JD 14T baler with small tractor

[aczlan]

I believe that on NH balers the shear bolts disconnect the entire drive-line, not just the flywheel, but putting it all back together is a problem because you have to realign all the shafts and install a bolt before you can back out the plunger to remove the plug. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

Correct, on our NH baler (a 273?) the PTO shaft goes into a slip clutch, then into the flywheel. The shear pin is on the output side of the flywheel and when it snaps, the only thing that spins is the bale kicker (which is driven by a belt on the flywheel).

Aaron Z

 

[dieselcrawler]

Correct, on our NH baler (a 273?) the PTO shaft goes into a slip clutch, then into the flywheel. The shear pin is on the output side of the flywheel and when it snaps, the only thing that spins is the bale kicker (which is driven by a belt on the flywheel).

Aaron Z

Very similar to dad's MF 12, shear pin goes, nothing beyond has power any more. When the pin goes at full speed, that flywheel will keep spinning for quite some time, as there's an overrun clutch (allows flywheel to spin one direction even if pto stops) on the input side, and with the pin broke, there's no connection to the rest of the baler driveline, it goes... and goes... and goes... and you get a nice friction burn if you try to slow it down with bare 10 Y/O hands with no gloves... ask me how I know! But I'd seen dad do that... I was sure I could... ouch.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Correct, on our NH baler (a 273?) the PTO shaft goes into a slip clutch, then into the flywheel. The shear pin is on the output side of the flywheel and when it snaps, the only thing that spins is the bale kicker (which is driven by a belt on the flywheel).

Aaron Z

BUT, to replace the shear pin, you just turned the flywheel by hand until the shear pin holes lined up and pushed a bolt through.

Really fast and easy to do...

SR

 

[aczlan]

BUT, to replace the shear pin, you just turned the flywheel by hand until the shear pin holes lined up and pushed a bolt through.

Really fast and easy to do...

SR

Unless someone used a grade 2 bolt instead of the grade 5 that was supposed to be used. Then the end of the bolt smears and you have to drive it out with a drift.

Aaron Z

 

[mark kram]

I get very uniform bales. All the same length and and very rectangular. Normally the only time the baler misses a knot is when I run out of twine. They're probably not as dense as I would like, but I don't spend as much time fiddling with the settings as I should because I don't do a lot of baling, I just get it close enough and go. I think I did 700 bales last summer. I try to make the bales about 36" long and they're about 40 lbs., I can pick up one in each hand when gathering them.

If I do miss a knot I'll run over the failed bale again. That twice-baled hay is very dense, probably 70-80 lbs per bale.

The one thing I find is that my rake can make a bigger windrow than the baler can handle so I have to go slow to avoid overloading the baler. In my lowest gear I go just about as fast as the baler can handle a big windrow. I find that going uphill the feed is just right, but going downhill the tractor goes ever so slightly faster and I have to stop every now and then and let the baler catch up. One of my projects for the summer is to try and adjust my rake to make a smaller windrow. I like to set the engine speed so that the baler does about one stroke a second and when I have a good windrow it makes about 3-4 bales a minute.

It sounds like you need to tighten your tensioners quick if they are only 40 pounds. I tighten the manual ones on the IH 47 14 turns. It aint hard.

 

[mark kram]

Small square balers can be hand turned so they don't use all that much horsepower. The part that uses the most horsepower is the hay knife and it will jamb if there is more hay than the tractor's hp at the operator's desired rpm. Roughly 50 hp is stored in the flywheel at 540 rpm so almost any engine over 10 hp will work. I set the throttle on the 204 at half in 3 low and putt along. Another thing I do is leave windrows about half the length of the pickup drum. In 1 high I have to be at full throttle, but its also harder to keep from missing anything I need to miss. I wonder what the smallest hp engine has been used to power a baler?

 

[quicksandfarmer]

It sounds like you need to tighten your tensioners quick if they are only 40 pounds. I tighten the manual ones on the IH 47 14 turns. It aint hard.

That's just an estimate, I haven't weighed any bales. Maybe I'm stronger than I think, they seem to weigh about what I think a bale that size should weigh. I baled on Thursday and the person picking up said they thought they were heavier than last year...

 

[Fallon]

Small square balers can be hand turned so they don't use all that much horsepower. The part that uses the most horsepower is the hay knife and it will jamb if there is more hay than the tractor's hp at the operator's desired rpm. Roughly 50 hp is stored in the flywheel at 540 rpm so almost any engine over 10 hp will work. I set the throttle on the 204 at half in 3 low and putt along. Another thing I do is leave windrows about half the length of the pickup drum. In 1 high I have to be at full throttle, but its also harder to keep from missing anything I need to miss. I wonder what the smallest hp engine has been used to power a baler?

