jd 214t baler

Barry Bowen · May 3, 2011

In your pictures of the tucker fingers, top left picture. The tucker travels over and goes under a small plate that has a tit pointing toward the back of the baler. Does the right side have that same piece for the tucker to go under? These are crucial pieces to tying properly.

If the adjustment you made on the tucker was with the threaded rod attached to the tucker itself, that would explain why it stopped tying. It was not taking the twine back over into the bill hook. Is the tucker on a plate that the entire plate can be moved forward and back for adjustment? Look again at the 336 picture under "tucker fingers" and you will see what I mean. If the baler was in front of me, I could tell, but it has been so long since I had my 14t, I do not remember if it had that adjustment.

donais · May 3, 2011

i slid the whole tucker bracket to just miss the needle when the needle was 1/2 inch above the twine disc(per book) and then with in home position adjusted the threaded rod part till it was flush to 3/8 i think the book said...

Barry Bowen · May 4, 2011

I am not quite following what you are saying and doing. What has all ways worked for me, I start the tying cycle. Bring the needles up until the tuckers start to move. Then I go a little further till the tucker starts to come across the needle to pick up the twine. I guess the needle is a little past the twine disc, but never payed that much attention. I was more concerned with the relation between the tucker and the distance it clears the needle by. You usually want this pretty close as it passes across the needle to get the twine. Too much distance here and you can miss the twine and not get it back to the bill hook. Does this make sense? Are we on the same page now?

donais · May 5, 2011

i think we are on the same page my paraphrasing isn't very good.

Barry Bowen · May 5, 2011

Same page is good. I hope you have better weather out there for making hay than we have here. First cut alfalfa and 30 acres Orchard ready to go, no weather next ten days unless something changes. Got any miracles to send this way?

donais · May 6, 2011

here in ramona we are done (probably) with rain till oh around october. i think i might have found why the tucker fingers were not adjusting to look like the book... the shaft that pushes the was twisted i un twisted it and adjusted them and now they travel further and snap back into place. hand fed 3 bales worth into it and along with the new knife and wiper adjusted tied and dropped every knot so far. tomorrow im going to try and bale about 1/4 acre to try it out. hope i dont have to walk behind anymore and hand tie....

Barry Bowen · May 6, 2011

Sounds very encouraging. The entire operation works differently when you have confidence in your ability to understand and fix the equipment, and the equipment works as intended.

On that right knotter does it have the metal guide over top of the tucker? This guide also makes sure the twine stays in to get on the bill hook. Your pictures showed this piece on the left knotter, but I could not tell for the right knotter.

donais · May 6, 2011

yes it has it on both sides

donais · May 14, 2011

well great news i put 170 poly twine bent the tucker finger arm so they are even against the back stop then adjusted the tucker fingers to where they are supposed to be. today i baled 168 bales and did'n't miss one tie. thank you barry and everyone else for all the help and support.......

donais · May 15, 2011

here are some pics. even got my daughter baling

bill in ny · May 15, 2011

good job! nice to have guys like barry to help you when you need it. now the fun begins, picking up bales.

flusher · May 15, 2011

donais said:
here are some pics. even got my daughter baling

Way to go--nice to see your baler problems are behind you (no pun intended).

donais · May 15, 2011

yah picking them up and stacking was great fun. ok i lie. i threw them on the trailer the wife stacked them until it got too high for her then i did both. and since my 10 and 12 y/o daughters can drive(from the dunebuggy out in the desert) i let the 10 y/o tow us and 12 was navigator oh yah the 8 y/o boy was the stop start alert had his head out the window listening for my commands. i guess it helped that the 10 y/o is 5'3 all i has to dois put the seat forward

Barry Bowen · May 15, 2011

Glad to see it all came together for you. Next is to hitch the wagon behind the baler and stack as you go. Probably would have been two loads anyway. What are you using for a rake? Those windrows look pretty wide. Little technique especially with JD balers is to pick up the windrow as far out to the right side of the baler as possible. This causes the hay to stand up better behind the auger. Watch your hay behind the auger and this will tell you if you are trying to run too much or too little. The amount is just right when the hay reaches the top of the area behind the auger, but does not roll over the top end of the auger.

donais · May 16, 2011

the rake is a case 281 side discharge. that thing hates having straight teeth i bought 50 new tines and @ 5 already got bent. some my fault some kinda bad design i think..that wind row was 2 rows raked into 1 i should have left it a single row. the one row was real light i was trying to make all the rows consistant but a few got away from me. On the baler pickup the first row of tines are all broken off(came that way) so i had to really pay attention to keeping the windrow on the outside of the pickup

Barry Bowen · May 16, 2011

Now that you have cleared the biggest hurdle, that is getting the machine to tie properly, you can make the decisions about what to replace next or whether it is worth doing any more to it at all. The education you have gotten getting these knotters working applies to all balers of all brands basically.

Those wind rows did look a little big, more of a not clean edge than anything else, but if you were moving slow enough they should have been fine. Having all the pickup teeth will make a difference. As you work more with baling you will learn that it is very much an art form and not a science. It is really the operators ability to read the hay going into the baler, as this will determine the quality of the bale being made. Ideal bales are about 12-16 strokes, and should weigh in around 35-45 pounds. Small windrows are okay if you pick up the ground speed to compensate. Look behind the auger, you should be rolling hay up to the top of that chamber so that when the feeder fingers start pulling hay in the first compression takes place as the fingers pull in under the wedged portion the feeder fingers run through.

How do the sides of the bales look that are on the knife side? Are they a good clean cut, or is there a small bit of uncut hay at the top of the bale? If they are not clean cut, look at the manual and find the section on how to adjust the plunger. There are pretty tight clearances all around on the plunger, but it should still run very easily when you turn the flywheel by hand. If the baler is not straight, then these adjustments very much become a do the best you can kind of job.

Any other questions, you know how to get a hold of me.

donais · May 22, 2011

ok got a total of 300 bales and still not one miss,... but.....when i was cleaning it out tand was going through it to make sure its ready for next time i need it, i found a spring that is for the tucker finger is it a depot buy or john deere?