Good post.
Nothing worse than customers waiting in the field on a 102 degree day and the baler is shooting a stream of untied hay out the back :laughing:
If you get a square baler you WILL learn to work on the knotters and you will get mad (and dirty)......just part of the deal.
Being retired I can't afford new implements anymore. I bought my tractors, the 105 and the M9 prior to retiring.
I'd love to have a new square bailer but the price of admission is too high. My 'new' 575 is new to me, but actually 10 years old, The same age as my BR760 round bailer. I bought that one new.
I bought the 575 from a local dealer, the same dealer I bought the BR from. I took my time and looked over the bailer carefully prior to dickering on his price. We started at 14 and got down to 10 plus 6 boxes of 170 and he delivered it.
I checked the knotter stack carefully, released them and rotated them up and checked the cams and followers. I checked the play in the plunger, looked at the bale case to see if the bailer was outside for a long time...it wasn't, just some very light rust.
I looked under the backside of the pickup reel, I wanted to see how much chaff was there. A little, not much. A little chaff under the covers too. I like that. It means the bailer didn't get pressure washed, just blown off. No old dried moldy hay in the nooks and crannies meaning it was stored outside and not cleaned.
I looked at all the grease Zerk's and around the gears for old grease, it was there, meaning the bailer got serviced regularly. Finally, I looked to see if the twine box had any balls in it. It did, 2 balls, partially used and 960 on the clicker. It wasn't a barn queen that had problems and someone traded in because they got frustrated. A quick look at the timing marks to be sure it was in time and I bought it.
After delivery (I made it clear that I wanted the owners manual and a shop manual), I have both for all my machines, I went over the machine and found 3 fittings that wouldn't take grease. Both needle pivots (right and left) and the left hand wiper arm pivot shaft. I pulled the needle yoke bushings, chucked them in the lathe and emery cloth'd them bright, replaced the Zerk's and refitted the bushings and greased them. Then I pulled the knotter up, released the follower ball, pulled the cotter and drifted the wiper arm from the casting. It was dried grease that was preventing new grease from entering, so I cleaned the shaft, installed a new Zerk and greased. replaced the follower ball and locktited the stud. I sharpened the twine knife while I had the wiper arm off.
The first job was a 5000 straw bale run on combined wheat in straight 1/4 mile windrows, combined with a JD Rotary and a 30 foot grain table. I bailed 5000 bales in 12 hours seat time with the M9 pulling the bailer running at 520 pto rpm, giving 14 slices per bale and bailing at 3mph ground speed. I used just over 10 balls of 170 poly and had less than 12 mis ties, all my fault. I left too long of tails on my square knot twine connections and the bill hooks got fouled with the tails. It's a learning experience.
The 575 is quite a gobbler. It took the 30 foot grain table windrow and never missed a beat. I was apprehensive at first about the 1/4 turn chute but I like it now. The bailer is way too productive to hitch a wagon to. No way our hay hands could keep up with it. The 575, from all I've read on the Internet (and I did some research because I don't like to be broken down in the field either) said the 575 was a kick butt bailer. It is.
We will see how it does in second cutting T/A this week. I have 3 contract fields down and raked to be bailed, tomorrow afternoon.
Finally, I don't miss checking bale tension as the day wears on and the RM drops. The hydraulic bale tension is fantastic, plus I can read the tension from inside the tractor cab.
