New holland 66 baler

AllisG

Member
Just trying to start in hay next year on my own, I purchased a John Deere sickle mower, international 5 bar rake and now there's an old baler on Craigslist for sale I'd like to pick up. It needs a chamber spring? I don't have extensive baler experience but I think at the price I could work over the winter and have a decent baler. Hope the link works..... https://terrehaute.craigslist.org/grd/5268922378.html
 

Sell the sickle bar and find a haybine, get a much newer baler. Just trying to save you the 10 years of tears, blood and money it seems to take everyone else, me included, to get past the buying junk stage.
 
Doesn't look too bad, but I have to agree with the others, get something newer and better!!

Looking around on my Craigs List, I have had 3 or 4 opportunists for 273, 268, etc. Which are MUCH nicer, newer, higher capacity machines..

IF you just want to dink with it, and are only doing a few acres, go for it, but don't put much money into it...

Also, I had a NH 66 that I crushed, kept several small parts, including those springs, so, IF you get it, I have the spring you need... ;)

Bryce
 
That baler was made in the mid-late 50s. Very low capacity. Leave it there. It may be 'cheap' now,but in the long run
EXPENCIVE(blood,sweat,cussing,money............)Buy something newer.Like a 200/300 series.
 
I do not know that baler but I do have a NH68 and a 271. If I where you unless it is super cheap I would be likely to pass on it and even if I got it due to the price I would keep my eyes open for say a 271 or 275 or newer.
As for the sickle bar mower I have both a hay bine and a sickle bar mower and I use both depending on the weather.
 
IMHO - and from first hand experience tinkering with this old equipment - maybe a New Holland 66 would be an OK baler.
Don't know how many acres you are baling. However, old equipment comes with ever present hazards of breaking down when
needed the most, sometimes hard to find parts - which can be expensive too. Plan on busting your knuckles, recalling
every curse word you ever knew and frustration.

However.....

If you are good with a wrench, enjoy tinkering with this stuff like I do (and many others), fixing older equipment can be
a lot of fun and satisfaction.

When I was in high school, I never played on the football team. Never threw a touch down pass - don't know what it feels
likes first hand.

Sometimes my Wife wonders if all this knuckle busting is worth it - and maybe it ain't....

But....

When I (me and my boys) get the old stuff working like a champ, hay baled and in the barn - and I look over the fields at
what we've accomplished, I feel like we've just thrown another game winning touch down pass and whatever misery that came
with fixing the equipment disappears. Hard to describe.

As to the 66, they worked, made square bales. Usually I read of wad board problems - do a search on this forum, there is
much info on them. I bought a model 68 and we did a refurb on it. Probably if I'm buying an old New Holland baler,
that's about as old as I'd go. IMHO - if you can find one in good shape and low cost, the model 273 is IMHO one of the
best all time balers New Holland ever made.

Good luck,
Bill
 
Dad had one when I was a kid. We put a lot of hay through it.
That being said, if you plan to use it a lot, you'd probably be better off with something newer, as the others have said.
If you want something to fix up and just run at a show once in a while, I'd grab this in a heartbeat! There is one at the LeSueur show every year. Works like a champ!
 
In addition to what others have said, the thing to remember about a baler is when it breaks down you may get a heavy rain you otherwise would have avoided, making for an unhappy customer. So whatever you buy go through it and get the loose and worn parts in shape before you start. That also helps you to be familiar with the equipment so you can fix it faster in the field.

I like a sickle mower and you will be able to find an old Haybine that has lots of problems which aren't apparent until you try to use it. Haybine is the way to go eventually but most everybody keeps their sickle mower around anyway.
 
The NH 66 was a very good baler, bale over 10,000 bales a year with one. If I was still farming it would be my choise of baler. Smaller bales but unless you are a weight lifter that is a plus. The wadboard problems are from a lack of maintaince. It would usually be a baler stored outside with those problems as wood when it gets wet expands and dries out again shrinks so you cannot adjust for both wet or dry wood. They have wood slides on plunger and those likely need replaced as that is cause of a lot of tying problems people have had with them. They make bales from 30", 36" or 42" in length. The S66 that followed had a different measuring system and you could set them for anyware from 24" to 42". When ours left it was only due to it not having a kicker on it and not finding any that would fit. And that was just after the year that 3 of us got overcome with heat baling.
 
Dad actually had a kicker put on the 66 we had. The local IH dealer was able to marry one of their throwers onto our baler. It had its own Briggs engine on it. Worked pretty well-we had it that way for a number of years. When you unhooked the baler you had to block it up in back, rather than under the hitch, because of how heavy that thrower was!
 

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