New Holloand 68 Rock Solid - Brick Shaped Bales????

Bill VA

Well-known Member
The hay season is behind us now, we made right at 1,000 bales in September with the NH68 afte a bit of adjusting and timing. Impressed with this old machine – knock on wood!

But it can do better – I think? My bales were a compromise between bale density, knife clearance and windrow quality/quantity, else it spit out banana bales.

This winter, we want to really dig into it. I think this baler ought to be able to crank out some nice tight brick shaped bales, but it needs more tuning to do so.

We want to look at the wood block bearings. They need a height adjustment and the plunger needs moved over further to close the knife gap.

Question is – what are you looking for when it’s time to replace the wood plunger bearings? These look in good shape, but are worn vertically and/or out of adjustment. What are you looking for when replacing them? Waiting until the wood wears down such that the plunger is riding on the steel angles that hold the wood – are you looking for metal to metal contact vs wood to metal contact? The wood slides show no evidence of cracking, missing pieces or other damage. Given the age of this baler, I have to believe someone along the way replaced these wood slides at some point – but how would you know?

Next up is the knife. Sharpen and adjust to specs. I think if we can get the plunger squared-up and the knife gap closed, knife sharpened, that should go a long way towards making some nice solid, square block looking bales.

Also am going replace the knotter trip arm and the little round spur wheel it rides on. While this stuff works OK, they are worn almost completely flat and we had some bale length variation and I think there is some slippage between them. These parts don’t seem to be a wallet killer, so we’ll replace them.

Will sharpen the knife that cuts the twine and just clean and check the knotters too. My needle eyes need brazed a bit to fill-in some worn groves in them. I may replace the drive shaft u-joints, or at least have some replacements on hand should one of them let-go next year. Don’t know how your luck goes, but sometimes when I proactive replace worn, but otherwise working parts, I regret it later – LOL.

Any other sage off-season advice you can offer for a baler tune-up?

Can I count on this old 68 to make some solid square brick bales next year… :)
 
I have a 68 that I struggled for years to get it to make a good bale. Long story short, I broke some stuff and didn't reinstall the bar between the cross feed tines (I think I read that trick on here from way back). It's made perfect bales ever since (couple thousand bales) Hth!
 
I'd would highly suggest getting a manual for it. Chances are those old bales need a lot of tuning up and everything you need to do it would be in the manual. Binder books would be a good place to start for a manual. A manual is the only way I get my IH46 to work right.
 
Couple things. First sounds like you've done well. and your on the right track in fixing, replacing, etc. for the upcoming year. Im a pain in the neck with my baler 273 N.H. End of season I clean ALL hay out and off baler. Blow baler off and if needed I power wash areas of baler NEVER THE KNOTTERS..If I wash areas I will air blow after washing really good and run for awhile on slower rpms to get moisture dried out. Stop machine and grease and oil and run a short time again on slow rpms...I also spray my needles once cleaned with wd40 or sylicon spray to over winter. I to braze my needles up every couple years. I use a round file to shape the "hole" that the twine goes through to get smooth so twine doesnt catch and cause problems. Also when you sharpen the knives that cut twine get those suckers sharper than sharp. I mean emery cloth sharp.. learned that the hard way. Also the bushings on the opposite end of those knives make sure they are nice and round and move freely..

WHen I started out many years ago my first baler was a N.H. 65.. paid 200 and put 1000 into it. Bought a manual and learned ALOT about balers which intern helped me buy my 273 which is a fantastic baler..

Sounds like your on the right track.. As said.. get a manual if you dont have one..they will pay for themselves over and over again.. Good Luck
 
I would suggest that you start by getting a manual if you don't already have one. That should give you all the specs you need to set everything and determine what is worn out of spec.
In terms of the wood blocks/guides... I'm not familiar with them but I would think that if they are worn past the point where they can't square the plunger to the stationary knife any longer then it's time to replace the whole works of them.... of if they adjust up and then cause the plunger to bind up at the end of the stroke due to uneven wear... replace them. Once that's done you have something to work with. Then you can either sharpen or replace the plunger and stationary knife. If it's got any serious gouges out of it I'd probably replace it. Beyond that I think the baler should make a square shouldered bale if you set it correctly for the rate you feed it. As I understand NH balers they need to be fed consistently. It's not so much that you can't bale a light row or a heavy row... but you need a consistent row and set the feeding system for that. I'm running a Deere at the moment and it seems more tolerant of uneven feeding...
Beyond that replace all the pickup fingers that need replacement, sharpen the twine knives. I use a flat file to put a good edge on them. Adjust the wiper arms up tight to the bill hooks...
Needles... If they haven't already been brazed I would suggest you preheat them and weld them with a Sodel 35 nickel rod. The Ni_rod will be a lot harder than brass and will not wear out as quickly. If it's already been brazed in the past then you're pretty well married to it because you can't put nickel rod to it after it's been brazed. Just make sure to file the eyes good and smooth.

