Most of those years were behind a 35 hp JD tractor, a NH 479 haybine, a JD 55 rake, and a JD14T baler. A few thousand a year from local fields including my own. A few years ago I added a NH1012 stack wagon because now I'm doing it by myself.
Then a customer teased me into trying out her Vicon 1210 round baler. It was a lot of trouble caused by worn parts, a peculiar tie wrapping system, and it's fixed chamber design. And, quite frankly, the 5x6 bales were a bit much for my tractor, considering that I could never figure out how to gauge when the bale was done.
Looking around, I found a 35 year old JD 335 variable chamber baler in good condition and went thru it to check it's features: 4x4 bale size, twin-tie (faster wrapping), bale size and bale symmetry indicators, signal tone.
It only needed some chains tightened and 4 pickup tine sections. Operators manual free on-line from Deere. What a difference.
I had no trouble at all with starting a bale roll, reading size progress, listening for the tone at full capacity. My 35 h.p.
tractor never lost any rpm during travel in 2nd range 3rd gear the entire time. Nice bales all over 800 lbs (I measured most of them out of curiosity). Heavier than the Vicon's bigger sized ones. I never had to leave the tractor seat the whole time.
Then a customer teased me into trying out her Vicon 1210 round baler. It was a lot of trouble caused by worn parts, a peculiar tie wrapping system, and it's fixed chamber design. And, quite frankly, the 5x6 bales were a bit much for my tractor, considering that I could never figure out how to gauge when the bale was done.
Looking around, I found a 35 year old JD 335 variable chamber baler in good condition and went thru it to check it's features: 4x4 bale size, twin-tie (faster wrapping), bale size and bale symmetry indicators, signal tone.
It only needed some chains tightened and 4 pickup tine sections. Operators manual free on-line from Deere. What a difference.
I had no trouble at all with starting a bale roll, reading size progress, listening for the tone at full capacity. My 35 h.p.
tractor never lost any rpm during travel in 2nd range 3rd gear the entire time. Nice bales all over 800 lbs (I measured most of them out of curiosity). Heavier than the Vicon's bigger sized ones. I never had to leave the tractor seat the whole time.