Saga - Gettign our first hay baler - JD 24T

[TwinWillows]

Thought I'd start a thread on our experience(s) getting a square baler for our farm.

Background: We've been doing small square bales for the past 4 years on about 10 acres of grass/clover pasture. We tried shared baling - either 2/3 - 1/3 or 1/2 - 1/2 but did not end up w/enough hay for our horses. We changed to custom baling the past couple years but w/such small acreage have trouble getting anyone to come back the next year -which I understand if they are loosing $'s.

This year I just can't seem to get the baling put together - a combination of small acreage not generating enough hay to make it profitable for custom work & farmers not wanting to spend time haying when they are so behind getting their row crops in due to the extremely wet spring..

So this year I've been trying to approach it differently..
a) Trying to find a new custom man (no luck so far)
b) custom but try splitting the cutting & raking apart from the baling. Which generates more coordination & headaches. (marginal luck w/this one)
c) Try to find a small baler I can run on our tractor (NH TC40DA) and still custom cutting & raking until we can get some of that equipment..

I know my tractor HP is not enough to run a newer baler but I've been following zzvyb6's posts on running a JD14T behind his so I've been looking for an older baler along the lines of JD 14 or 24 T or NH 273.. So far the ones I've seen have been in pretty poor shape or too far away.

This weekend getting bees for our new hives (another new adventure), I noticed a JD green square baler back in the shop. A long story short it's a JD 24T square baler. He has not used it in @ least 3 years, the last time he ran it it sheared off a bolt that drives the pickup (? don't know my terms yet) so he parked it & has had a neighbor do his hay work since then.

It's missing some guards & but everything else looks like it's there. When he shut it down he cleaned out the last hay so the chamber is not rusted like a lot of them I've seen.

We're going back tomorrow to pick it up & haul home to try & fix up & put to work (this year hopefully)..

I think this will be an interesting experience getting this running & learning about balers - I know nothing about how a hay baler works - but hopefully this will make our haying operation work better.. I've already bought an operators manual online..

I'll post photos & probably lot's of questions as this unfolds.

Twin

 

[zzvyb6]

Welcome fans ( ! ).

There are some 14T and 24T balers on eBay right now. One fellow is offering to part out a 14T for you. Best advise I can give you is to learn the names of parts & systems so we all know what you have issues with and also so you know what we are describing. Parts diagrams are on the JD website. Before you start off, learn to roll it over by hand without hay or twine in it to see and hear what all the motions are about.

For example, you mention "the pickup". The pickup drive is by chain from a cross shaft driven from the plunger side. There is a shear pin/bolt holder under the cover which many users replace with a bolt that's too long. It eventually gets sheared when it gets loose and caught up in the chain. Since you can't really tighten the shear bolt without taking off the cover, many times they tighten it by hand, which eventually comes loose.

I posted a knotter motion video on youtube last year if you want to see what the action is all about. The manual is well written and not to be skimmed when reading it. Go thru the needle placement and adjustment spacings, check for worn or marginal chains, oil the balls in the knife arm assembly and decide whether you are going to bale with sisal (ropelike) or plastic (polyester). The baler manual explains how and what to adjust for each type of twine. You need a fish scale that can measure about 20 lbs to do this right.

Many problems result from springs that are worn out (for example the plunger stop levers), tucker fingers that don't push the twine into the billhooks, and insufficient needle brake pressure. Stay in touch. I can help you through it.

Of course, a good hayrake and raking job contributes to success here, and a tractor that has sufficient and "live" power to help keep the machine from getting overloaded. Watch all the videos on Youtube about folks baling with these machines. It will generate some pride and some good money, too.

 

[rankrank1]

So zzvyb6 roped you in too. He convinced me as well. I am not sure whether to curse him or thank him - LOL. Actually, all kidding aside I am quite grateful for his opininions as well as other posters. My haying adventure has been one that I have truly enjoyed and I am doing it with an even smaller tractor than yours (less acreage too, only about 4 acres in my hayfield, but I wish I had more acres). Hope to do my first cutting sometime around Memorial Day - I can't wait.

