NH 68 Hayliner banana bales

Hi all, We're having an issue on a NH 68 Hayliner where the feeder teeth (the steel ones; not the aluminum tines) don't reach far enough into the corner of the "pickup chamber" to grab the hay. This results in jamming of the pickup and, I,think, banana bale formation. I suppose we can live with the banana bales but the jamming is another story. Any tips on adjustment or parts replacement?
thanks,
Paul in VT.

are you talking about the steel tines with the spring on top? do you have correct tine bar? a lot of balers will leave a little hay in the corner of right side(from behind) but as you bale will move most of it into chamber. Not sure what you mean by "jamming" the feeder. Other thing to check would be that the tines are long enough, perhaps someone shortened them for some reason. banana bales can often be corrected by feeding hay properly into pickup and feeding it evenly.

I had a lot of problems like that one year, and IIRC, I found that my lighter windrows seemed to contribute to the problem. So running a little faster and thicker windrows seemed to help. I haven't had the problem in two years now…

es

We have a273 and no matter what placement of the feeder teeth I still get bale shape issues unless windrows are consistent.usually the more I jam in the better the bales. In litter material try doubling or travel faster. Pickup teeth could be extremely worn also and maybe not getting it past the hold down.

Here is a post I made regarding banana bales on another forum - 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

Also check to see that you are not missing a bunch of pick-up tines. Without a full complement, the hay does not get properly fed into the chamber for the tine bar to push into the chamber for compression by the plunger.

One weak link in the chain messes up the whole process.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Hopefully, I'm baling later today and I'll see how it goes. This same baler worked fine last year.
The aluminum tines are, as you say, 13ish inches long and the steel ones with the spring on top seem to have the original red paint on them with no wear marks.

And maybe to clarify, standing at the rear of the baler, the hay that is not getting picked up and resulting in jamming as it accumulates is to the far right.

I'll check the tines on the pickup to see if any are missing.

And to show how new I am at this, could someone post a link or pic of where/what the haydogs are?
thanks, Paul

Hay dogs are dogleg shaped pieces of iron that are held in place by springs, each having a hole in the center through which a pivot pin passes. There is one on the bottom of the bale chamber, in the center facing upward, just above the points of the needles when they are in their home position and just past the end of the plunger when it is in its fully extended position. The other two are on the top of the bale chamber, just in front of the knotters with the dogleg facing down into the chamber.

The purpose of the hay dogs are to keep each flake in compression, and keep it from springing back into the chamber when the plunger begins it's travel to the retracted position.
sorry, don't have a pic. Hope this helps.

Got it! Nice explanation, thanks. I baled the other day with no problems. I took into account the suggestions of heavier windrows and making sure the bulk of the hay entered the pickup closer to the bale chamber
paul