JD348 Baler at Work...

Bill VA

Well-known Member
Short video of our new to us JD348 baler that I was troubleshooting from an earlier post.

In the video, the tractor is running at 540 PTO rpms, 1st gear which is about 1.8 mph. Hay is timothy, it is our first cut of the year. The baler is our new to us JD348. This particular windrow was very large as several windrows were raked together. Not sure why the windrow was so big - but it is what it is. My boys were hopin' on this windrow, but it was relatively short in length. Don't think anyone could sustain a full day at that pace... ;-)

I feared my 50 hp JD5055d tractor might come-up short on hp for this baler. Deere says (which I take with a large grain of salt) 35 hp minimum. Again, I'm running 50ish PTO hp.

I think if the hay was higher in moisture - say late in the evening, the tractor might not workout so well on a throat full of hay in this baler. This hay was cut, tedded, raked and baled in unusually low humidity and fair winds, 8-14 mph, so it was very dry. No chunk of hay anywhere on this field flunked the three twist test.

Had a good day out with the baler - think we are on the way to having the kinks worked out - knock on wood!

Bill
JD348 At Work
 
(quoted from post at 20:26:40 06/11/16) Short video of our new to us JD348 baler that I was troubleshooting from an earlier post.

In the video, the tractor is running at 540 PTO rpms, 1st gear which is about 1.8 mph. Hay is timothy, it is our first cut of the year. The baler is our new to us JD348. This particular windrow was very large as several windrows were raked together. Not sure why the windrow was so big - but it is what it is. My boys were hopin' on this windrow, but it was relatively short in length. Don't think anyone could sustain a full day at that pace... ;-)

I feared my 50 hp JD5055d tractor might come-up short on hp for this baler. Deere says (which I take with a large grain of salt) 35 hp minimum. Again, I'm running 50ish PTO hp.

I think if the hay was higher in moisture - say late in the evening, the tractor might not workout so well on a throat full of hay in this baler. This hay was cut, tedded, raked and baled in unusually low humidity and fair winds, 8-14 mph, so it was very dry. No chunk of hay anywhere on this field flunked the three twist test.

Had a good day out with the baler - think we are on the way to having the kinks worked out - knock on wood!

Bill
JD348 At Work

The 348 can really kick out those bales....!
 

Bill
Congratulations. It appears you got the bale length problem under control. In video I noticed tractor operator unnecessarily depressed tractor clutch pedal for fear of stopping up baler. I've seen JD balers feed in hay consistently so that auger could not be seen by tractor operator.
Jim
 
Ha ha - I thought you were going to say the tractor operator needs to figure out how to drive in a straight line..... ;-)

BTW - I'm the tractor operator on this one. We try to switch off with each load so everyone gets a break from the wagon duty.
 
Almost forgot. I've read of the JD balers plugging the auger. Some of the advice I've received on this baler is - once the hay starts falling over the front of the auger, you are getting
near it's limit for feeding, so in that windrow, I was being careful. More than anything - we are trying to get the feel of this baler and how it works. I've watched a lot of youtube videos
of JD balers and not to many of them are jamming the pick-up like we are on this windrow - so that was a que for me to back-off too. I'd like to see the limit of this baler - probably will
be on a larger tractor, but without a doubt, it is a hay eating machine and the auger system defiantly delivers the hay to the bale chamber in mass - impressive.

One of the things I tell my boys and daughter is - LISTEN to the tractor and baler. They speak to you. I've found over the years with about any motor/PTO driven thing that, even when
identical model numbers, each is different in it's own way and you have to LEARN what works and doesn't work for that particular piece of machine.

Still in a learning curve on this JD348.

Thanks!
Bill
 
That windrow wasn't near what that baler can take. Don't worry about the auger - if it is going to plug it will do it between the pickup teeth and guide fingers. I run the 24T so that you can't see anything but hay from the ground to the top of the baler, and your baler is lots more capable. Tell them not to worry. You will have to work hard to plug it up in first gear.
 

Quite a step up from the old 68, eh Bill? Anything that new would look totally out of place on my farm! :lol:
 
Never ran a 348, but I tend to agree with the others if everything I have ever heard about a 348 is true it would not have plugged it or phased it at all.

If we lived closer, we could put it one of my ole antiques (Farmall m, or Farmall h) without live power on the baler. The options are 1st [email protected] mph so you either keep going, kick the tranny shifter out of gear, or weave out of the windrow which is what I mostly do. No matter what; I do not push the clutch in unless I have kicked it outta gear and then I will not push in clutch until baler has totally cleared. Back up a little first before going forward again so baler will be already up to speed when it reaches the hay windrow again .
 
