Old Vermeer and New Holland chain balers

J.A.R

Member
Looking at getting an older round baler kinda got it narrowed down between these to brands. Just want some opinions on which ones were the "best" or which brand would be better. Don't put up a lot of hay that's why I cant justify spending astronomical amounts of money. It's all grass hay as iv read chain balers tend to be alittle rough on leaves. Like to know which are soft core, balers open/closed throat, the likes I guess. Lemme know what you guys think thanks.
 
I've been using a NH850 for years now and like it. Open throat and does a nice job but you need 55 plus HP to run it. I have 2 of them.
 
I guess I forgot to mention that I have a MM 670 Diesel...new motor and bumped up some anywhere from 70 to 80hp i believe.
 
I pull my NH850 with an Oliver S88 which is rated at 55hp and it does just fine. I did learn you need to use a higher gear then 1st or you make a bale that is so tight you cannot get a bale spike in to them. I run 3rd gear with the Oliver. First year I ran 1st and my ford 841S with loader could not pick them up due to a rear tire coming off the ground. The NH850 makes a big 6X6 bale as they call them but I make them more like 5X6.
 
I have a well worn NH 848 baler that does well for me. it was the last model of chain baler before the belt balers. bales are 4'
wide, so it works good for putting 2 wide on a trailer.
 
I had a NH 850. I replaced all the bolts with new bolts, with lock washers, thread sealent and lock nuts. Never had a problem with it.
 
Had a bolt come loose on my 855 and tied the apron chain into a knot that took 3 days to cut apart and get the chain pulled out of the baler after that it went to scrap only baled 40 acres with it
 
don't get an old nh parts are hard to come by if you get Vermeer make sure it has letter j and upcall me if you need more info call eat 270-528-2431 nites 6-9 cst wew ork on both
 
I've never had any problem getting parts for any of the NH balers that I have and I have 3 of then 2 NH850 and a NH271
 
My neighbor just sold a good old NH850 chain baler stored inside and working well for $1000. Hard to beat for the
price.Very common in my neck of the world, dozens in every farm auction. The 5x6 ft sell the cheapest.
 
Here you cant get 200 for a nice one no one here wants them any more too much hay lost as they do not seal the bales,, if you store hay inside that might change things,, I quit using them in the 80's for that reason my hay customers hated the bales from them for the taking water issues the floor chain models create,, last ones I seen at sales all went to scrap,, and before you jump on me I sold them new starting in 1975 when they came out,, they bale fine but bale quality is poor
 
I've been using NH 851 balers for over 20 years,never paid over $500 for any of them down to as little as $50 for one with a broken chain.Now have 8 of them 4 runners 4 for parts.They may not make the best bale or be the fastest but they will bale almost anything that can be raked up and don't give a lot of trouble.When they do break they are easy to work on and after running
and working on them for years I pretty know the whole balers pretty well.Had a NH 847 for awhile and it was a good baler but everything I have is geared for the larger bales so when I was offered a good price for it I sold it.Things to keep an eye on are to make sure there are no missing bolts to hold the bars on the chain and a bearing going bad on the idler sprockets and
rollers.Also they don't take a lot of HP to run as I bale with my Oliver 1550 tractors which are about 53 HP,of course the 1650 Oliver (70HP) and the Allis 185 (80HP) will pull them better.
 
Recently switched from small squares to an old 855 NH chain baler. It makes a nice bale. They are still round and tight after a year sitting outside. They will bale anything and that is a plus since my flail chopper crapped out. I can cut a round and bale it up without using the twine and feed it out. I run it behind a New Holland TN85 and it works just fine. Kid has run it on the old IH 656 and he says it ran OK as well. Sometimes the smaller green bales will need help ejecting but overall I like the old beast.
 
Most all the NH chain balers are similar. However, there's a decent variety between the various older Vermeer balers, so it really depends on which ones you're looking at. Some are open throat, some are closed. All NHs and Vermeers are variable core balers. There is no "best", but there's a reason they no longer make variable core chain balers. But they can still be used to make a bale of hay and be bought cheap.
 

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