hesston 530

Does anyone know if these balers are a good choice? looking at one but don't know anything about these belt balers, looking for feedback or advice, been using a older krone kr151

I owned a 530 for one season, and was not happy at all with it. Issues I had were very narrow pickup allowed hay to spill out sides if windrow was very big at all. Very easy to plug-watch carefully when starting a bale, or you will find yourself underneath it unplugging. Small bales, while they sound like they are handy were hard to sell, and difficult to stab with a spike without "pushing" them all over the field. Also, if you have much hay at all to bale, you will be constantly stopped tying making for a lot of additional time spent baling, and moving all those little bales. Just my opinion, but I sold mine, and went back to my old NH.

I have a 5530, which is the older version. Same a 530, and same
as IH 8420 (? Might not have the # right, but IH was half owner
of the production line, till court ordered divestment), same as
New idea baler beilg built today, IIRR. If it is still being made, it
must still have some marketability. It is a small bale, 39"X 48-
52", that is easy to handle with small loaders, and easy to
market. Mine has had some problems, but none too major, and I
have put at least 100 bales through a year, for the last 10 years.

What to look for: check the belts for dry rot, look at the laces for
rip-out. Open the tailgate up, and look in at the bale chamber,
check the blade-like starting bar, it is on a hinge, and needs to
be able to move. Look at all the roller bearings that the belt
rollers ride on, particularly those where a direction change takes
place (corner rollers). Look at the pickup teeth, get off to the
side, and see if the teeth line up, if they don't that means that
the pickup bars are bent. Inspect chains and adjuster blocks for
wear, and lack of lubrication. Look at the front gear box, for
boogered up shafts, loose connectors, leaks. That is all I can
think of for now, others may add more.

Remember that you need dual hydraulics, to operate the
tailgate door, and about 35 HP, to run this baler. I operate mine,
with an Allis Chalmers D-10 (II).

The plugging part happens mostly in green hay, and can be minimized by starting bales, by going across a windrow, and picking up the hay like the manual describes, the direction you feed the hay in (stalk in first, or head in first) makes a big difference, in starting a bale. With experience, I can get mine started in either direction, mostly I bale so the dust don't get in my eyes!

I would look at a Hesston 5540. They seam to cost less and I know they work better. It is almost impossible not get a bale started. Make up to 4x6 bale. I have ran one with a 35 pto hp tractor for several years but only made a 4x4 or a 4x5 roll.

I bought a second one a few months ago for $2500.00. Pulled all the belts, cut and relaced all of them, did a little other work and took it to the field and rolled up 100 4x6 rolls without any issues.