New Holland 276 baler

dhermesc · Jun 27, 2017

I am looking at a 276 baler today. The owner was putting up about 1500 bales a year with it and says he is getting out of the business. Anything specific to look at on this model? He also has a 69 for sale that was his "backup" but he claims it hadn't been used in years. The 276 has the clean sweep pickup (don't all of them?) - something I am looking forward to as my old IH 47 baler is extremely slow and can barely fit our windrows in its feeder.

old · Jun 27, 2017

As with any square baler they are pretty much all the same so you need to look at things like how wore out are the drive chains which is easy to tell just by grabbing the chain in the middle of a sprocket and pulling up on it and and if it pulls up very high the chain is on it way out. And of course bearing and knifes etc etc. ONE great big thing it the needle condition and the plunger safety stop and if it is working as it should be because that can lead to major high $$ problems

1130Leo · Jun 27, 2017

276 is a great baler, I have 2 working ones and a parts one. Makes great bales. Check the bolts that hold the chain guard on the guard from the gearbox to the knotter drive. I had the bolt come loose behind the gear, which eventually tangles with the drive chain and will break the heck out of things. The bolt is hidden, I now check it every time before starting to bale.

Hay hay hay · Jun 27, 2017

I have owned a 276 for 15 years. It is a very good baler, many say the best of the older balers, high volume.
Check the gear box...lube good and up to level? Roll it over, plunger free and tight? Open the back and look at the feeder carriage...chain tight, fingers good? The knotters are standard NH and repairable.

Be sure it has the long chute and wagon tow bar.

If it is in decent shape, it is a very good baler, and worth $2000---$3000 at auction here in KY

Bill VA · Jun 27, 2017

IMHO the 276 was one of New Holland's best balers. If they are asking any kind of above scrap sale price, have them run some hay through it and see if it will make a bale/tie a knot. Look for welded needles as an indicator that something happened at some point in the baler's life. That old of a baler should roll,over by hand. Expect some refresh/refurb repairs. I think they are a 79 stroke machine which would put them in a class similar to the JD 336 whereas a NH 273 is around 65 strokes per minute. It makes a standard 14 X 18 cross section bale, so nothing goofy there.

I had a buddy that had one and claimed it was junk, parked it in a fence row and let folks come by and scavenge parts from it. Crying shame as it was in good overall shape, but IMHO, he couldn't get it to tie, be timed stop breaking needles and rather read a manual or come on YT, he blamed the baler.

Get the 69 too for a back-up. I'm guessing that if you have a backup, you'll never have problems with the 276!!!!

Good luck,
Bill

JD Seller · Jun 27, 2017

I currently own two NH 276 balers. The one only has baled 7-8 thousand bales. It looks like new. I think the NH 276 balers is one of the best balers ever built. It is a high stroke per minute baler so you have capacity. I had one in the mid 1980s and it was getting pretty worn out. I traded it in on a new NH 316 and that baler would not even bale close to the NH 276. So I found the one I am currently using.

In good hay you can easily knock out 250-300 bales and hour in thick hay. That is solid bales too. We would load two wagons in just over and hour and the wagons hold 175 bales.

dhermesc · Jun 27, 2017

Bought it $2000.

Looked OK - needs a couple pickup teeth. And one the forks that feeds the hay into plunger had been welded instead of replaced. The guy had an 11 year old kid that liked to talk and talk and talk - I'm sure if he was trying to dump a lemon the kid wouldn't have been able to keep the secret.....

The guy said in somewhat green alfalfa the baler has trouble tieing or keeping a knot tied - in good dry hay (isn't that how its supposed to be) it works perfectly. I just watched YouTube videos of 276s in action and they seem to run about 3X faster than the baler I've been using.

I'll keep my working IH 47 wire tie as a backup. It made 1100 bales in a row without breaking one - it just can't handle the large windrows I get with my fertilized brome. Right now its waiting for me to fix a sprocket on the pickup.

New Holland 276 baler

dhermesc

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old

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1130Leo

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Hay hay hay

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Bill VA

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JD Seller

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dhermesc

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