Advice on DS 4110 HSI for both hay baling and landscape work

[setterman11]

Two year lurker (thanks for all the great info. by the way) My local Kioti dealer has a great price on the DS4110 HSI - $18,909 including FEL, plus the nice little $500 Christmas cash back, so I'm thinking this is a great time to finally buy. My dilemma is about running a baler with this tractor. I have three acres of grass hay and the option to cut and bale an additional 8 acres. My neighbor has a swather and baler that I can use. He is a city boy moved to the country like me. He bought an old tractor but it only runs about half the time, but the swather and baler are very reliable so I would also cut and bale his 4 acres in exchange for the use of his equipment.

Probably too much introduction, but here is the question, is the DS4110 HSI going to be able to run the baler without the baler pounding the tractor to death? Mostly the tractor will be used for landscaping work some snow removal and I'm worried about too much weight for the landscaping work and yet not enough weight (and marginal power) for the haying. I have a couple of cows and buying hay is still cheaper than buying equipment and a tractor, but a tractor that can "do it all" would be sweet.

thanks in advance for the advice

 

[Ford 871]

More info on what the baler and mower are (kind and size of cut would help), but to wing it, I see no reason that a DS4110 will not do just fine at what you want. Now, keep in mind you are not going to run a 15' cut hydro swing mower, but either a 7' or 9' cut sickle-bar type mower (example be New Holland 487 or John Deere 1207 type) should be no problem. Now that also means fairly flat ground, no mountain sides. Same goes for a baler, a smaller sized such as NH 68, 268, or John Deere 224 type, should be handled just fine on flat smooth fields. Also, are you balin on ground or pulling a wagon to tail the baler? Pulling a wagon behind baler would be the only part where I would think loaded rear tires and wheel weights would be recommened for stabiltiy in stopping. Hope that helps.

 

[murphy1244]

:welcome: To the pack!

 

[flusher]

I run a Massey Ferguson 124 baler (small squares, two twine) with my 2008 Mahindra 5525 (55 hp engine, 45 hp pto, 6500 lb tractor gross weight) with no problem. The baler manual says 30 hp (pto) minimum to run the baler, which weighs about 3000 lb. You could run a baler this size with your tractor. Heck, people have run this size baler with a Farmall Super A that has about 15 hp pto. The problems you run into with these smaller tractors is operating on sloped ground. Also the reciprocating action of the plunger in the baler can jerk a small tractor around quite a bit. And the inertia in the baler's flywheel can put a large load on the tractor's pto drive and possible damage it.


Good luck