Ah Shoot Bill,

That baler could take almost 2X the amount you are feeding it. There was no need to slow down for that light a windrow. We are still running a 327 and a 328 and by mid afternoon yesterday until almost dark made about 2,000 bales. Our balers have less capacity than your 348. We use the JD throwers and filled 16 cage wagons. Our only trouble was inconsistencies with the twine which messed up about 10 bales. Both balers were making good knots and good firm bales in alfalfa/orchard grass mix. Due to much rain, the orchard grass was quite tall, some being about 3 ft tall. So the 14 ft single windrows were big. We have moisture meters in the balers and much of it was running about 10%. Bales about 50 to 60 lbs. By 2 a.m. enough wagons had been unloaded that we could get the last 8 wagons under the shed roof. At my age, I pooped out by 9:30 and went home for dinner and a beer. Been moving a bit slow today.

Paul in MN
 
We are still in a learning curve with the JD348. I still enjoy the NH68 and we'll be keeping it.

I guess the big thing for us, as I've mentioned before, is more flakes per bale via the faster plunger speed at 93 vs 63-65 strokes per minute.

IMHO - probably the baler with the least fuss factor (meaning anyone can get on it and make bricks) are the Hesston/MF inline balers. I came
within a hair of buying one last fall and the crooked sales guy sold it out from under me. Those inline balers are anywhere from 93 to 100 SPM
depending on the model and appear to me to make an ultra perfectly shaped bale.

After the inline deal fell through, I really didn't see anymore inlines for sale (and you don't see inline square balers around here - don't know
why) , so I set my sights on really two balers, both 93 SPM machines. New Holland 570 / BC5060 and the JD347 or JD348. Locked and
loaded - ready for a deal to come. I feel these balers are equals and felt I was on the edge of having enough hp to run either.

As it turns out, in late December 2015, I found a JD348 and a New Holland BC5070, both similarity priced. Without a doubt, the BC series
balers have to be the easiest baler on the market today to service and maintain. Flip up covers everywhere - easy access to everything.
However the BC5070 (similar to the 575) was physically bigger, heavier and wider than the JD348. The JD348 is the same physical size as a
JD328 as a point of reference. I had concerns regarding the BC5070 and smaller windrows and bale quality. I've read much about them liking
to be feed full and hard. We needed something that we could dial back. I can essentially slow the rpms and have a JD338/328 or a 24t as
measured by SPM. Also concerned about my available hp and tractor weight. In the end we jumped on the JD348 on December 31st. Just
under the wire so I could begin depreciating it on my 2015 taxes.

Very hopeful with this JD baler. I don't typically celebrate until long after I achieve success.

Bill
 
Paul,

Thanks! That was the only windrow we had that was that heavy. Someone got carried away with the rake.

If you look at the video, there is a bale coming off the chute about every 5-8 seconds. I thought that was a pretty good pace/output. I know the boys were hoppin' - LOL!

I'm curious as to how much one can fill these JD balers.

Thanks again,
Bill
 
"That windrow wasn't near what that baler can take. Don't worry about the auger - if it is going to plug it will do it between the pickup teeth and guide fingers. I run the 24T so that you can't see anything but hay from the ground to the top of the baler, and your baler is lots more capable. Tell them not to worry. You will have to work hard to plug it up in first gear."

For some reason, I thought when a JD baler plugged, it was the auger and clearing it was a royal pain. Some of the posts I've read dinging the JD348 vs the New Holland 575 / BC5070 balers was the frustration at the feeding of the auger vs the New Holland rotary feed system on these newer designed balers, maybe I misread that.

I've jammed up the pickup on the New Holland 68 and stalled it. Sounds like On the 348 I need to forget a out the auger/top side of the pickup and watch pickup below the guide fingers - which in the video doesn't looked to me like it was overwhelmed in any way. I was focused on hay piling up on top of the pick-up and filling the throat area and that was my que to pause.

Good info - thanks!

Bill
 
I agree with Jim on that point.... you can push it a good deal harder and not plug it so long as the hay is dry. Then you will find out why they spec more power for that baler.
Mine will bale hay until the auger belt slips or it chews up a drive line.... but mine had the lighter drive line.

