Vermeer balers any good?

[F3506]

I've always run Hesston (or other labels that were made by Hesston). Folks around here buy hay based on price per bale, not anything else it seems, so I picked my up a brand new Vermeer 5420 last year. After running it a little I decided to go ahead and sell my old 5 x 6 baler and just stick with the brand new one. Well today the CV joint broke on me during a very slight start to turn. Only around 800 bales on the baler, no turning too tight, greased every time it was used.

And of course it broke 15 minutes before all the dealers closed. I thought of trying to pull the PTO shaft off my old square baler, but the square baler has a different yolk on the baler side. The U-joints are also much larger on the old square baler than the new round baler.

Anyone else had problems with a newer vermeer baler or did I just get the bad luck? The seemingly undersized shaft has me concerned.

 

[DT86]

They didn't make the shaft anyway, I'd say you just had bad luck.

When I had a Vermeer 5400, I flipped the stupid thing over on its side, pulled it upright, checked that the door closed and the belts ran true and beat the rain getting done. Only things wrong were the hitch twisted and the door got banged up. One tough baler I'd say.


Keep in mind, the rebel is the entry level baler series.

 

[F3506]

I understand it's the entry level, but I'm on flat ground and only trying to bale 75 acres. No tight turns. No rough terrain. No real abuse like laying it on it's side. I thought I could get by with a rebel. Wish I would have kept my old baler as a back up, but then again, what's the point of buying new if you have to do that?

 

[farmer2009]

Have a buddy that bought a Rebel 5410 new. He had the cv joint fly apart on him after about 1,000 bales. Dealer put it back together and has been fine since. His is 3 years old and close to 2,000 bales. Our 5400 Rebel is about 10 or so years old bought used and has over 3,000 bales. Both balers have had bearing failures but nothing major. Very worth while.

 

[HayDR]

The CV PTO now used by Vermeer on the 5420 now, and the other 3 main round baler manufacturers use it as well, is made by Weasler. The CV joint is made in China and assembled in Canada. The problems happen most often in their 35 CV series & 35/44 CV's. The Weasler CV is inferior to the Walterscheid system. The Weasler is used because it's considerably cheaper to the OEM MFG. The first year Vermeer went from Walterscheid to Weasler our first year failure rate went went from 2% to 27%. It was even worse when Rhino went from Walterscheid style to Weasler for their winged cutters. The patent expired on the Walterscheid style in 2003. Now companies all over the world make it. Walterscheid too has plants in China but because their system is superior & their Chinese production gives less problems than the Weasler system.

Vermeer knows of the problem but Weasler takes care of the problems by reimbursing the dealers. The customer gets shortchanged in their downtime.