So - we cut a little patch of grass hay with the Hesston 1110 I've been posting about and yesterday we got the new to me Deere 348 baler out to see what we've got, adjust, etc. and then try to rebale some old squares and then bale up the small patch of grass mowed with the Hesston.
Some observations:
Compared to my old New Holland 68, the plunger speed (93 vs 63-65 strokes per minute) and pickup speed - really fast.
Though the pickup is wider and a nice feature, didn't really notice it as an advantage - yet.
Baler likes to be fed (per the manual) from the extreme right side of the pick-up. NH68 is the opposite.
Baler will make a bale so tight it breaks the strings - we found that out on the first few bales as we were much to tight on the initial adjustment.
Side doors - had them half way in, then out, just not enough hay to run through the baler to get a sense of how we should set them. Want a tight bale - there must be a compromise between the side doors and top/bottom tension.
Baler ties great.
We got it adjusted to make a crisp, brick 32 inch long bale - but every once in a while, it would spit out a bale about 6-8 inches long, tight packed, perfectly tied! Need to figure that out.
I've got 50 hp to work with - tractor seemed to do fine. No where near capacity of the baler yesterday but good to know it I can make hay with this set-up.
So this baler is a 93 strokes per minute baler. Where the hay was thin and increasing ground speed to fill the pickup wasn't feasible, I slowed the RPMs down a bit - keeping the same ground speed gear. I figure a flywheel is a flywheel and where I need to run the 68 at full 540 PTO rpms to get a decent count of flakes per bale AND to keep the baler from shearing flywheel bolts due to lack of flywheel inertia, the nice thing about the 348 is I'm comfortable slowing it to a 80 stroke per minute machine (like a 336) or slower down to a lower limit of 65 strokes per minute like my 68. In the lighter windrows, this slowing worked like a champ - so in some respects, I can use the 348 as a high capacity baler or slow it as necessary to mimic a lower capacity baler; a nice option to have in my hip pocket.
Set the pick-up wheel to keep the pickup as high as possible. Even then it is still low and can high center on some of our lumpy ground.
Checked over the multiluber - seems to be working fine. Definitely a different viscosity grease in it vs my grease gun. Will be visiting the JD dealer to get more of this grease.
Figured out that the PTO is Cat 5 and that sucker is heavy!
With some touch-up paint and elbow grease, the baler cleaned up nicely.
All in all - I think this will make a nice back-up to my trusty New Holland 68 ...... ;-)
Bill
Some observations:
Compared to my old New Holland 68, the plunger speed (93 vs 63-65 strokes per minute) and pickup speed - really fast.
Though the pickup is wider and a nice feature, didn't really notice it as an advantage - yet.
Baler likes to be fed (per the manual) from the extreme right side of the pick-up. NH68 is the opposite.
Baler will make a bale so tight it breaks the strings - we found that out on the first few bales as we were much to tight on the initial adjustment.
Side doors - had them half way in, then out, just not enough hay to run through the baler to get a sense of how we should set them. Want a tight bale - there must be a compromise between the side doors and top/bottom tension.
Baler ties great.
We got it adjusted to make a crisp, brick 32 inch long bale - but every once in a while, it would spit out a bale about 6-8 inches long, tight packed, perfectly tied! Need to figure that out.
I've got 50 hp to work with - tractor seemed to do fine. No where near capacity of the baler yesterday but good to know it I can make hay with this set-up.
So this baler is a 93 strokes per minute baler. Where the hay was thin and increasing ground speed to fill the pickup wasn't feasible, I slowed the RPMs down a bit - keeping the same ground speed gear. I figure a flywheel is a flywheel and where I need to run the 68 at full 540 PTO rpms to get a decent count of flakes per bale AND to keep the baler from shearing flywheel bolts due to lack of flywheel inertia, the nice thing about the 348 is I'm comfortable slowing it to a 80 stroke per minute machine (like a 336) or slower down to a lower limit of 65 strokes per minute like my 68. In the lighter windrows, this slowing worked like a champ - so in some respects, I can use the 348 as a high capacity baler or slow it as necessary to mimic a lower capacity baler; a nice option to have in my hip pocket.
Set the pick-up wheel to keep the pickup as high as possible. Even then it is still low and can high center on some of our lumpy ground.
Checked over the multiluber - seems to be working fine. Definitely a different viscosity grease in it vs my grease gun. Will be visiting the JD dealer to get more of this grease.
Figured out that the PTO is Cat 5 and that sucker is heavy!
With some touch-up paint and elbow grease, the baler cleaned up nicely.
All in all - I think this will make a nice back-up to my trusty New Holland 68 ...... ;-)
Bill