New Holland super 66 baler - twine question

JRSutton

Well-known Member
Well the 4H kids are getting close to testing the baler we've been working on.

We've got everything cycling by hand, and it all seems to be timed properly.

Next is to hook it up and try some hay through it.

I need to buy some twine.

If anybody's used one of these balers - any thoughts on which twine?

I've heard conflicting recommendations on these old balers. Sisal or Poly.

I'm sure it'll work with either, but if one's truly more reliable than the other I'd obviously rather go with that choice.

Thoughts?
 
I have a couple that I use I tried some 9000 sisal I couldn't get it to hold a good knot went back to the 7000 sisal and never missed one after that. As far as poly haven't tried that yet.
 
sounds like a great project, as to twine Sisal does seem to tye and cut easier I do not care for it due to critters love to chew on it but for your needs it should work fine, if possible would you mind posting some pics?
 
Never used a 66... but it's just a baler.
I'd make a fair amount of effort to get it tieing on plastic if at all possible. The main reason for that is that poly is generally more consistent in diameter and will pull more evenly. THe sisal we get around here often causes snags coming off the ball that will break the string. The holders and fingers will probably need to be set a tiny bit tighter to hang onto the poly twine some modest adjustment may be needed but it should still be fine to tie sisal...

Rod
 
i have a 326 new holland and all we use is sisal 9000 green, mice love to chew the stuff though, it crosses over good it knots good and if you forgot your belt it makes a good belt, i lil itchy though
 
I've had 2 Super 66s and have never used anything but sisal, it seems to work well and I have been told poly won't work as well on the somewhat worn knotters. But that is just opinion and probably not too helpful. Good luck and let us know how it works.
 
Jon, don't even think about messing with the polly twine, they were not made for it. Back when the polly came out Dad tried it and was nothing but problems, went back to the 7200 twine and no more problems and the 9000 was not then yet avaible. They were designed for the thicker twine and therefore were not designed to have the tollerances for the small twine and will not be able to grip it. If you will notice it is the ones that think polly is the way to go were not yet in the work forse at the time it was introduced and do not understand the problems it made. Newer balers were designed more for the small twine so less problems and that is what the polly twine guys are used to using so know nothing about the older ways you had to do it. If you notice everybody that had answered you are younger than me. That notter used the same parts that the plain 66 used and was probably the same as the old 77 from the 40's. Polly was about the 60's when came out.
 
I do not know if it is true on that baler but on some to use the 2 different twines you need to change or replace the bill hooks. Ran into that on a JD 14T I had and to go from one to the other you changed the bill hooks. I may self prefer the plastic twines due to the fact it does not rot. I hate to grab a bale and have it fall apart because of the twine falling apart. I may self run an old NH271 baler with the poly twine
 
thanks for all the suggestions.

I haven't had much trouble with sisal and mice/rot. I'll stick with that. The only reason I asked about the poly is somebody I know swore up and down that it'd be better in that baler.

Didn't make sense to me since - as Leroy said - it wasn't even invented when that baler was designed.

-also had to laugh at the belt comment - my wife agrees, she just used some as a belt baling last season (where she made the comment "you know you're a redneck when you hold your pants up with baler twine")

I will look around for 7200 - the only thing I've seen around here is the 9000. To be honest, I thought that's all they made!

Must be nice out in those rural areas where people know what baler twine IS, and even give you choices.
 
I'm pretty horrible with a camera, I constantly forget to take pictures till it's too late!!!

I do have a couple "before" pictures when we got it home -

we hope to go through the thing and repaint it all at some point - but we want to actually get it working first to be sure it's worth the effort, then restore it after the haying season.

She aint much to look at right now - but we'll get it to spit bales out soon enough. Lots of rust, but structurally sound.

Had the engine running, but the bearings are so worn I was worried about doing permanent damage, so we ripped it apart for a rebuild.

I found a clutch and shaft assembly and added that to the flywheel so we can run it by pto.

Again - IF it bales well enough, then I'll spend the money to rebuild the engine.

