Gehl drum baler 1710...good and bad points?

Looking at a Gehl 1710 roto / drum baler. I believe they are the same as OMC. Any good or bad points to them? How well do they work? How do you keep a bale even in them without being able to see in the chamber?

Its a fixed bale chamber, the center of the bale will "soft" compared to the outside of the bale. After a little time the bale will squat down. Another thing, good luck finding any parts for that thing since Gehl got out of the agricultural business several years ago. To try to get a even bale make the windrow as wide as the baler can handle. I would say avoid that baler.

That is kind of what I figured as well. A neighbor owns it and has used it for
several years for horse hay. I only bale some waterways. That is why I figured
it would have to be dirt cheap to mess with.

Well the baler is a Claus baler built for Gehl. It is just a bunch of drums with shafts sticking out the sides driven by chains. The bale pressure is made by the bale forcing the door open against the hydraulic cylinders. Simple and will bale anything you can get thro0ugh the pickup. The only thing Gehl on that baler is paint and decals. They where sold as MF and OMC too. The main parts are just sprockets and chains. Nothing special. The pickup teeth are easy to match at about any tractor supply place. Actually being a Gehl, OMC, or MF makes the parts easier. The drum shafts are turned down to the next smaller US size rather than metric. When I had my Claus baler it had metric bearings and back in the 1980s they were not easy to find.

As for the soft core. They will squat some but if you learn how to run them they will make a pretty good bale. The ley to making a good solid bale is when the bale gets about full slow your ground speed down and let the bale turn longer in the chamber under pressure. That will make the outside rock hard and it will shed water great.

I had several Claus Round balers. Bought two new ones just for the mesh wrap feature. Never owned a JD round baler until a JD 566.

So for just a few bales of grass type hay they can't be beat for the money you can buy them for. They do take more Horse power to pull/turn the baler when they are full of hay. I ran mine with a 100 HP tractor and had now issues but a 75 HP tractor would have it's hands full. I would buy a Drum baler any day over an old NH chain baler. Just many fewer moving parts.

James Howell has a drum baler he pulls with his Two bangers.

Ive got an M670 Super MM I was planning on running it with for now. They are just a shade over 70hp. I wondered how hard they turned. I think the neighbor used a 4230 or 4430 JD on it, but those are the only two tractors he has.

I'll dispute jd sellers claim slightly - from my understanding vicon, claas and omc all made licenced copies of this European design. The omc/gehl/MF model is not metric and not exactly identical to the claas and vicon models as far as I can tell.

I've got the MF badged version, it's a great simple baler. If you rake anything close to a pickup width it makes a great bale.

Im told that straw can give trouble but I square bale that.

Have you ever baled Cornstalks with it? Im betting if straw doesnt work well, cornstalks might be a problem....Im guessing to slippery to turn the bale.

Ken your right on it being more of a license type of agreement over actual production with the US manufactures. I do know Claus provided some of the parts or at least the plans. Neighbor bought a OMC 595 after seeing my Claus baler work. He broke the top roll that the rear door hinges on. OMC was out of the hay equipment business so not parts from them. My Claus dealer got a Claus roll for a baler the same width. We just had to turn the shafts down to English dimensions. After we installed it we got to looking and that roll matched the others exactly. They all had been turned down to English sized bearings. So the original rolls had been manufactured like the factory Claus rolls had or Claus sent them over here.

Ten years or so later he broke another shaft. This time I knew how the roll where made. The shaft is just centered on two disks about 18 inches apart. Then this assemble is slide into the drum and hole welded in. If you look close you can see the welds. I just took a one inch drill and drilled the welds out. Then slide the assembly out. I was able to turn the broken shaft out of the disks. Installed a new shaft in the disks and weld everything back together. He is still using that baler today, 30 years later.

Alan, He pulls it with a an AC XT190 tractor. It handles it fine. That OMC 595 makes a BIG bale too. I think five foot wide and six foot tall. I think the MF 1710 is a narrower baler. IF it is a 4 foot wide baler than you would be able to pull it fine with 70 hp.

As for baling stalks. Anything short that does not ball up well will not work very well in the drum balers. Think of rolling a snow ball to make a snow man. The ball must form inside all the rolls turning. Then it will slowly get larger as you put more material in. You have to make full size bales or there is no pressure on them. All fixed displacement balers are this way. M&W and Krone make balers that have chains running around in a fixed circle to turn the bale. They work much the same way but will bale shorter stuff better. The chain's cross bars will make material turn better than the smaller OD of the drums/rolls.

There should be plenty of the fixed chamber balers that have belts. We have a old Hesston 5510 fixed chamber baler (its a back up for our Gehl 1470 back up baler), if you are looking at a round baler for a cheap price, just to do a small amount of round bales a year something like the 5510 is the perfect baler. It's simple, easy to run, and reliable plus you can look between the belts to see how the bale is forming.
Our old 5510.

That is good to know. Thank you all for your info.

(quoted from post at 21:00:10 08/21/17) There should be plenty of the fixed chamber balers that have belts. We have a old Hesston 5510 fixed chamber baler (its a back up for our Gehl 1470 back up baler), if you are looking at a round baler for a cheap price, just to do a small amount of round bales a year something like the 5510 is the perfect baler. It's simple, easy to run, and reliable plus you can look between the belts to see how the bale is forming.
Our old 5510.

Click to expand...

tfarmer I do not think your baler in the picture is a fixed chamber baler. It has a tension arms to adjust for belt tension and length. Therefor the chamber size changes.

