Oliver 50 baler

[JeffinIA]

Anybody have much experience with a 50 baler? Have a chance to buy one that was completely restored 3 years ago . It is supposed to work good , he said the knotters needed fine adjusted because it missed every so often.Baler has been used the last 3 years on about 6 acres . I will be using it on about 2.5 . So it's not going to see heavy use.

 

[JeffinIA]

Have found a Much Newer NH baler :thumbsup:

 

[rankrank1]

My 2 cents is unless that baler is real cheap then I would pass. I have heard that the Oliver balers were okay balers, but there was never very many of them around. Where will you find parts? Some the Oliver Hay line was bought buy Hesston back in the 1970's and was the foundation for the early Hesston hay tools line. Hesston is now owned by AGCO. I doubt AGCO still offers hardly anything for that Oliver baler and used salvaged ones will be few and far between when searching for used parts.

Best to stick with New Holland first or John Deere 2nd in vintage old balers. Those 2 had the market cornered and for good reason. Lots of new parts still available, used parts sources very common, and people know how to make them work.

Have fun on your 2.5 acre hay adventures, but take it from someone who bales only 4.5 to 5.5 acres every year. You should not expect to make any money. You will do good to break even at best (assuming you enjoy donating all your time for free and tinkering on old junk). Actually on 2.5 acres I expect you will certainly lose money.

 

[JeffinIA]

Not in it to make any money at all in fact if I have too much hay ,(which I doubt) I will donate it to anyone that needs it. And Yes, That's the thought I had with the 50 baler, Parts and the need to get things done when needed to be done.

 

[rankrank1]

After you experience how much time, work, and personal effort goes into making good hay, I doubt you will be so willing to give it away.

Gonna bale with the Farmall M?

 

[powerscol]

If you find a good inline Hesston, New Idea, or the current Hesston branded MF ones, give them a look. I am running a Hesston 4550 with a 26.5 PTO tractor. Current model is the MF 1835. Works great in small fields and easy to get parts for. Baler can be very expensive to maintain, so I spent a bit extra to be sure I got a good one.

 

[JeffinIA]

After you experience how much time, work, and personal effort goes into making good hay, I doubt you will be so willing to give it away.

Gonna bale with the Farmall M?

Yes I will be using the M.

 

[rankrank1]

Yes I will be using the M.

The Farmall m will work fine on the baler even though many will claim you absolutely have to have live PTO to bale. Not so at all, but careful raking is necessary as an idiot on the rake can make for a long day when any non live PTO tractor is used to bale. No problem at all though if the rake operator sizes the windrows to a consistent appropriate size that is suitable for a gear the tractor actually has, in relation to the capacity of the baler, along with tractor hp available.

My Farmall M is now my frontline baler tractor, although the Farmall h, and even my Kubota L285 have all baled for me. None of these 3 tractors have live PTO. Course I am only piddling on about 6 acres or so every year.

If your M is narrow front end (like the majority of them are) then a conventional side pull baler will likely work better than an inline baler. NF will mash the windrow when using an inline baler since you typically straddle a windrow with an inline baler. Mashing the windrow may not be a huge problem is grassy hays but less than desirable in leafy hays. Conventional balers you run to the side of the windrow so the NF is not a problem at all with them in any type of hay. Not to mention, that a modern inline baler is going to run $10k plus and is fiscally impractical on a 2.5 acre hobby patch. Good conventional side pull balers can still be had for $500 to $1500 with careful shopping. Your great grandkids would still not have a $10k or more baler paid for baling 2.5 acres.

 

[JeffinIA]

I Pick up a New Holland 273 this coming Friday.At the same time I'm getting a 7' Oliver ground driven sickle bar mower and Oliver crimper. All from the same person. I Have a line on on older NH rake will find out about Monday on it .

 

[rankrank1]

I Pick up a New Holland 273 this coming Friday.At the same time I'm getting a 7' Oliver ground driven sickle bar mower and Oliver crimper. All from the same person. I Have a line on on older NH rake will find out about Monday on it .

Good choice. The 273 is an excellent baler. Know a couple people personally that had/have them and they love em. It is also the newest baler from New Holland that I would personally try running with a marginal low horsepower tractor. Course your M is not a marginal low hp tractor at all and will run it easily and handily. Parts should be no problem in obtaining for that baler either.

The Oliver crimper sounds good to me. Not sure I would get too excited over a ground driven sickle mower though, but in fairness I have never used a ground driven sickle either. Now if you meant a pull behind sickle on wheels that is PTO driven then I like the sound of that a whole lot better. Some of those sickles on wheels that are PTO powered even have an auxiliary PTO shaft out the back of the mower so you pull the crimper directly behind the sickle mower in tandem in the same pass. (These hooked in tandem tools were the precursor to haybines.)

Course I gotta remember we only talking for 2.5 acres. A good man can cut like an acre an hour of hay with a hand scythe. Even a ground driven sickle will easily handle 2.5 acres.

Post some pics of the toys when you get em (we love pics)...