I do hope that happens, would love to get that engine back on in time to do some haying this season with it. Can't wait to hear it turning the baler.

The baler was donated to us, as well as some of the parts. (the pto clutch).

Leroy here was nice enough to donate the wheel for the hay pickup.

The 4H club itself (the mother ship, not our little club) just gave us a $300 grant to help restore it. That'll go right into machine work for the engine - bore it, valve job, probably replace babbit bearings with newer ones, etc.

Definitely a community effort on this one. With that in mind - I WILL get better at taking pictures!
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If you get it runnin, and balin, DON"T SHUT THE MOTOR OFF< TILL YOU ARE DONE. They are a real treat to try to start, when hot!
 
I had to laugh at Leroy's comment....

The knotter in that baler uses the exact same concept as what's used today. The only tolerance that is different is the closure of the bill hook and it's not inconceivable that it's had newer hooks installed. If not you just grind the tab down on the finger so it does close. The rest is simple adjustment.

Rod
 
If, that's IF, you can find good, consistent sisal it will work fine. IMO over the past few years it's becoming harder and harder to find really good sisal twine. I run an ancient NH 68 and 90% of my problems disappeared the second I tried 9000 poly. No more missed knots, no more mysteriously broken bales, no more slipping knots, no more problems with sticking knots on the bill hook. I did absolutely NOTHING during the change over as far as the knotters went- nothing! I went from being able to run 25-75 bales with out a problem to running hundreds with out a problem.

I know people hate poly. It is harder on your hands and if they made 7000 poly I might try it. But I might have had 1-2% of my stored bales tied with poly that I find broken or chewed a year later vs. 20-25% with the sisal.

Another plus- I can leave the poly in the baler all winter and unless a mouse gets in it, it's as good as new. If sisal sits for a couple weeks there's a good chance it's starting to rot.

Poly does require better house keeping. You can't just toss a mess of bales in a feeder without cutting the twin and walk away. You have to collect the twine, but we should be doing that anyway.
 
I could not think at the time but it was not the hooks but the twine disk and holder where the problem was, would not hold the twine as clearances were for the thick twine and not thin twine. Binder twine is same thickness as the thin polly twine was and would not have worked due to the tollerances. And nobody had at that time heard of a 9000 twine. It was all baler twine that all balers took except the AC roto-baler that took binder twine, there were never any mention about feet in twine, same as a grain or corn binder twine. Got rid of that baler about 75 and got a 46 McCormick to replace it because it had a thrower on it and the previous year three of us got overcome by the heat handling bales so decided best to get away from handling them as much, and that McCormick did not have the knotter problems that it seams everyone if talking about.
 
Much the same deal here... I had switched over to poly 3 years ago, but for whatever reason I had some sisal in the baler 2 years ago. I forget if I ran out of poly at the time and got some sisal to finish up one day... or whatever. Rather than waste the twine I figuered I'd use it up. Regardless, with sisal, the baler was breaking about 5% of the bales. With an accumulator, broken bales are not acceptable. I think I was 2 rounds into the field when I had enough. I grabbed a bundle of 9000 poly, cut the sisal out and heaved it in the woods and it's probably there yet. The broken bales went to just about zero for the season. Nothing else changed.
I hate working with poly bales but I hate broken sisal bales even more...

Rod
 
we're lucky, this one's got a starter motor!

has cable with clamps to hook to the tractor battery.
 
And that is very likely a 6 volt starter as very few tractors used a 12 volt system then. They were just starting to come into general use.
 
(quoted from post at 09:37:29 05/02/13) Jon, don't even think about messing with the polly twine, they were not made for it. Back when the polly came out Dad tried it and was nothing but problems, went back to the 7200 twine and no more problems and the 9000 was not then yet avaible. They were designed for the thicker twine and therefore were not designed to have the tollerances for the small twine and will not be able to grip it. If you will notice it is the ones that think polly is the way to go were not yet in the work forse at the time it was introduced and do not understand the problems it made. Newer balers were designed more for the small twine so less problems and that is what the polly twine guys are used to using so know nothing about the older ways you had to do it. If you notice everybody that had answered you are younger than me. That notter used the same parts that the plain 66 used and was probably the same as the old 77 from the 40's. Polly was about the 60's when came out.

