Balers - Bulldozers - Shear Bolts and Pick-ups

We kept the baler throttled back a bit last year during our hay making sea trials, but will turn it up a bit with the refresh this year.

Last year I probably broke 3 shear bolts at the flywheel. I chalked it up to sending to large a wad of hay into the bale chamber and between the knife gap and the dullness of the knife, the plunger knife probably couldn't cut through the wad of hay and sheared the flywheel shear bolt. I now understand the concept of how the flywheel moving at full speed helps prevent shearing the flywheel shear bolt - so hopefully with the refresh of the plunger stem to stern, I can kick-
up the rpms.

The other thing that we encountered with the NH68 was if the windrow was to large or there was just a large pile of hay in front of the pick-up, sometimes the pick-up would stall. Not sure yet if I need to adjust the tightness of the pick-up drive slip clutch - yet.

When you folks are running your NH or other brand balers, do you have any trouble stalling the pick-
up in a heavy windrow?

Mostly on the New Holland balers I read - they like a lot of hay, large windrows. Question is - if the plunger and knife are in good order, are you shearing flywheel bolts when you feed to much hay into the baler?

I'd like to get 12 strokes per bale if possible, but I've read of some balers making a bale on as few as 3 flakes!

Question is - anyone just flooding their baler with hay - like a bull dozer, plowing through thicker areas of windrows, without letting the feeders get the hay in to the bale chamber and off the pick-up and hay piling up in front of the baler like dirt in front of a bull dozer blade - no slow down, jam the baler with hay until the windrow thins in a few yards ahead and living with a few 3 or 6 flake bales AND - NOT stalling the pick-up or shearing the flywheel bolt?

Ready for Spring!

Thanks!
Bill

BIG lumps, wavy rows, inconsistency, just a HUGE pain in the a$$! VERY hard to be efficient....

Bryce

Bill

The are 2 or 3 large spring loaded pins that are being rotated by a chain, and when the pick up is feeding TOO much material, the pins are pushed in, and then pop back out a few seconds later into the next set of holes and continue driving the pickup again.

First time this happened to me last year I had a LOT of hay in the machine (tooooo much) and due to a bad operator, if the slip clutch had not have kicked in, it would have killed the Wisconsin on the baler, and I would have probably never got it going again!!! :

Make sure it has some lube in the pins, mine were rusty, and went in, but didn't feel like coming out! :)

From what I have learned baling hay over the last 40 some years is this. First no 2 balers bale alike! Every baler has a sweet spot (pto speed) that it runs at and you have to find that speed. Some run the best at full pto speed and some need to run slower, Its just the nature of the beast and you have to figure it out on yours. Having a uniform windrow is a must for any baler to make good bales. Ground speed should be to ware you see the windrow (or rope) being picked up and just starting to be pulled into the baler by the pick up. Never cram or push the windrow (this is ware things go wrong and brake). And with any baler they need to be well greased and oiled and kept in adjustment and the knifes kept sharp. Like I said having a baler adjusted up right and sharp knifes to start off with is a must. The more you bale with it and watch it the more you will figure out what to do and not do. Reading your manual is a must and if you don't have one get one as it will make your baling hay a lot easer. My uncle ran a NH 68 for 15 years (still has it) and I ran it a lot for him, We pulled it with a 2010 JD diesel and I found it ran the best between 17 to 1800 RPM's on the tack and it ran like a sewing machine. They good balers but you have to get to know the baler and find her sweet spot. Bandit

As for breaking shear bolts, that's the nature of the beast. Keeping the nut on the shear bolt tight helps,as stated above, but sooner or later they will break. I got in the habit of replacing the bolts periodically. Didn't have to deal with the occasional retiming grief that way.

KEH