273 bale shape

our 273 nh tends to make a banana bale if things aren't just right. Searched the archives here and found lots of good advice. but one thing that wasn't mentioned by anyone is the baffle in the back of the feed chamber that slides in and out. its secured by 6 bolts by the twine box. its seems like I thought I read that its an adjustment that affects the bale shape.[ had a book but lost it in a shop fire and never replaced it.] can anyone give me any input here . Thanks

I'm not specifically familiar with the 273... but some balers had a feed baffle. Basically... if you have a light crop you move the feed baffle forward to reduce the size of the feed opening. In doing this you cause the charge to be pushed further to the left in a thicker mat vs being spread too thinly on the right side of the chamber. Usually.... a banana bale is lacking hay in the left side of the bale... and when they fall on the ground and the tension comes on the strings the left side of the bale will end up being shorter because it has less hay in it. That said... it is also possible to over feed the left side of the bale depending on crop conditions, baffle settings and feed fork settings... so you could get a banana bale with the right side being short.

Rod

Another thing is how good is your clearance between your plunger and stationary knives? Sounds crazy, but sharpening these knives and shimming the stationary knife helps my bale shape dramatically, both on an old super 68 and my current 277.

JJhiliyer, I will second that. When I corrected the plunger knife to stationary knife specification my bales improved significantly. gobble

Nice!

Here is a copy I made on another forum dealing with banana bales. Where ever you see 68, plug in 273. You also might have more hay dogs than the 68. Hope this helps:

The 68 has 3 spring loaded hay dogs as mentioned, 2 in the top and one in the bottom. My 68 also has 4 vertical wedges in the bale chamber side, 2 per side. There is also a small cast iron wedge on the bottom and top of the bale chamber.

If you're getting banana shaped bales, IMHO, no amount of tension on the bale springs will fix it. More hay needs to flow into the far side of the bale chamber. To remedy this, move the feeder tines to the right - not left as you stand behind the baler. This is counter intuitive, but per the manual and works!

The aluminum feeder tines wear down over time and if they aren't 13ish inches long, you might need to replace them.

The steel tines on the end of the feeder bar should be spring loaded. If that spring is missing, that could be your trouble.

Another cause of banana bales is the knife clearance on the plunger to the stationary knife. It needs to be set to around 1/32 inch. If there is a gap and the knife is dull, it will pull hay into the knife side of the baler and aggravate the banana bale problem.

Lastly, I found that my 68 is at it's best at full 540 rpm PTO speed. More flakes per bale, less flakes to cut with each stroke, consistent bale length - it's all much better once I figured that out. However, make sure your wooden slides are in good shape if you run it that hard. I had to replace mine.

The 68 is a fine old baler and drop dead simple design.

Good luck,
Bill