If you enjoy working around old machinery, fixing it where needed in order to make it work; then I think that you will have fun too as it can be quite rewarding. Best news from your post is that it appears that you lucked into finding a baler in decent shape to start with.

Good luck - and yes indeed an original operator's manual is a must have item (well worth the $20-$30 purchase price from the internet). Lastly the good news is the parts diagrams for many balers can be viewed online for free.

 

[TwinWillows]

ZZ & Rank2

Thanks for the encouragement! I know I need to get all the part names figured out so that I can get replacements..

I did notice the E-bay listings & will get into them for parts as soon as I can figure out what's missing I know for certain all the guards are gone, a bunch of the pickup spring finger things (?) are broken off & the pto coupling is missing the plunger/spring that locks into the PTO shaft detent on the tractor.

We had quite an experience getting it home.. It all worked out fine but wow it did not tow well @ all. Probably due to the flat spots on the tires. The baler was about an hour (normal) drive south of our farm. We did not get down there till about 630 & by the got on the road about 720pm. Just after we pulled out a fellow pulled up beside me & gave me some advice to put a wood block under the auger (he'd heard it smacking on the tin) so it would not shear off it's shaft.. We found a chunk of wood in the ditch & wedged it under the shaft flight - presto no more clanking & no broken shaft.

I quickly figured out my 40 mph worst case max speed was too high by 4x .. Too much bucking & thrashing around if I went any faster. Plus, I did not really want to have something tear off/up or blow out one of the old tires & have to deal w/changing it out in the dark.

SO, driving 10 to 12 mph we headed home. Fortunately almost the whole way is on country roads w/little traffic. Traffic got especially light after 930pm. We ended up pulling into our place after 11 pm.. Note to self - when towing old equipment home from afar, bring food & water as the trip could be a long one .

It certainly would have been faster to trailer it but I don't have access to a trailer that'd load or carry this big/wide thing.

All in all, it ended up being only slightly stressful & an adventure that ended well. My wife, daughter & I had a fun time singing, playing word games & watching the country roll by slowly ..

 

[TwinWillows]

Here are some of the first photos of the baler after arrival (actually this morning)..

 

[zzvyb6]

I'd put some priority on getting some of the covers and guards for the pto shaft and the slip clutch drum (near the main gearbox). These are high speed rotating parts and very likely to snag something (clothes, twine, hay, hands, pets, gloves, fence wire, etc.

Start by oiling up the chains with chain lube (not WD40). Check the gearbox oil levels, and mark each grease fitting with a yellow paint stick. The knotter frame area has quite a few on it.

Here's what it can look like when you are in production:

 

[zzvyb6]

You didn't mention mowing, what are you planning to cut hay with ? (and rake it, too....)

 

[zzvyb6]

BTW: IMHO that's a 14T, not a 24T model. That's important for part and manual coordination.

 

[TwinWillows]

BTW: IMHO that's a 14T, not a 24T model. That's important for part and manual coordination.

Now that's interesting to hear.. There's no paint stencil left readable above the twine box.. Where else might I find a label?

If not, what distinguishes the 14T from the 24T?

Thanks
Twin

 

[TwinWillows]

You didn't mention mowing, what are you planning to cut hay with ? (and rake it, too....)

Yep that's got to be done.. I'm trying to find a neighbor to do this part but man it's hard. All are way behind getting their row crops in due to the extremely wet spring. Some are starting to switch over to early maturing corn & others are just going to beans..

The only way I have to do the mowing would be with my 6 ft bushog (I seem to recall that this can be done somehow).. Do you have any advice re using a BH?. I'm guessing I'd need to pull the rear guard off to allow the grass to fall out w/o getting chopped again.

I think can borrow a wheel rake to do the raking if it comes to that.

From what I can tell my 40 HP tractor kind of limits my mowing options w/a MoCo or haybine or disc mower...

Twin