baler without twine - there is nothing backing up the hay, so it just squirts out the back. You will see a _world_ of difference with twine in it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

With the twine in, after about 4 bales they will start forming solid, and the adjustable squeeze plates in back will offer resistance to the plunger, packing the hay tight. This will put the load on the baler. Currently, you really are not doing anything at all - really.


--->Paul )</font>

I have the squeeze bar down pretty good because there is no twine in it. It's packing tight flakes once it gets about a bales worth through. In fact, NH says that you must run enough hay through to fill that squeeze area before you can put twine in so the hay is tight beforehand. Thanks, Phillip