Thanks for your replies Tx Jim and Beefer Man.
Ground speed varies according to crop density. On one contracting job in an effort to keep a smooth material flow into the baler in a field with widely varying soil types (loam, white sand, yellow sand gravel or as you may know it laterite) I used 9 out of an available 12 gears with only the top 3 not used because ground speed would have overrun the pickup speed and losing the available hay.
Although many would regard this area as a desert for farming the all years average rainfall for the district is about 490 mm or 19 1/2 inches but variability from season to season can go to less than 250mm or 10 inches. Average bale weight is 25 to 27kg or 55 to 60 lbs. Altering the side of the pickup into which the bales are fed makes no visible difference to the bale. I have tried varying the ground speed and if too high overfeeding occurs which causes even more banana issues, the 570 has a spring loaded packer link which when the feed is at or over capacity "knocks" as the spring works on an over load of hay into the chamber. I am able to run the machine with the wind guard fully extended and the mouth above the pickup full of hay transferring into the chamber. Overfeeding causes overfilling on the right side, underfeeding can cause either overfilling on the left side or underfilling of the top of the bale. Good straw strength conditions I consistently bale 450 bales per hour with reasonable bale shape, bundle (on a separate pass) with a 100 series bale bandit and cart to storage totalling up to 1200 bales per day as a 1 person operation. However baling with that groundspeed in low straw strength conditions results in bales that cannot be handled by the bandit and in very low straw strength conditions cannot be picked up by hand. I have altered packer fork timing by setting timing according to the marks and then fine tuning one link at a time to gradually fetard or advance the packer fork carefully monitoring the result for each incremental adjustment. I have fine tuned the packer fork timing such that the forks just and I mean just clear the plunger entering the chamber. This very close to impact setting gives the best result for bale shape. The dealer with my agreement welded another piece of metal to the top edge of the packer fork with holes to accommodate the link and thus allow further variation to the pattern swept by the packer fork; the result was no difference.
I bale my own crop and do some contracting, somewhat reduced now last year about 9500 own bales and only 1000 contract hay bales and 1500 or so straw bales being oaten straw, wheaten straw, pea straw and some lupin straw. Lupins are a nitrogen fixing, high protein pulse crop.
The 570 does not have an adjustable back panel to the cross-transfer area above the pickup.
My desperation is such that I am considering fabricating a dummy panel first in plywood and to have it as slippery and strong as possible doing it in form-ply (ie ply for concrete formwork) and packed out from the existing rear wall so as to fit in that area. Such a dummy wall would reduce the amount of hay behind the rotors and behind the packer fork.
I am still trying to work out how to finish this dummy rear wall as it comes to the fixed knife/plunger space since I imagine considerable pressure would be applied to the hay on that dummy wall as the plunger compresses the hay in the chamber and the knives shear off the hay in the cross-transfer area and the hay in the chamber. The present design has the fixed knife protruding past the rear wall, so I think I would need for the dummy rear wall to angle back rapidly once past the last rotor set and the fixed knife.
With the third teardrop that I have fitted on the last rotor there should be very minimal hay behind that rotor and the packer forks.
If any one has experience with a rear moveable wall I would appreciate hearing.
I have some time left to fabricate a dummy wall as haying season is around 5 or 6 away still.
Ground speed varies according to crop density. On one contracting job in an effort to keep a smooth material flow into the baler in a field with widely varying soil types (loam, white sand, yellow sand gravel or as you may know it laterite) I used 9 out of an available 12 gears with only the top 3 not used because ground speed would have overrun the pickup speed and losing the available hay.
Although many would regard this area as a desert for farming the all years average rainfall for the district is about 490 mm or 19 1/2 inches but variability from season to season can go to less than 250mm or 10 inches. Average bale weight is 25 to 27kg or 55 to 60 lbs. Altering the side of the pickup into which the bales are fed makes no visible difference to the bale. I have tried varying the ground speed and if too high overfeeding occurs which causes even more banana issues, the 570 has a spring loaded packer link which when the feed is at or over capacity "knocks" as the spring works on an over load of hay into the chamber. I am able to run the machine with the wind guard fully extended and the mouth above the pickup full of hay transferring into the chamber. Overfeeding causes overfilling on the right side, underfeeding can cause either overfilling on the left side or underfilling of the top of the bale. Good straw strength conditions I consistently bale 450 bales per hour with reasonable bale shape, bundle (on a separate pass) with a 100 series bale bandit and cart to storage totalling up to 1200 bales per day as a 1 person operation. However baling with that groundspeed in low straw strength conditions results in bales that cannot be handled by the bandit and in very low straw strength conditions cannot be picked up by hand. I have altered packer fork timing by setting timing according to the marks and then fine tuning one link at a time to gradually fetard or advance the packer fork carefully monitoring the result for each incremental adjustment. I have fine tuned the packer fork timing such that the forks just and I mean just clear the plunger entering the chamber. This very close to impact setting gives the best result for bale shape. The dealer with my agreement welded another piece of metal to the top edge of the packer fork with holes to accommodate the link and thus allow further variation to the pattern swept by the packer fork; the result was no difference.
I bale my own crop and do some contracting, somewhat reduced now last year about 9500 own bales and only 1000 contract hay bales and 1500 or so straw bales being oaten straw, wheaten straw, pea straw and some lupin straw. Lupins are a nitrogen fixing, high protein pulse crop.
The 570 does not have an adjustable back panel to the cross-transfer area above the pickup.
My desperation is such that I am considering fabricating a dummy panel first in plywood and to have it as slippery and strong as possible doing it in form-ply (ie ply for concrete formwork) and packed out from the existing rear wall so as to fit in that area. Such a dummy wall would reduce the amount of hay behind the rotors and behind the packer fork.
I am still trying to work out how to finish this dummy rear wall as it comes to the fixed knife/plunger space since I imagine considerable pressure would be applied to the hay on that dummy wall as the plunger compresses the hay in the chamber and the knives shear off the hay in the cross-transfer area and the hay in the chamber. The present design has the fixed knife protruding past the rear wall, so I think I would need for the dummy rear wall to angle back rapidly once past the last rotor set and the fixed knife.
With the third teardrop that I have fitted on the last rotor there should be very minimal hay behind that rotor and the packer forks.
If any one has experience with a rear moveable wall I would appreciate hearing.
I have some time left to fabricate a dummy wall as haying season is around 5 or 6 away still.
