What a day!

cool hand

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Tuesday was a day to remember, or try to forget! I cut some hay on Sunday afternoon with plan to bale it in short order on Tuesday. Well, Monday went as planned, including tedding the hay. Then on Tuesday at noon I raked the hay--so far so good. Then I went to the field with the round baler (JD 530) and on the fourth bale it threw a belt, pulled the lacing out on one end. So, I had to go to the barn and install new lacing, AND re-install that belt through its serpentine configuration--a tough job for this eighty year old, but I made it. Then back to baling. After 3-4 bales a universal joint failed. (A very expensive one, I might add--$441.03!) Too late to repair that day, and Wednesday I was obligated to other things. So, I went and got my neighbor cousin's similar baler thinking I could roll the rest of it up pretty quickly. (He wasn't at home, but that has never been an issue between us.) Well, on the third bale it tore two belts, one mendable by replacing the lacing, the other was pretty much destroyed. Now what to do? I knew that he wanted to bale the next day, so after flying into a panic, I decided that I had to remove a belt from our baler and install it on his baler along with the one I mended. This I proceeded to do at first light on Wednesday, but I was very pressed for time. But, I managed to complete the repair job just in time to leave for my other obligation. Then, as I went to put the baler in the barn, the tractor wouldn't crank. What next??!! After spending some time diagnosing the problem, I found that a battery cable was bad and got a replacement for it. Oh, on Wednesday my neighbor cousin baled his hay without a problem, and as I learned on Thursday he was none the wiser!
 
You're a good man for being concerned for your neighbors equipment! Not many are today...

Have you tried matching the U joint up with an automotive application? That price sounds like the doings of a dealership!
 
Boy with the luck you had trying to get your hay baled I sure hope you went and got a lotto ticket because that would be the only way I would to get my farming luck to turn around or just take the ticket and use it to start a well deserved fire LOL. My dads favorite saying was that people would say to him well it could be worse and most of the time they were right it would get worse.
 
Sounds like the trouble I've been having with the oats for two weeks,but mine wasn't mechanical. I've never been so frustrated with a crop.
I took the combine to the field a week ago last Monday. It never did dry out enough to cut that day,but as weedy as it was,I went and got the discbine and started cutting the worst of the weedy stuff. It rained the next day. I got started cutting finally on Thursday. I cut the rest of what was worth cutting on Friday.
On Saturday I started in with the discbine again but got rained off. I finished cutting Monday,raked and baled about half of it Tuesday,then it rained again Wednesday and yesterday. I finally finished raking and baling it today. Some of what I had cut first was so matted and thatched with new growth that I had to rake it twice to get it torn loose and put in a windrow. I'd like to think I'm done with it,but there's 141 round bales in the field that have to be hauled yet.
 
The U-joint us a unique one in that the yoke on the baler end is welded to the slip-clutch plate. That makes a replacement almost impossible to find from any source other than JD. And, in such a case almost all equipment manufacturers don't mind gouging.
 
well we got 8 acres of 3rd cut grass / alfalfa baled today. 4 days to dry. Yesterday was cloudy and humid. Today was partly cloudy, still humid. The humidity really causes issues.
 
" After 3-4 bales a universal joint failed. (A very expensive one, I might add--$441.03!) "

What's the "rest of the story"?

So what actually failed, a cross kit for the rear universal (#AE22753) is less than twenty bucks. Did you run it with a failing joint 'til you killed the special yoke that's part of the slipclutch? Or???
 
Yep. Guilty as charged. I had no idea there was a problem until it broke and had ruined the yoke. There is almost no flexing at that joint, so I never heard anything until it broke.
 
On days like that after number three I hang it up. Tomorrows a new day and everything seems to work out.
 
If we don't have the odd bad day we wouldn't be able to recognize and appreciate the good ones. In my new place in life, I am trying very hard to not get stressed when things happen.
 

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