First time baling. I think I can do this!

[Marveltone]

Today's project: Thoroughly inspect, clean and lubricate the New Holland Hayliner 273 baler I bought last fall to see if I can get it to work. My dad and brother were present to lend their extra eyes, hands and brains to the endeavor. We could tell the previous owner had taken care to lubricate everything, as nothing seemed to be unduly worn. There were a couple spots where the sheet metal was ripped and needed welding, and the telescoping PTO shaft was a little stuck, but that was about it.

We hooked the baler to the Fordson and proceeded to my small, oddly shaped test field. It was in close proximity to the garage, so all the tools would be within walking distance, should something be amiss.

Everything worked perfectly for about one half of the way around the field. Then the hay got thicker and the pickup reel came to a stop. We quickly found out that while my dad was lubricating the chains, he spilled some lube all over the reel slip-clutch. We took it apart, cleaned the pieces, put them back together and finished the field without incident. The hay might be thin and a little on the dry side, but this is really to see how the baler works. As it is, I got 13 bales on about 1/2 acre of wild meadow hay. I'll hit the larger fields later in the week.

Joe

 

[hosspuller]

Congrats on getting it to work.. Looks like a pretty loose bale he's holding. It'll get looser and hard to stack & handle. Did you mean to make it loose?

 

[bigbull338]

congrats on getting your baler up an running.

 

[Marveltone]

Congrats on getting it to work.. Looks like a pretty loose bale he's holding. It'll get looser and hard to stack & handle. Did you mean to make it loose?

I haven't touched any settings. The baler was set to whatever the previous owner had. This was a cold run of a dozen bales just to see what it would do. I may very well play with the tension as time goes on. Should I just give the tension handles a half twist at a time? A full twist? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I'm very new to this.

Joe

 

[stuckmotor]

I'm surprised you found a time when the hay was dry enough to bale. Congratulations!

 

[MH8675309]

You can turn the cranks down considerably if that's how tight the bales are. I've got the same baler and its a good one but if the windrows are thick and heavy you'll have to creep along or it'll jam up the machine and probably break a shear pin (on the fly wheel) I wouldn't be afraid to turn the handles down 6 or 7 turns. Then do a few bales and see. Have fun!

 

[Marveltone]

You can turn the cranks down considerably if that's how tight the bales are. I've got the same baler and its a good one but if the windrows are thick and heavy you'll have to creep along or it'll jam up the machine and probably break a shear pin (on the fly wheel) I wouldn't be afraid to turn the handles down 6 or 7 turns. Then do a few bales and see. Have fun!

Thanks for the advice! I'll crank them down and see what happens this weekend or early next week, depending on our rather sporadic weather. As to the machine jamming, I've already experienced a couple small jams which I was able to correct by stopping and backing up a couple feet. They cleared themselves... so far. Meanwhile, I'll stock up on shear pins.

Joe

 

[Bigfoot62]

I haven't touched any settings. The baler was set to whatever the previous owner had. This was a cold run of a dozen bales just to see what it would do. I may very well play with the tension as time goes on. Should I just give the tension handles a half twist at a time? A full twist? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I'm very new to this.

Joe

Joe,
Some of the old timers would loosen the tension handles before storing the baler. THat could be what happened here.
BTW, I'm not sure if that really accomplished anything, but they did it like that.

 

[hogheadCTD]

The 273 is a d@mn good baler! I help a guy bale 1000-1200 small squares a cutting and the 273 might miss 1 maybe 2 bales all day. His advice was blow it off every night with air and lube her up.

 

[Paul N]

We had a 273 for nearly 20 years, and made as many as 12,000 bales a year. It's an old work horse of New Holland's. But they're not a high capacity machine. When you get into some heavy windrows, slow down, or you'll plug it, or shear bolts. Good luck & have fun!