Well Leroy how old are you any way? Some days I feel young but not most. Any way I have been making hay for about 27 years and didn't try poly until about ten years ago. On the package it told me that it will work in all PROPERLY ADJUSTED KNOTTERS. I checked with a couple friends too, they said sure go ahead, no problems. So I went ahead and it worked fine. I have even switched back and forth a few times. So I would recommend it after going through all the adjustments as I am sure you will anyway. If everyone went through their balers every 20,000 bales or so and reset everything they would not have the problems. Even if both the baler and operator are seniors.
 
I'll start with sisal - if it gives us any trouble I'll try poly next time.

the sisal 9000 we use in a 24t works well enough in that baler that we've never tried anything else.

I guess it's like somebody here said, whatever is used, the trick is simply to keep things adjusted properly.

And in reality, with the 4h kids this baler's not going to see a whole lot of use - probably only 150-200 bales a year across two cuttings at the most.

So at those numbers, even if it's not perfect, rebaling a few isn't a big deal.

I'll repost our results when we test it out.
 
You are correct. And as long as I'm around, there will always be at least one tractor with 6 volts nearby.

Even though it is intended to be used with 6 volts, it CAN be used with 12 volts too. I just wouldn't want to do it often. Not sure what could go wrong - maybe nothing. But I have no reason to find out.
 
I am 69, 70 this fall and Dad bought the new Holland baler I think the second year they were on the market so that would have been in 54 or 55, Think they came out in 53. So that made me 10 years old when we got it and traded a buckrake in on it. That buckrake was on a 46 Dodge 2 ton truck chassie after the first one wore out and no pistons avaible and I remember that buck rake that was a 1929 Buick 6 cylinder with 20" tires. The twine holders are not adjustable and were factory set so that the thick twine would fit and not slide in between the twine disk but the thin twine will and no adjustment that I know they ever made for that. May have made parts after we got rid of the baler and after we quit baling. The twine wraping in that twine holder-twine disk is the problem. The balers made in early 60's is probley when changes were made to accomidate the other twines, just guessing as I have not used a baler since 1980 and the 9000 twine was not yet on the market then. So you would not have started untill 5 years after I quit when the dairy heard went to market. The baler we replaced that New Holland 66 with was also made in the 7200 twine time and when we tried it there was no footage given. The twine companys don't consider there is any balers designed befor 1980 in use any more and those are already what they call antiques and they don't even think there could be any 60 year old balers in use any more. So they do not even think they did not have the adjustments the newer ones have and the ones that put that kind of stuff on packages were not yet alive when the stuff they say will work in those machines were made that they may have never even seen.
 
Nothing wrong with turning the starter with 12 volt. I've been doing it for 15 years on my case dc with no problems.
 

130/9000 poly would not work well in my 68 baler. Broken bales after tie. Went to 170/7200 and it works perfect. The first number is the tensile strength. The second is the length. 9000 is thinner twine. Did not hold on the bill hooks well in my case. Thicker poly fixed the issue. My opinion is that if 9000 sisal works then going to 7200 poly will work better than 9000 poly due to thickness. Just my 2 cents...

John
 
I found some 7200 on line - I'm going to order it. You've got me curious about it now.

Makes sense to use what the baler was designed for.
 
I have a New Holland Super 66 in use.
Baled over 900 bales last year.
Started with poly it would miss every 3rd bale.
Loaded 7200 sisal Holland extra brand name, recommended to me by an old NH mechanic tied great. Will make up to 80# bales no breaks.
Just baled 151 bales last week not a single miss.
As far as rot goes just put you bottom bales on edge then the twine isn't in the ground.
 
JR Sutton, my S66 would not tie well with 9000. I used 7200 and had no trouble tying. I think the 7200 is about the same diameter as sisal. I got my 7200 at Klem's in Spencer. They are the only ones that carry it locally.
 

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