Rod
 
This year my 68 was making the tightest, squarest bales ever. No more banana bales! It only took me 15 years to get here... :shock:

The slides, you aren't going to do anything but good by replacing the them if they are worn out of square. Buy one and copy it out of good hardwood. Get the adjustments all loosened up and never siezed. Some you'll have to repalce becuase they are going to be boogered up. When you pull the plunger to do the slides, that's the time to sharpen the knife. And clean out all the rust behind the plunger adjustment bars so they allow you to get the plunger back in. In fact, pulling them out and geting in where they are with a wire brush won't hurt at all.

When you get it back together set your clearance and oil the snot out of the slides. I don't believe you can put too much oil on them. I suuppose there is some space age low friction plastic/nylon/unobtainium material that would be perfect for the slides and never wear but I don't know what it is. The wood will last for decades with a little care.

As far as making square bales, you need good pick up tines so you get as much hay in to the tine bars as you can. The tine bars need to be long enough to work, as I said before they wear a lot more than you'd think. You need a decently consistent windrow to make a good bale. You don't need to choke it to get a square bale if the tines are good, I found that out last year. If you are getting banana bales with dry, dry hay then you might move the left hand (as you stand behind the baler) feed tine to the left a bit. That pushes hay further into the left side of the baler and ity seems it always the left hand/flywheel side that needs a little more hay. The left hand tine is what does the majority of pushing the hay into the bale chamber IMO. The center and right tine push the hay to the left one and they never get as close to the bale chamber as the left one. Keep your RPMs up and tighten the screws down until you get a good solid bale. If it's too heavy, shorten the bale. You need to have enough hay in the chamber and chute to help make a square able. My kids have the habit of trying to pull the bale up the chute instead of waiting for it and you can tell there's a difference when they do that rather than letting the weight help form the bales.

I like plastic twine with my baler. Some like sisal but sisal simply stinks these days IMO.
 
My thoughts on U-joints: If a u-joint cross fails, much of the time it will ruin a much more expensive yoke also. The cross and caps are usually $20-$30. That yoke with the overunning clutch built in(attaches to nose of slip clutch) is between $300 and $400, depending on style (Rockwell or Neapco). That one yoke is not available aftermarket, some of the others are and some are not. Do you have the long tongue and 2 piece drive line?

That one yoke is nearly worth the scrap price of a baler, take good care of it.

Garry
 
How many sets of feed tines do you have? Think 2 was standard. I improved mine a lot by adding another set.
I had never heard about removing the hold down bar between the tines. I fought that as long as I had the baler.
 
replacement parts I keep on hand: drive line u-joints, shear pins, pick up tines, chains, 1 spare needle from an auction. I run 2ea JD 336 balers and if one breaks I use the other only until I can get a new part. Works every time. A used baler is cheaper than the hay on the ground most times. Down side is they take up lots of space.
 
The rod that runs between the feeder forks is one of the things coming out. I read a good post a while back - Steve from New Holland posted advising to remove it.

When I got the baler, the bar that holds the feeder forks was slightly banging against the bracket that holds the rod that goes lengthwise between the feeder forks. The chain was loose. I tried to take out that rod assy then, but between time and finger/wrench access, couldn't get it done. I tightened the chain and solved the problem, but next spring it will be gone!

Thanks,
Bill
 
Got a factory manual - and several newer manuals (pictures are better) and we have been studying them like there's a final exam. Also have been reading and watching every video on line having to do with these old balers, including the New Holland knotter video.

I don't like surprises - I want to know everything about this baler such that when we are in the field baling, we are not guessing what's going right or wrong.

Thanks!
Bill
 
Thanks! Definitely have a manual and cleaning/greasing this baler AND keeping it in the dry.

Bill
 
Thanks!

Even though we've put 1,000 bales quickly through this baler, we are still going to school with it. Much better now than when we started.

I found that to light of a windrow isn't good and choking the baler isn't good. The best windrows were when I got a consistent feed next to the bale chamber or when I had a larger windrow (two 7 ft wide mower swaths into one windrow) AND slowed the tractor ground speed such that the pick-up was full of hay across it, but not choking the baler.

Probably the best adjustment I made was moving the left most set of feeder forks (at the bale chamber side) to the right a couple of inches. It's per the manual, but counter intuitive. That got more hay into the far side of the bale chamber and greatly helped with the bale shape. It will be interesting to see if I have to move them back to their original position once I get the plunger/knife properly set.

I going to buy a new wooden block/bearing and try to make 4 new ones and keep the new one on a shelf for a future pattern.

The first baler I worked behind - years ago, was a JD 24T. It was amazing how that thing could spit out the prettiest most square shaped round bales. The guy running the baler bought it new and really took care of it. I don't ever recall that baler getting clogged, shearing a pin or going down in the middle of the hay. We did give it a unwanted push with a loaded hay rack, along with the tractor, down a small hill one time - LOL!

Thanks again,
Bill
 
The baler has 3 sets of feeder tines. Left and center-ish, are aluminum tines and on the far right side, there are a pair of metal tines - like an oversized steel pick-up tine.

Steve from New Holland posted about removing the rod that sets between the tines. Here is a link to that post: http://ytmag.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=implment&th=66416

Thanks!
Bill
 
Definitely want spare parts on hand. What I'd like is to find a 2nd model 68 to both run as a back-up and/or use as parts if needed.
 
