John Deere Baler Fire

[avincent]

Anyone had any trouble with the baler smoking and catching on fire, or heard of this happening? I forgot to mention that we bought our baler four weeks ago and it caught on fire after about 5 hours of use...

 

[RobJ]

My BIL burned up one a couple years ago. I think they ended up selling/trading for another used one. It was an old vemeer.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Any baler can burn up if not taken care of. Fine hay chaff and dust gathers around a bad bearing that is heating up and it is only a matter of when it starts up. This is a problem with combines as well so you need to take care of your equipment to prevent this problem, even to the point of stopping from time to time to clean off any piles of chaff.

 

[zzvyb6]

I was welding on mine recently when a spark caught part of the charge in the bale case. At first I started laughing, then I ran for a bucket.

Actually, a leaking gear case, plus chaff from alfalfa, plus a tight, fast moving plunger has all the ingredients for a nice warm fire. I suppose a cigarette butt thrown in a windrow and pick up by the header would also make a nice bonfire.