4hp at least as demonstrated around 2 minutes in... Amish Baling Hay Without Engine Power - YouTube

 

[Mace Canute]

I sure wouldn't advise anybody to use such a small tractor on a baler like the JD 14T. The stroke of the plunger rocks the baler back wards a bit and then and forwards a bit every stroke. As dieselcrawler and others have said, the smaller the tractor driving the baler, the more that pulse will be felt, and the higher the likelihood of driveline damage. We run a NH 168 baler behind a JD 3010 with loader (7850 lbs) and I can feel that pulse. Horsepower isn't the issue...the issue is the pulse unloading the drive train and then immediately loading it again. It's not a question of if damage will occur but when.

 

[Phillip w]

I have been around a I'd 14 t, jd 336 and a new Holland 268 ( almost same as nh 273). All the above ballers carry a rcommendation of a minimum 35 hp tractor. True you get a lot of "rocking" affect out of the bakers. I pulled my baller with an allis Chalmers 185. It is 70- 80 hp and works great. I used a John Deere 730 ( 50-60 hp) to pull a nh 268, I also pulled with a 400 case. Everything worked great. I tried pulling with a allis Chalmers d-15 (35-40 hp) and yeah it pulled it, but it was working it hard. You can only roll the baller over by hand if there is no hay in it. All the above mentioned tractors are old rugged gear driven tractors. Most of these new modern compact tractors are throw away. If you oever work them, the won't take it like the tractors of "yesterday". The engines try to over heat, you run into problems and slippage out of the hydrostatic drive and then there is the pto. I seen on of these modern tractors shell the pto instead of shearing the pin. These modern tractors are "ok" to putter and tinker, but if you really try to work one they won't hold up. If something breaks, your dealer probably won't warranty it because your over working it. I would even consider pulling a baller with one of these modern compact tractors.

 

[Phillip w]

Typo: I would NOT even consider pulling a baler with one of the modern compact tractors.

 

[zzvyb6]

Typo: I would NOT even consider pulling a baler with one of the modern compact tractors.

One more time, been using my 14T for over 20 years behind a 35hp JD 1070. Not even a squeak out of the tachometer.

Hay Baling 214 - YouTube

 

[aczlan]

We have been pulling a New Holland hayliner 273 behind our Kubota L3830 for over 10 years with no issues to date. It has a belt kicker and we generally have a 8x16 hay wagon hooked up behind the baler to kick bales into.
This year, we picked up a Ford 552 round baler to run behind the same tractor and while it makes the tractor work with a 5 x 5 bale it's quite happy with up to a 4 by 5 bale.

Aaron Z

 

[Phillip w]

Your saying 35 hp John Deere. That is in the ball park and yes should pull it. I have known guys try it with 18-20 hp tractors and wonder why there tractor fell apart. Also, in my opinion, the older tractors were more rugged and would take more. I got a 9 ft sweather and 14 t baller. It was working the devil out of my d-15. Put the allis Chalmers 185 on it and that tractor plays with it. I got one of the 30 hp tractors and I'm not impressed. They have no lugging ability. The engine starts to pull down and you done killed before you can react. May because only 3 cylinders. The old farm tractors with 6 cylinder engines would lug and lug and lug before you ran out of power or killed it. As soon as she started laboring, just put the throttle to her. She may blow smoke like a freight train, but plenty of pure grit. Any way, I guess I like a little more tractor on my baler and don't want to see a guy get in trouble using to small of tractor.

 

[powerscol]

The rocking is what I recommend an inline baler behind a compact tractor. I run a Hesston 4550 (35 HP recommendation) behind my Bobcat CT 235 (35hp diesel with 26.5 PTO HP). Now I am at 6500 feet so factor in the loss too. My tractor is hydro-static, but weighs in at 3600 lbs with the filled rears - that's critical TRACTOR WEIGHT! I keep my windrows manageable so I can run in mid range at 540 PTO RPM. I get very little rocking with this set up as the flywheel sits in the opposed plane to the tractor (sideways) If I get any bogging I just slow down and let her work. Baling is much easier with my new rotary rake as the windrows are fluffier than the roll bar rake I had.

So folks know I tried to run a baler similar to the 14T and one modern JD with the side pick up and they both threw me and my tractor around - its a good thing I tried them out before I bought. To test a baler take along 6 or 7 bales and string them out in a typical windrow and give it a go. This will also test the baler on short crops too.

Hope this helps.