New Holland 450 Baler Issues:

[Ridersupfarm]

I purchased a new NH 450 baler and put it to work the other day. Two odd problems encountered with this unit. First, the compartment at the front, directly in front of the belts, fills up with hay within the first few minutes of baling. The baler works, rolls hay, wraps and ejects but the entire baler front fills with hay to the point it totally obscures the belts when viewed from the tractor seat. The second issue is this is the "dirtiest" baler I have ever encountered. Whenever a roll is ejected the baler also dumps a small pile of hay behind the bale leaving a mess that has to be cleaned up afterwords. The dealer is working with me to resolve these issues but any tips or suggestions are appreciated.

 

[5030]

Your forage is too dry. It's shattering and building up inside, I bet it's sitting on top of the windguard as well. You need to either bale in the early morning or at night with a little dew on the forage. All round balers will leave a bit of loose hay after the bale is rolled and ejected. How that plays. I don't look at it as a mess at all (hay dropped behind the baler), I look at it as shattered fines that will compost into the hayfield in short order or after chopping which I always do after cutting and before fertilizing.

Your issues are imagined and you need to change your bale time habits.

 

[Ridersupfarm]

Thanks for the reply. Perhaps I should have mentioned that we bale horse hay and monitor our moisture content closely. Horse hay is baled with a moisture below 20% and our hay usually hits out around 17% when we bale it. Also, we've been doing this for awhile now. Having just retired our 648 that never had these issues to the extent we're seeing them with the new baler. When my 648 broke down my neighbor rolled one of our fields with his JD baler without issue. Our dealer admitted that they were seeing an excessive amount of hay left behind when rolls were ejected by other 450 customers as a common complaint for this baler and were working with NH for a solution, so this is clearly not imagined. No, the winguard is being cleared perfectly.

 

[5030]

Additionally, the longer the dwell time between the initiation of the wrap cycle (twine or net don't matter), the more fines will get deposited behind the baler. All mine is sold to various customers that have horses and cattle as we have no livestock. Had a NH and traded it on a new Kubota BV and it's 100% electronic controlled so I can adjust not only the dwell time between wrap initiation and ejection as well as bale density. I run all my bales soft center and progressively increase the density as the bale grows. I keep my initial dwell time (from wrap initiation to wrap) as short as possible while still allowing me to stop the tractor and not getting the wrap under the hay.

Again, I suggest you alter your bailing regimen to allow the forage to collect a little dew. I have continual on board (in the baler) moisture sensing with a digital readout in the cab, I use a Delmhorst with 4 sensing shoes inside the bale chamber.

Rule of thumb for me is so long as the hay bales below 20% relative, all is good and no mold develops. Been doing this for decades btw.

This is an unusual year here with less than normal rain and high ambient temps which is why I altered my bailing regimen. Without the dew, I'd be in the same boat as you actually.

I also roll full diameter rounds which in my case is 65", plus or minus 4" depending on what the baler senses is wrap diameter.

I do like the ease of threading the Kubota with net and twine. Never liked the center threading NH baler. The Kubota threads from the left side. Takes but 30 seconds to thread and the Kubota carries 2 extra rolls of net on board under the side cover unlike the Nh and it runs 48 through 54 wide no issue and no adjustments either. Most times I run 50 over the edge as it keeps the bales intact when moving and loading with no material loss. Brand don't matter either. Presently, I have Bridon in the reel.

 

[Ridersupfarm]

Thanks, I hadn't thought about the dwell time. My 648 began wrapping as soon as the buzzer sounds while the new 450 has a lag time of about 5-7 seconds. I became accustomed with the 648 to stopping forward motion as soon as the buzzer sounded. I can delay that a few seconds with the new baler to see if that helps. As far as moisture, my neighbor's baler had no fines deposited with roll ejection and he was baling the same hay as I when my 648 broke down so I don't think moisture is the primary issue here. While we don't have sensors in our new baler our hay tests out at 15-17% in the completed rolls. Again, thanks for the tip re dwell time. That may help. We still have no idea why so much hay piles up in front of the belts and neither does the dealer so far.

 

[5030]

Drop your pickup a bit lower and relieve the pre set tension on the windguard. I can vary the start to wrap dwell time on the BV from1 second to 6 and I can adjust it on the fly as well. No buzzer on mine, all digital and touch screen. When the 'stop sign comes on the screen, the dwell to wrap commences and my pickup is 100% hydraulic actuated so I can vary the pickup height on the fly as well. Kubota / Kneverland makes a very sophisticated bailer. and it's super east to thread (unlike a NH is) as well. Remember, I had your bailer and traded it on the Kubota.

Only thing I don't like is you have to have a basic knowledge of Italian to decipher some of the aspects. The manual should be entirely in English.

The BV also has centralized lubrication for all the major grease fittings and pressurized oil lube for the drive chains. Makes life much simpler and less messy as well.