Round baler. Hay building between outside belt and wall.

Farmer888

New User
OK guys I have a hesston 5540 round baler I have just a little farm do about 250 to 300 round bales a year had this round baler 2 years worked great last two with minor maintance. Pulled it out this year and when baling hay; hay slowly starts to build between the wall of the baler and the outside belts on both sides.(this happens outside the bale chamber it's on the part of the belts that go up the front there shouldn't be hay in there period) To the point after every 3 or 4 bales it's built up so much it pushes the belt over and I have to get off and clean the hay off ? And ideas why it's doing this? I tightened the belts and helped a bit but not to much. The belts feel tight and I'm out of room to tighten them more with out shortening the belts. Also seems to do it most when doing head lands where I am bailing and turning more. Any ideas?
 
I had a Hesston 55XX with 4 " belts. Bought it used and the belts were just sloppy and made sloppy rolls. I did replace the belts with new 4" but still not happy with the performance.

Sold it and bought a JD with 8" (I think) belts. I found the wider belts do a great job of containing the edge of the roll. Vermeer even uses what looks like a 12" outside belt; obviously a reason for it....does a better job of controlling the ends of the bale.

So why now? Maybe your belts are getting old. Personally, if you want to keep that baler, I'd think about pulling off the outer 2 belts and installing one wider one even if you have to remove a divider bar to do it.....seems to me you are ready for some new belts anyway.
 

I know nothing about a Hesston rd baler but on JD rd balers when baling grass hay with lower moisture content(10 or under) slowing pto rpm's down to as low as 450 pto rpm's helps slow/stop hay from running up outside belts. In drier hay at 540 rpm's hay breaks loose from forming bale & windrow feeding in baler to run up belts.
 

Hey Jim, does that help the "ruptured navel" I sometimes get? I have a very irregular field and usually irregular WWs and add to that irregular moisture content so getting consistent rolls is a bummer anyway and I'd rather not have the navels.........makes me look bad...you know the neighborhood prestige thing. Grin
 
I run a jd 435 baler. Make sure the outside
edge of the belts that are next to the steel
walls are smooth. Any rough spot on the
edge of the belt will pull grass to that
area. Check your belt lacing to make sure
the belt is not on backwards.
 

Mark
Bales with protruding navels are caused from baling windrows narrower than baler and tractor operator not weaving fast enough during "core formation" to fill both extreme sides of bales. Make a level 5 ft windrow for your baler and the protruding navels will be history. Baling with my 467(4 ft wide) Mega-wide pickup baler I rake 5' wide windrows and never have a protruding navel on my bales.
Jim
 

Yes sir. Thank you.

That explains why some do and some don't. Looking back, they must be a result of my areas where the product is sparse and even after raking 3L and 3R you still don't have all that much product.
 
Thanks all. I slowed my pto down and that made a good deal difference. I think most of my issues is the hay. It has dried so fast with this heat. With slowing my pto it helped keep the loose hay out but I found the hay so dry that as the bale spun in the chamber it would chafe off little pieces of hay so much so that the 30 seconds it took me to go from one wind row to the next it would clog up he pick up. To the point I had to shut the baler off between rows. And even when I was tying I had to move around so it wouldn't clog up the arms running the tie. I think this is all due to the baller having 4 inch spacing between the belts. After this past weekend I'm looking for a new baler.. it's just a shame I never had issues the last two years. And the belts look good. Not new but not bad and they are tight could maybe be a bit tighter but defiantly fairly tight
 

Problem is the hays to dry, I've owned two 5540's and baled many bales with them but they don't like dry hay or wet hay. They make good bales but if it's to dry hay will get between the belts and rap around the upper roll, if hays to wet it will rap around the square starter roll and lock up the baler.
You can try baling earlier in the morning or later in the evening while the hay has more moisture in it.
After taking on another farm I decided I needed a baler that wasn't has picky about hay condition, so I traded it in for a newer baler. I went with a different brand (NH) but my uncle has a Hesston 540 the he's had good luck with doing 3-400 rolls a year with, I'm doing 800+ and have recently upgraded from a NH 640 to a NH BR7070.
 
My first baler was a Hesston 5545, I had the same problem, never did get it right, my belts were pretty beat up and slick, but didn't want to invest any more money in it, Sold it and bought a new Vermeer, sorry I couldn't be of any more help.
 

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