JD 338/348 small square baler question for the experts

Seth_ia

Member
I"ve been hunting for a couple of years for a used JD348 small square baler to start making a few small bales again(currently all 3x3x8s). It seems like since the 348 are the high capacity model, the poeple that buy them new have used every once of them up by the time they trade them off. On the other hand when I"ve found one in great shape that I would consideing bringing home, they are priced too near new for my tastes. Now for the flip side I"ve seen a bunch of used 338 bales that are in great shape and priced right. However I have one big issue, I don"t want a baler that only makes 80 stokes per minute! I need the 93 SPM of the 348 balers.

So my question is this, can the gears in the main gear case on a 338 be changed out the gears that are used in a 348?

Judging by JDParts everything is the same between the two models otherwise. While this is not my perfered method of getting the capacity baler I need, I"m entertaining all ideas at this point.

TIA
 
There's more differences in a 338 & 348 than strokes per minute. 338 has 3 hay dogs,348 has 6 hay dogs. I think 348 flywheel is heavier than a 338 although parts spec's didn't verify that fact but 348 flywheel cost $400 more than a 338 FW. 348 plungerhead weights 4 more #s than a 338
 
I think by the time you do the 'swap',you will have as much or more in an 'inferior' baler.Go ahead and "bite the bullet" and buy your 348.You wont be sorry.
 
I guess I'm a little mystified here... you talk about doing a few squares but need the highest capacity baler on the go.. Mabey I have a different concept of what a few bales entails... but it would seem to me that if you're doing under 10k a year just about any old baler in decent shape would do the job. If you want to push 20k through... then you'd want the big baler.
From what I've seen there's no free lunch in that department. You either pay up front or you buy a well worn one and rebuild it... and you'll probably pay then too.

Rod
 

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