Rod
 
The limiting factor for capacity for our machines is the thrower. If the flakes are too thick and the bale is moving out the back end too fast, then the returning thrower pan does not come in UNDER the next bale, but rather it hits the end of the next bale. This can be seen from the tractor by looking at the thrower cylinder. If we see any shiny cylinder ram, then the pan has not returned far enough, and bales start getting messed up and broken. But you do not have a thrower, so you are limited only by how fast your helpers can move the bales away from the chute. IIRC, when I've disabled the thrower (lockout) and just let the bales pass over the pan and drop on the ground, it can push out a bale about every 3 seconds. But that just does not make any sense for our operation. We don't like to pick bales off the field, much better to have them auto loaded on the catch wagons and immediately headed to our shed or better yet, to the customer's barn. Our usual rate of production is about 45 minutes for hitching up an empty wagon to the baler, filling the wagon with about 130 bales, pulling it to the edge of the field where another empty is parked and waiting. Many of our fields are small and thus there is a bunch of wasted time turning at the ends of rows. The baler's capacity has seldom been the limiting factor (except with an approaching thunderstorm) when we push the balers to their limits). We use 7200 sisal twine to minimize bale breakage. Inconsistent quality twine has been the bug-a-boo for the last few years.

Paul in MN
 
Bill,

I have plugged the throat of the 327 and 328 on rare occasions. It has happened with a big slug of wet hay that was not turned over by the rake. The baler knives just do not cut wet hay very well. As a baler gets older (many thousands of bales, the plunger guides wear allowing the knives to move further apart. Then they just "mush" wet hay between the knives instead of cutting the hay to length. If your knives are getting dull, they are pretty easy to remove from the JD balers and take them to a grinder. I have made a jig for my old Craftsman radial arm saw turning a 6" X 1" grinding wheel to sharpen the knives. The knives also have a shim pack behind them to adjust the clearance between the plunger knife and the stationary knife. Your 348 is probably new enough that you might not need to sharpen the knives for another 10 years, but it is one item to check which affects capacity.

Another item which affects capacity is wear on the main drive chain (stretching). This is the chain located between the PTO slip clutch and the gear box. There is an adjustable small sprocket to take up wear on that chain, but as you adjust for chain stretch, it is taking the baler knotter slightly out of optimum timing. Today's chains from foreign lands do not last even half as long as quality American made. If this chain breaks, the plunger will crash the feeder forks, and possibly break the needles (maybe breaking the knotters), depending on whether it is in a knot cycle. Usually this means a working baler has just turned to total junk (or parts donor if your tree line has enough open space).

I don't think any brand of baler can maintain its rated maximum capacity for its useful life (without specific maintenance procedures. Thus I think a maximum capacity rating is only an academic point of discussion.

Paul in MN
 

I agree with the others that you were no where near the capacity of the baler. I have to comment about the windrow though, it appears that it was weaving around a bit. I always tried to impress on the person raking to remember that the baler has to follow, and to make it light or heavy if need be to keep it straight. Do you have an adjustment on the drawbar pole on the baler? I would like to see the wagon a couple feet nearer to the baler so that the guys don't need to reach for the bales.
 
"I agree with the others that you were no where near the capacity of the baler. I have to comment about the
windrow though, it appears that it was weaving around a bit. I always tried to impress on the person raking to
remember that the baler has to follow, and to make it light or heavy if need be to keep it straight. Do you
have an adjustment on the drawbar pole on the baler? I would like to see the wagon a couple feet nearer to the
baler so that the guys don't need to reach for the bales."

OK - next time out, I'm going to see what happens - break a shear pin, stall the pick-up or stall the tractor!

Like I say - we know when to back off on the old NH68 as we've stalled the pick-up or sheared a flywheel bolt.
In a learning curve on the 348, probably overly conservative, so we will let the hay build up and see how it
goes next time - I appreciate everyone's advice on this.

Yea - sometimes our windrows are a bit crooked. Some of that is just a function of our irrigular shaped
fields, other is operator error. What we try to do is make continuous windrows - going around and around
towards the center of the field. Once we get to a point where you can't make the turn, then the windrows are
all straight from there - with no hay beyond those windrows as we make the turns. I think everyone now knows
a tractor, pulling a baler, pulling a wagon ain't going to turn like a zero turn lawn mower!

Speaking of turns - one of the things I like about the JD348 is the equal angle hitch. Makes for a
tight/quite turn. The 68 will speak to you if you turn to tight with it - LOL!

Wagon to hitch distance. Probably can put the wagon a little closer. However, given the mountains of VA and
the rolly terrain (unlike flat ground, i.e. midwest), if you are not careful, as you make a turn, the chute
can dip down below the top of the wagon. As you straighten everything out, the chute and wagon bed can
collide. So we try to set the chute such that it can never hit the wagon under any circumstance. Interesting
that this JD has such a short chute extension. The extension on my old 14T and my current NH68 is much longer
longer - which is nice for clearing the wagon deck and delivering hay to the stackers. One thing I do preach
is to let the hay come to the wagon. Hard enough work for a day stacking without expending additional work
pulling the bale from the baler chute - when it get's pushed up anyway.