(quoted from post at 19:37:09 08/21/17)

(quoted from post at 21:00:10 08/21/17) There should be plenty of the fixed chamber balers that have belts. We have a old Hesston 5510 fixed chamber baler (its a back up for our Gehl 1470 back up baler), if you are looking at a round baler for a cheap price, just to do a small amount of round bales a year something like the 5510 is the perfect baler. It's simple, easy to run, and reliable plus you can look between the belts to see how the bale is forming.
Our old 5510.

Click to expand...

tfarmer I do not think your baler in the picture is a fixed chamber baler. It has a tension arms to adjust for belt tension and length. Therefor the chamber size changes.

Click to expand...

JD Seller, you are correct (its been one of those days for me), but no matter how you set the tension with the spring type the baler it will still squat some compared to the hydraulic tension balers. Anyways the 5510 baler we have is for sale but no one wants to give you any real money for it around here, we can only get $500 offers for ours. We got it brand new, we took good care of it mechanically, and its always been kept in either a barn, shed, or something with a metal roof since when it wasn't in use. We used to do small fields (10 to 25 acers) with it over the years so I would be surprised if it had done 5,000 bales.

ptfarmer: The trouble is it is a narrow belt, closed throat baler, with twine tie only. There just is not much demand for that type of baler anymore.

It's a good thing you called it a Claus... 'cause it ain't no Claas.

The general concept is the same and indeed they look a lot alike... but I think when you get down to the layouts and drive arrangements the Gehl is a bit different than the Claas. Perhaps the rolls will change if you used appropriate inserts... I don't know. All in all, the design is pretty simple, unremarkable and very reliable. I wouldn't hesitate to own another one; particularly for a small amount like a few hundred bales a year.
Rolls can be scrounged. Bearings are shelf items. Pickup fingers can be made to fit, etc. A hydraulic cylinder or relief valve would be the things that would scare me about owning a Gehl fixed chamber.

Rod

(quoted from post at 21:40:54 08/21/17) ptfarmer: The trouble is it is a narrow belt, closed throat baler, with twine tie only. There just is not much demand for that type of baler anymore.

Click to expand...

Its a shame despite its drawbacks its still a decent baler, but around here you don't see a lot of net wrapped bales. Since the last drought a few years ago people around here now bale anything livestock will eat (corn stalks, or whatever) the net to me looks like it won't hold up to a lot of stuff that gets baled. My brother stocks up a lot of twine so he won't run out when all the stores are out twine, people around where he lives knows he has a good supply, so he sells some when they can't find any. He's never heard of anyone not being able to find net wrap because he sold twine to those guys also even-though they could finish a job with net wrap.

I would have to agree, when it comes to fixed chambered balers, we had a CASE-IH(basically a new idea painted red) that was a fixed chamber, hated the bales that came out of it, traded it for a JD 535.

Very little to go wrong with one. Most parts are off the shelf items or can be remanufactured.

Never tried but I'm told the stripper bar can be mounted to bale short crops, it strips crop off the roller above the throat. Sand in paint on the rollers will turn slippery crops well. I've also heard corn stalks roll well in them.

I bale grass horse hay with an OMC 595 (same as a Gehl 1710). I purposely looked for one to buy. Great baler, simple and easy to use and understand. I don't bale a lot of hay, about 100 bales a year, and I Keep them inside. I stack bales and don't see them "squat". But if they did ...so what?
My horses love the bales. They are big (5x6) bales...means fewer trips to feed critters, and the bales fill a horse feeder ring.

I run it with a JD5420 (81 gross/65 PTO Horsepower). Up and down hills, so I am a little careful, but have no problems of HP. But, I bale slow, compared to some folks.

The soft core bales breathe well but a single hay spear doesn't work as well as a 2 spear or 2 fork carrier.

I understand it was made off a Claas license with USA measurements. Claas just celebrated making their 50,000th drum baler....somebody must like them.

Guess I probably should have sucked it up and stayed at that auction last Thrusday to see what that Gehl 1310 brought... Except that auctioneer was so %$#@ing slow!!! Started at 6PM on a small wagon load of junk and some smalls on the ground, and wasn't even through that by 7:30... Time they got to the baler it would've been 9PM and I still had to drive 1-1/2 hours to get home, then come back for the baler the next day.

The issue with straw is that the bale may stop spinning... I've never baled corn stalks, so I don't know how that would behave... but I suspect it would be less issue that straw. A bit damper and straw also bales fine... it's just when it's dry and very slippery.. it can be a problem.

Rod

(quoted from post at 03:43:41 08/22/17)

(quoted from post at 21:40:54 08/21/17) ptfarmer: The trouble is it is a narrow belt, closed throat baler, with twine tie only. There just is not much demand for that type of baler anymore.

Click to expand...

Its a shame despite its drawbacks its still a decent baler, but around here you don't see a lot of net wrapped bales. Since the last drought a few years ago people around here now bale anything livestock will eat (corn stalks, or whatever) the net to me looks like it won't hold up to a lot of stuff that gets baled. My brother stocks up a lot of twine so he won't run out when all the stores are out twine, people around where he lives knows he has a good supply, so he sells some when they can't find any. He's never heard of anyone not being able to find net wrap because he sold twine to those guys also even-though they could finish a job with net wrap.

Click to expand...

I have the 5500, an earlier version of the same baler. The on;y down side I see is the narrow belts and twine only. Other than that, it's been good baler considering I only paid $1400.00.