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New Holland 268, banana bales

8

8NHENRY

Member
Hello, so 40 tears Ago my dad had a 268 and it made nice square bales. Yesterday I helped my friend bale with his 268 and almost all the bales where lop sided. I had to think way back how to fix this problem and all I can think of is tightening down the long side, is that correct? His dad swears it has always done this, maybe so but I think it can be adjusted out. What needs to be done? Thanks in advance.
 
Are the teeth missing that moves the hay into the chamber, if there are there, then you have adjust the sweep arm so it puts more or less to which side needs it, you got the owner's manual yet??
 
cross feed teeth are missing or worn. Or simply need to be slid one way or the other to get a full charge of hay. However,keep the chamber FULL. Light hay will produce bananas. NewHollands are bad that way. Rake two(or more) windrows together,or drive faster. run the tractor to near PTO speed. Running slow(half throttle or less) also contributes.
 
The feeder fingers are up on top of the pickup area and push the hay into the bale chamber. You need these fingers (which hang down and move across to push the hay) to put an even flow of hay into the chamber. On an older baler the teeth (about 8 or 10 inches long) can be broken, missing or misaligned. You need to be sure the teeth are there, then adjust them to move the right amount of hay into the chamber to make a nice square bale. Your baler will make good square bales, it just needs to be adjusted properly.
 
In addition to what the others have said about the feeding fingers. Check the knife to knife clearance. I think specs call for 1/32 0f an inch. Mines not quite that close, but getting it in the ballpark helped eliminate banana bales on my 269. Sharpen it up while your at it. just my experience gobble
 
I was having troubles with a 282. I put an 'extra' set 0f fingers in it. The improvement was like night and day.
 
Thanks every one for the help, I will have to look that over when we bale next, and also ask if they still have the manual, which I bet they do since it has been in the family since new in 66.
 
Our 268 made 300 bales great then the banana bales came. Turns out that frame bent and started to snap parts.
 
Tightening one side is not the answer. The problem is that more hay is being fed to one side of the bale chamber than the other. These balers are notorious for making bananas in thin windrows so drive a bit faster, make bigger windrows, and most of all, if you hit a thin bit, keep the windrow as close to the tractor wheel as you can (ie feeding into the nearside of the pickup) and pop up a gear! Keep up a tempo of about 10 to 12 plunger strokes to a bale. Hope this helps! Jim
 
I've been able to reduce the amount of banana bales by tightening one side of the tension springs and as others have said there are many things that enter "the picture".
 
You can also close up the feeder box. The panel just in front of the twine box adjusts forward. Manual says only to do this adjustment after exhausting all other options. I tried it once but it didn't help much.
 
So we went and baled some more water ways last night and the winrows where bigger and the bales had less banana shape to them and actually looked really good. I will look threw the manual yet and adjust the forks. Thanks.
 
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