According to Steve from New Holland, it was to keep hay from bunching-up between the feeder forks, so every cycle, it would clean any hay out from between the forks and I guess in doing so, keep the hay from even getting jammed above the forks too.

That bar is coming out of my baler.

Thanks!
Bill
 
I know what you mean - nothing worse than hay ready to bale, bailer not working and rain is predicted tomorrow.
 
(quoted from post at 13:22:32 10/07/14)
Probably the best adjustment I made was moving the left most set of feeder forks (at the bale chamber side) to the right a couple of inches. It's per the manual, but counter intuitive. That got more hay into the far side of the bale chamber and greatly helped with the bale shape. It will be interesting to see if I have to move them back to their original position once I get the plunger/knife properly set.


Thanks again,
Bill

Moving to the right made mine worse. Put less hay in the left side. Moving to the left fixed the issue, but like i said that was dry, dry hay. Damper hay may be different. I left them that way for 2nd cut and it worked fine.
 
ran a 68 for years made very good solid 75-85lbs bales that picked up well by my balewagon, I always install enough bale wedges to make them make proper bales, along with the advise others here posted it will make great bales, in dry light windrows you can still have a few issues, like stated make sure to run at rated speed, in heavy hay I like to see a tie every 9-11 strokes for a 42" average bale length
 
Buy the best quality Twine you can find, keep all the knifes sharp and in adjustment. The twine will greatly reduce broken bales and allow for those brick shaped 80 lb bales.
 
10-4 on the twine. I've been using 9000 sisal from New Holland. It's only a few dollars more than the TSC stuff, so I buy it. So far so good. I even got my square knot between spools of twine to go through the baler, on one side - LOL!

Thanks!
Bill
 
The feeder fork on the LH side was adjusted all
the way to the left, it could only go right. My
understanding is that the further right you put
it, the larger the "chunk" of hay that get's
stuffed in the bale chamber per cycle. That one
adjustment made a world of difference, but in no
way do I discount your feeder fork adjustment
experience and really appreciate the feed back.

I adjusted the plunger/knife over to the
stationary knife, but only a bit. I may have
helped some - but ran out of adjustment as the
bolts and their threads were pretty rusted-up and
I didn't want to break anything that would put me
out of business. Better to break a bolt on a
baler in December than on July 4th with several
hundred bales of hay ready to be baled!

I think once I get the plunger up to snuff and the
knife clearance set, my banana bale problem will
likely be over. We'll see.

Thanks!
Bill
 
Thanks again for your feedback - much appreciated.

One of the reasons I come on these forums -
besides asking a ton of questions, is to lay a
path for someone else down the road that might
make hay with a baler like this or similar. I
think with the exception of this thread (don't
remember), I try include NH68 for the baler, JD350
for the rake and MF32 for the sickle bar. It
makes a search easier and sometimes when you
search with 2 or 3 letters/numbers, you don't get
as good of results. Hopefully these threads will
help someone else down the road. I was
participating on this forum years ago when Steve
from New Holland and Kelly C were posting. Still
a great ton of info in those posts, hopefully
these posts of mine and everyone's GREAT answers
can be of help to others - but I digress.........

Yes - new wood slides and plenty of oil.

I read somewhere that the tied bale in the baler
being pushed out has a function that if removed
all the time before simply being pushed out on the
ground, would effect the density of the bale, same
as cranking the bale tension knobs. I explained
this to one of my boys who was pulling the bale
out of the baler (of course I am on the tractor
being DAD.... ;-)

Great feedback - thanks again!

Bill
 
Yea - I probably ought to replace the U joints in the
baler, sickle bar mower and the rake and be done with
it.

BTW - my 68 has the longer 2 piece drive shaft.

Thanks!
Bill
 
Thanks!

I got lucky in that the bale chamber on this baler is in GREAT shape and it has a full compliment of wedges in it.

WOW - 75 - 85 lb bales! I think if I baled that heavy, I'd have a rebellion on my hands from my boys, but I'll warn them what may they may be in store for - if the school grades ever fall-off... :)

Bill
 
Funny you say that, I also had the knot go thru on one side, twice this year, same side each time the knot got stuck on the bil hook and made a mess... I also buy Twine from my New Holland dealer, however they sell Case/IH brand. It is a few dollars more, but definately better twine.
 
(quoted from post at 13:24:36 10/08/14)
I read somewhere that the tied bale in the baler
being pushed out has a function that if removed
all the time before simply being pushed out on the
ground, would effect the density of the bale, same
as cranking the bale tension knobs. I explained
this to one of my boys who was pulling the bale
out of the baler (of course I am on the tractor
being DAD.... ;-)

Great feedback - thanks again!

Bill

I was told, by a guy that has one, that a 68 will make absolutely fantastic bales when used with a bale basket. Guy said the 68 made so-so bales pumping them up the chute, but the first day with the bale basket turned it into a brick making machine. He laid it all on the baler pushing the long line of bales up that much longer chute. Made sense to me since pulling them off the chute will give you slight bananas if you do it time after time even when it wants to make bricks.
 

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