Inconsistent Bale Length New Holland 315

TNFARMKID

Member
I am running a New Holland 315 baler and I am having trouble with it making consistent length bales. This past weekend I baled some extremely thick mixed grass hay, yielding around 100 bales an acre. The bales were around 50 percent consistent. In the last 2 years I have replaced the trip arm part# 706568 and friction disc part# 41521. Does anybody have any ideas on what the problem could be or how to correct it? Thanks in advance.
 
I'm no expert at all...

This is kind of common with thin, bunched, or wet and dry windrows. It sounds like you had full heavy windrows tho? Just checking, was the hay windrowed consistently?

How the baler feeds the bale chamber is another issue. If you have missing feed fork, or worn down, or some such that feeds unevenly to the plunger could cause problems.

Just off the top of my head things to take care of, so others can get to the real issue.

Paul
 
Windrows were very large and consistent. I was baling at 1-1.5mph to try to get plenty of charges in each bale. All the feeder assembly is in good shape and no parts missing. I bale mainly for resale so nice looking consistent bales are highly desirable. The only problem I know of with the plunger knives are starting so get a little dull.
 
I assume you are running the pto at the correct speed, I like to make a bale every 11-13 strokes and like to use bale and the most tension I can use to make a nice solid bale, the others made other good points below to what can cause this also,,
cnt
 
How many slices are in each bale and how thick is your average slice? If the variation between bales is smaller than your average slice thickness, there may not be much you can do about that other than reducing your ground speed. If there is wear on the knotter trip mechanism, slippage may be causing the variation in bale length.
 
I have between 13-20 slices in each bale. I am running the baler with a JD 2550 with hi-lo, I was baling in 1st-lo just to try to prevent overfeeding it. I don't really know what other knotter trip parts I can replace.
 
I have the exact same situation in heavy grass hay. Wide variation, 3 or 4 inches. I think the wheel is not moved consistently with this stemmy hay. Bales made later in the year with less hard stems seem to be more consistent.
Makes stacking more difficult and the big hay buyers complain a bit about how it stacks on a big trailer.
 
Glad to hear I am not the only person with this problem. I've kind of noticed the same thing, second and third cutting seems to be a little more consistent. Has anybody got an idea for the solution?
 
I sold NH balers in the 70's neve once have I ever heard or advised t run one slower than 540 rated speed,, that right there will make is do that in bulky grass hay,, I used to bale 120,000-150,000 of those small squares until i went to round bales,,, you run it how you like, all my bales had to go into a NH bale wagon, they would vary if the windrow changed or it was not feeding or being fed correctly, 1 -4" of difference was common in the heavy bulky hay, in the lighter windrows of finer grass would pack better and was more even
cnt
 
From the replies you gave to the other guys it sounds to me like you are not feeding the hay in fast enough. Get that PTO speed up to what the baler was designed for and feed it faster.
Are you getting nice tight bales with the method you are using now? If the strings aren't tight on those bales they need more hay. Less hay and loose bales make it difficult for that spoked wheel which measures the length at which the wheel trips the knotters to know when to trip.
 
When you say inconsistent bale length, what is inconsistent - 1 inch or 5 inches, etc. IMHO, a bale should only vary by the thickness of a flake of hay. My New Holland 68 made some inconsistent bale lengths, but we up'd the rpms to 540 and slowed the ground speed to get smaller flakes. That and a tight, not springy bale made a world of difference.

Consistent windrows help too. Feed your New Holland near the plunger side of the baler too.

315 IMHO is a fine baler.

Good luck
Bill
 
I have a NH 5060 and it does the same thing. I had a 565 and it did the same thing. Since I use a bale wagon and consistancy is paramount set the PTO on 540 and slow down. It's hard to do but will cure the problem.
 
I am running as slow as the tractor will possibly go. Does your consistence get better in smaller or bigger windrows?
 
I have no idea how heavy your rows are but your ground speed is way low. You need to time your ground speed to the rotation of the pickup teeth, the speed of the teeth should be slightly faster than the ground speed, the ground speed should be such as the pickup just pulls a slight bit when feeding the hay in, not trying to pull the whole row as with your ground speed it sounds like you are doing.
 
(quoted from post at 11:38:00 06/14/17) Would a Plunger Face Extension help with this problem?

Have you checked the forkers that put the hay in the bale chamber? They are aluminum and wear quickly.
Do you have the chamber wedges in place?
How dense do you make the bales?
As was mentioned the knife should be very sharp and the gap of it to the chamber within spec.
 
The feeder forks appeared to be in good shape. I checked everything as usual before starting. I am running the baler with 4 chamber wedges. I'm trying to get a solid 45-50lbs bale.
 

The appearance of the feeder forks can be misleading. Aluminum doesn't visibly rust, but it does wear easily.

I tuned up a friend's old 269 baler that hadn't been used for a few years once. When we first started baling with it; it made uneven bales (not bale length so much...but one side was always packed tighter than the other)

The feeder teeth looked fine, but I took them off and went to the NH dealer and asked to compare to the new ones.

Come to find out, they looked fine, but they were about 4 to 6 inches shorter than they were brand new.

Ground speed, winrow size and all are important. A couple of years ago, reading posts on here, it seems that the consensus is that a good balance for making good bales is somewhere around 13 plunger strokes per bale.

You said that your bales ranged from nine to twenty flakes. That's a big range. Baling is boring, mindless work. Since I read the tips about the number of plunger strokes, I keep myself occupied by counting plunger strokes between knotter trips; and I adjust ground speed accordingly

I think that your second and third cutting may be (in my humble opinion) more consistent because of the stem length of the forage.

Second and third cutting is typically light. The forage isn't as tall. Depending on the rake that you're using, (especially if you're using "roll-a-bar" rakes) tall forage can get twisted into ropey windrows.

I've noticed that, in tall forage, even if I think I'm going along at the ground speed that I need...and I'm popping out bales every 13 plunger strokes or so...every once in a while, the pickup will grab onto the winrow and about a four-foot long ropey slug pulls right in together. When that happens...bam...the knotters trip on the big old whopper flake.

Tall forage also has stiffer stems, so the level of packing varies more, depending on how the stems are arranged in the flakes.

Almost never happens with my second or third cut. Even if you rake it up into a big winrow, the baler only nibbles it as it goes along, never drawing in a big rope. I get more consistent numbers of plunger strokes. The tender stems pack tightly and consistently.
 

My experience is that this is common in heavy hay. Remember that when the gauge trips it has to wait for the plunger to clear before the needles can move, so sometimes it will get an extra charge in. When in heavy hay the area where the cross feed sweeps from is going to always be full, but your reduced PTO speed means the plunger runs slower, making your flakes bigger, so that one more flake makes a greater length increase. You are correct to reduce ground speed but you need to get the baler speed closer to designed working speed. It will also last you longer if you run it faster.
 

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