Thanks again,
Bill
 
(quoted from post at 09:33:14 06/13/16) "I agree with the others that you were no where near the capacity of the baler. I have to comment about the
windrow though, it appears that it was weaving around a bit. I always tried to impress on the person raking to
remember that the baler has to follow, and to make it light or heavy if need be to keep it straight. Do you
have an adjustment on the drawbar pole on the baler? I would like to see the wagon a couple feet nearer to the
baler so that the guys don't need to reach for the bales."

OK - next time out, I'm going to see what happens - break a shear pin, stall the pick-up or stall the tractor!

Like I say - we know when to back off on the old NH68 as we've stalled the pick-up or sheared a flywheel bolt.
In a learning curve on the 348, probably overly conservative, so we will let the hay build up and see how it
goes next time - I appreciate everyone's advice on this.

Yea - sometimes our windrows are a bit crooked. Some of that is just a function of our irrigular shaped
fields, other is operator error. What we try to do is make continuous windrows - going around and around
towards the center of the field. Once we get to a point where you can't make the turn, then the windrows are
all straight from there - with no hay beyond those windrows as we make the turns. I think everyone now knows
a tractor, pulling a baler, pulling a wagon ain't going to turn like a zero turn lawn mower!

Speaking of turns - one of the things I like about the JD348 is the equal angle hitch. Makes for a
tight/quite turn. The 68 will speak to you if you turn to tight with it - LOL!

Wagon to hitch distance. Probably can put the wagon a little closer. However, given the mountains of VA and
the rolly terrain (unlike flat ground, i.e. midwest), if you are not careful, as you make a turn, the chute
can dip down below the top of the wagon. As you straighten everything out, the chute and wagon bed can
collide. So we try to set the chute such that it can never hit the wagon under any circumstance. Interesting
that this JD has such a short chute extension. The extension on my old 14T and my current NH68 is much longer
longer - which is nice for clearing the wagon deck and delivering hay to the stackers. One thing I do preach
is to let the hay come to the wagon. Hard enough work for a day stacking without expending additional work
pulling the bale from the baler chute - when it get's pushed up anyway.

Thanks again,
Bill

Just a thought but maybe the forkers putting the hay to the bale chamber need an adjustment? I think i read somewhere that this possible.
 
Just a thought but maybe the forkers putting the hay to the bale chamber need an adjustment? I think i read somewhere that this possible.

Feeder forks can be adjusted to correct banana shaped bales if that happens to occur but Bill's bales appear purty square to me.
 

Another suggestion for the stacking crew; and this works both on the wagon and in the hayloft. Have the guy stacking on the wagon leave a bale on the floor for the guy taking off the chute or the elevator to set the bales on. This way the guy stacking doesn't have to bend over to pick from the floor, making his job both faster and easier.
 
A 50 PTO HP tractor will not max out a 348 baler. Back when we baled a fair amount of hay and straw we ran a 4010 diesel on a 347 and when the material was heavy I would not have wanted anything less than that 4010 which has a 4020 kit in it. First cutting hay many years was in excess of 3 tons per acre. We always wanted at least 50 PTO HP on a 9 cut sickle mower conditioner for a similar reason.
 
looks good, That is a good windrow for size no sense driving a hundred times around a field when fifty will do. I use a MF120 baler I usually bale on ground because of no help, and it will lay a bale every six feet. You are right about the sound when it starts knocking I just back off a bit. LOL I got the baler for $300. about ten years ago because no one around here square bales anymore.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies - most helpful.

With regard to hay filling the front of the throat where the auger turns, the hay compression fingers in front of it - over the pickup, are some what curved on a concave manner. The fingers stick a fair piece in front of the pickup.

Is it possible that that extended length in front of the pickup and the concave profile are there to serve as a cradle for hay that is falling over in front of the auger - keeping it off the pickup, yet ready to be pulled-in by the tines reaching through the fingers?

Are you folks typically seeing the auger disappear completely behind a pile of hay, laid out on the top of the compression fingers too?

You have peaked my curiosity on the capacity of this baler. Not that you'd run it that way, but good to know it's normal when you get there.

We have another round of hay in a few weeks. I'm going to let the hay pile up and see how it goes.

Thanks again!
Bill
 

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