Low Horsepower tractor hay balers

[rankrank1]

Literally hours worth of reading on this subject with some searching. You will hear both sucess stories and horror stories, but it can be done with careful baler selection. I bale with a Kubota L285 (26 amx PTO hp, but actually closer to 23 HP at 540 PTO rpm).

Microstar and others mfg's make mini-balers specifically designed for tiny tractors but they are pricey - $15k or more new.

Cheap options are vintage balers from the 1950's or early 1960's when tractors were all low hp. Modern square balers are high capacity and require some tractor hp so the newer ag stuff is out of the question for low hp. The bad news is that the low capacity balers will all be 40-50 years old so you better be handy with the wrenches.

Generally speaking, You will be best served to stick with either New Holland or John Deere balers - they are the two gold standards and will offer the best in support in the way of parts as well as user info (I might consider a Massey if the price was wright, but it would have to be overwhelmingly cheap). IH was not well regarded in hay equipment at all and most would say run the other way.

 

[5030]

On small square bailers, knotters are generic, that is, basically the same no matter what name is on the unit or the color and there is nothing mysterious about a knotter set. It's a basic square knot producer. That's it. So long as the knotter to plunger timing is correct and the knotter to needle timing is coreect, there is little to go wrong other than wiper arm to billhook clearance or flat spotted follower balls, all very easily fixable.

I would not even consider a disc mower. A sickle bar type mower conditioner like a JD MoCo, can be run with minimal horsepower. Disc mowers/bines, are very power hungry.

You don't want an open sickle bar for hay unless you plan on learing how to handle it. Sickle cutting standing hay is an acquired through practice art, not a just cut it.

Forget any round bailer with 35 horsepower, except a mini-bailer and finally, I pull fully loaded tandem axle hay racks with my Honda Foreman Quad, every day, in the field and down the road. The weight of the load is on the wagon, not your drawbar or tractor. So long as the tires are inflated (on the wagon) it will pull easily with minimal power (my quad for instance).

I do contract custom hay as a business.

 

[aczlan]

Forget any round bailer with 35 horsepower, except a mini-bailer and finally, I pull fully loaded tandem axle hay racks with my Honda Foreman Quad, every day, in the field and down the road. The weight of the load is on the wagon, not your drawbar or tractor. So long as the tires are inflated (on the wagon) it will pull easily with minimal power (my quad for instance).

You could pull a haywagon with a bicycle if you wanted to. The issue is having the traction (largely from tow vehicle weight) to stop before you run over the kid that just jumped into the road in front of you.

Aaron Z

 

[RalphVa]

I've seen pictures of a baler on the front of a Gravely. Think it was for European use.

Ralph

 

[leonz]

The folks at www.earthtoolbcs.com offer a hay baler for 2 wheel tractors but you also need to buy a separate bale wrapper for it.




_________________________________________________________________
Once you go flail you never go back:thumbsup::licking::drool:

 

[whodat526]

case and heston both had a 4x3 round baler that would work fine

 

[SPYDERLK]

On small square bailers, knotters are generic, that is, basically the same no matter what name is on the unit or the color and there is nothing mysterious about a knotter set. It's a basic square knot producer. That's it. So long as the knotter to plunger timing is correct and the knotter to needle timing is coreect, there is little to go wrong other than wiper arm to billhook clearance or flat spotted follower balls, all very easily fixable.

I would not even consider a disc mower. A sickle bar type mower conditioner like a JD MoCo, can be run with minimal horsepower. Disc mowers/bines, are very power hungry.

You don't want an open sickle bar for hay unless you plan on learing how to handle it. Sickle cutting standing hay is an acquired through practice art, not a just cut it.

Forget any round bailer with 35 horsepower, except a mini-bailer and finally, I pull fully loaded tandem axle hay racks with my Honda Foreman Quad, every day, in the field and down the road. The weight of the load is on the wagon, not your drawbar or tractor. So long as the tires are inflated (on the wagon) it will pull easily with minimal power (my quad for instance).

I do contract custom hay as a business.

:thumbsup: Good reply. My hay equip is listed in the signature. Also have a tedder not listed. All quite reliable. NO problem at 24ptohp.
larry

 

[5030]

You could pull a haywagon with a bicycle if you wanted to. The issue is having the traction (largely from tow vehicle weight) to stop before you run over the kid that just jumped into the road in front of you.

Aaron Z

Unless you have a death wish, pulling a flat rack over 15 mph is ludicrious. Ag tires are rated at a maximum of 20 mph anyway.

If the kid jumps in the road, oh well. I'm not fond of kids anyway.

Traction only becomes an issue when dealing with gradients other than level. I've never had problem one with my quad pulling our Giehl tandem axle racks with 400 squares aboard, sometimes 500 if we get adventerous.

 

[5030]

Literally hours worth of reading on this subject with some searching. You will hear both sucess stories and horror stories, but it can be done with careful baler selection. I bale with a Kubota L285 (26 amx PTO hp, but actually closer to 23 HP at 540 PTO rpm).

Microstar and others mfg's make mini-balers specifically designed for tiny tractors but they are pricey - $15k or more new.

Cheap options are vintage balers from the 1950's or early 1960's when tractors were all low hp. Modern square balers are high capacity and require some tractor hp so the newer ag stuff is out of the question for low hp. The bad news is that the low capacity balers will all be 40-50 years old so you better be handy with the wrenches.

Generally speaking, You will be best served to stick with either New Holland or John Deere balers - they are the two gold standards and will offer the best in support in the way of parts as well as user info (I might consider a Massey if the price was wright, but it would have to be overwhelmingly cheap). IH was not well regarded in hay equipment at all and most would say run the other way.

I have a NH 638 in the barn specifically for 4-4's in twine and it has acid application as well. It will run full bales of 12% forage with less than 40 pto input all day.

 

[5030]

Agriquip.com: Star: Mini Roll Baler
Compact and Mini Round Baler

HS

Obviously not a big seller or too expensive. The company let their domain expire.