JD 385 Round Baler-Bale Tension

GarryinNC

Well-known Member
A friend bought a JD 385 round baler. I was looking at it briefly and could not see how it put tension on the bales. I figure hydraulic, but only saw the two cylinders for the tailgate operation. We have a Hesston 530 with the big springs for tension, so that is what I am used to. Have worked on a Hesston 540 also, it uses hydraulics for tension.

Thanks,
Garry
 
That was my uneducated guess. Have you heard much about the 385? Was it a decent baler? Weak points? Troublesome areas? Good points? Theirs looks to be in good shape, with not a lot of bales through it. Still has some green paint on the sides of the bale area. He said that both of the previous owners had small acreage.

Thank You Jim.

Garry
 

I have no personal experience with a 385 and I've never seen one in operation in my area. I dislike the fact that 385 has no monitor & surface wrap option similar to my 467 not to mention the mega-wide pickup and larger diameter bales that the 385 can't make. I think that a 385 wouldn't make a tight enough bale in grass hay for my liking.
 
I bought one of them new in 96 and used it to make almost 1000 bales a year up until 2015 season. It was a very good baler, one set of bearings and chains....I was hard on it for a few years baling flooded hay ground, I won't be doing that with my new 459.
Hydraulic cylinders apply tension via the valve body over the hitch.
 
(quoted from post at 21:41:14 12/15/16) I bought one of them new in 96 and used it to make almost 1000 bales a year up until 2015 season. It was a very good baler, one set of bearings and chains....I was hard on it for a few years baling flooded hay ground, I won't be doing that with my new 459.
Hydraulic cylinders apply tension via the valve body over the hitch.

What did you use to lube the chains? These look like they have never had any lubrication and have been run dry. Hesston says 'oil the chains daily'. Have not looked at their manual.

Garry
 
I've been using Liquid Wrench and JD chain lube on my old 644 for about twenty years, and with the exception of one drive chain on
the pickup, it still has the original chains. Every time I start, and most times when I finished, all of the chains got a shot.
The cost of a case of lube isn't a lot, and it's sure as all hell cheaper than a new chain plus the headache of needing to replace
on in the field.
 

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