NH 276 baler

i have a new to me new holland 276 baler for this year. i'm curious as to what twine you guys are using with this baler. thanks for your help.

I use the common plastic type twine in all my balers. I learned to hate the sisal twine on square bales years ago because some would just fall apart when you tried to pick them up

I have a 282, bigger bales but same era. I use the 5000 foot rolls of plastic twine because the bigger ones won't fit in my twine box

I run 7200 sisal in my NH68 and NH 268 but am probably going to plastic because of the increase of price on the sisal.

the reason i ask is, when buying shear bolts at the dealer, he told me the baler was designed for sisal. he said to be careful using poly as the baler is partial to different knot strengths / thickness / etc. he wasn't able to suggest the twine that would work the best however. thanks.

Cannot say for sure on that one but I know that at one time they made different bill hooks for running sisal or plastic twine. I use a NH271 and use plastic twine and never have any problem unless the twine knife get dull and then it will miss knots and all I have to do is sharpen the knifes up and I'm good to go again

I use 9000 sisal. That is what they recommended

I use 9000 ft sisal in my 273 and they hold together fine. Neighbor across the road, 273 and plastic, does fine with that. He told me the dealer told him what ever you use, stick to it and don't switch back and forth. They wear in differently.

9600/170. I ran that in my #78;282;283;425.....And now my CIH 8530 inline.Anything else would just cause problems.

I have had good luck with tractor supply 9000 in my 276. It also runs fine with Poly but I really don?t want poly on the farm. And poly bales are nasty to handle. Any decent 9000 Sisal works fine in my 276? but if you get some crappy twine (and it really doesn?t matter what you pay for it. Some of my most expensive Twine was the worst.) Bad twine.... it will mess up. As long as it?s decent quality twine I don?t think the brand matters .

9600/170 is a great choice.

Baloney

I use to use 9000 sisal with some good luck in my NH68 with some broken string, not to bad. Then year before last, it got worse in both the 68 and JD348. Last year I switched to 7200 sisal to give me a stronger twine and it was worse. At the end of the haying season, I tried some plastic 9600/210 and now have no real twine issues. I think the price difference between 170 and 210 knot strength is minimal. We now have a pan kicker, but for you 9600/170 would likely be the car?s meow for half the cost of sisal.

IMHO the 276 is a fine baler.

You will need to ask some of the guys that have used many different models of older NH balers to reply, but I think the knotters were pretty much standardized after a certain point, so perhaps all the 200 and 300 series NH balers had the same knotters. I have heard that the later 500 series NH balers had different billhooks that were better with poly twine. I have also heard that the poly twine billhooks can be installed on older balers. I will say that my old NH276 with the original billhooks, tied poly twine (for a one box of poly test) as well or better than sisal. However, I don't like or plan to use poly due to the chance for livestock injuries.

I have found, Case Sisal, 7200 works best, out of 2000 bales, broke like 3 last year. I used to use 9000, started breaking more than I liked. 7200 is a little more costly, but having to re bale is no fun either. Both of my 276 balers work great with 7200 case sisal twine, do not buy tractor supply twine...

I use 9000 poly. Yes, there are supposed to be "plastic" bill hooks and "sisal" bill hooks, but I never changed anything. The sheer consistency of plastic over sisal took care of 90% of my baler problems. Yes, it's a pain to deal with the mess a pile of old poly makes int he field if you drop it, but the same thing applies to sisal for the years it takes to rot down. Pick the stuff up and it's no big deal.

I can only suspect this...it's just my opinion; but my opinion is that I suspect that even dealer personnel are subject to old wives' tales here and there.

A knotter is a knotter. Factory settings for "sisal" or "plastic", to me seem to be in the wives' tale category.

Now...some balers will perform differently with different twine, depending on how they have worn and such.

It's a matter of knowing your baler and adjusting for a few basic physical facts.

7200 twine is thicker than 9000
Plastic is more slippery than Sisal.
Plastic is more uniform than Sisal.

That's about it...adjust accordingly.

If your baler is properly tuned with clean billhooks (no burrs to catch the knot), a sharp twin cutting knife and a wiper arm that runs right tight to the bill hook...properly adjusted and tensioned twine fingers....you should be able to run any darn twine you want to.

Now...having said that; you can adjust, based on your balers particulars.

For instance. I have a friend with an old 269 baler that I run for him. His wiper arm doesn't run tight to the bill hook. If you use plastic or small diameter (9000) sisal; you will get knots stuck on the bill hook. However, put some big, thick, fuzzy 7000 foot sisal in there and you'll bale a couple thousand bales between misses.

My own 276 seems to have a tight bill hook. The wiper arm is fine, but the knots hang inside the bill hook; even if the wiper is doing its darndest to wipe them out. I've found little burrs in there that I've smoothed down, I've lubricated the bill hook with a little oil before baling... doesn't matter... If I use sisal, all of that furry, fuzzy stuff catches and I get knots hung up.

But...with that baler, nice smooth plastic will make a smaller, tighter knot that pulls out better. Again. I'll go thousands without a miss, with plastic in this case.

The one catch here is that I had to tighten my twine fingers a little; because the plastic would pull out more easily.


Again...in all of these cases, the choice of sisal vs plastic and/or 7000 vs 9000 were made to adjust for these baler's particular quirks that they have developed over time.


If I had replaced or adjusted the parts in question (billhook/wiper arm/twine finger) better; then I should be able to use any twine that I want.

So I have consciously selected twine to play to my needs without really fixing the baler. Lazy, yes...but it works.


After saying all of that. Sisal's non-uniformity has become a headache in the last ten years or so. My brother bales 30,000 to 40,000 small squares every year. He's an excellent mechanic, and his knotters are adjusted perfectly. He uses sisal exclusively; because he has a little bit of hippy/Earthy streak in him. In the last ten years or so, when he misses bales with sisal...99% of the time, the knot is fine, it was tied fine, cut fine, slid off of the billhook fine.... but there was a thin spot in the twine that just let the bale pop apart when it expanded coming out of the chamber or going through the thrower.

It is not likely but it is possible for a baler that ties well with sisal to miss a lot with poly. The first time that I tried poly, it said on the wrapper that it would "work well in all balers that were properly adjusted". So you could have a setting that is just over the edge of being out of spec, but still ties OK with sisal but with the little bit of difference it may not tie with poly. The point is that it would be worth your while to go through your adjustments, which of course you should do anyway.

(quoted from post at 15:27:23 06/05/18) I can only suspect this...it's just my opinion; but my opinion is that I suspect that even dealer personnel are subject to old wives' tales here and there.

A knotter is a knotter. Factory settings for "sisal" or "plastic", to me seem to be in the wives' tale category.

Click to expand...

I thought the same thing, but a guy here came up with the NH part #'s for the sisal and the plastic bill hooks last year. I don't know what the difference is and I imagine on a 50 year old baler things are so worn that it's all academic.