Twine coming out of baler needle... in clover?

lastcowboy32

Well-known Member
We had an issue with twine coming out of the needle on our baler last year.

I tightened the spring clamp on the twine box tensioner, and the problem went away for the rest of last year. No problems this year, through thousands of bales.

Then, Saturday evening, after loading six wagons of first cut without incident... I wanted to bale up one wagon of some of the nicest red clover second cut I ever saw....

About three bales in,... ping.... twine out of the needle

WTF? (Why This Farmer?)

huh... that's curious... must be a fluke.

Restring the baler.... about ten bales later.... ping... there it goes again.

Anyway... the load of second cut was two types of hay. Some of the bales were about 100% clover. Others were mostly grass. I baled through the grass areas with no problems.

I ended up restringing the twine about four or five times on the clover. Which included restringing it after one popout that happened during "re-baling" of the broken bales... but all when doing the clover.

Odd.... odd.... odd

I didn't tighten my twine box tensioner any more, as it's a 7/16" nut... and it's a little rusted in place. I'm getting a new bolt/spring, because I was worried that I would just plain break this one if I really tweaked it hard with the wrench.

Maybe I just need to replace the bolt/spring and tighten some more.
 
First thought to come to my mind is the twine holder not holding on to the twine after the knot is made and the twine is cut. Someone who knows more about knotters than me might chime in as to why this is happening.
 

My twine holder is suspect too.

That is very plausible, as how easily the twine slides over the bale is very much affected by what you are baling. If the hay is a little damp, the hay is kind of "sticky"... also, clover stems are kind of hairy... and the twine doesn't slide very easily over clover.... so bales of clover pushing through the chamber, with the same chamber pressure, would, theoretically put more stress on the ability of the twine discs to hold the twine.

I'm thinking about that, and yes, would love to hear some other experience.
 
Tightened the wrong thing. Back off the twine box tension a little. Do tighten the twine holder at the knotter, that
is what is pulling out or not holding to start with.
 
(quoted from post at 09:17:41 08/17/20) Tightened the wrong thing. Back off the twine box tension a little. Do tighten the twine holder at the knotter, that
is what is pulling out or not holding to start with.

Will double check.

I can tell you, though, that last year I DID try tightening the discs and it didn't help, until I made the tension out of the twine box right.

I rode on the baler and watched the knotters at full speed, and the twine was too loosey-goosey... the needles were kind of flinging it at the twine discs. Once I increased the tension out of the twine box, the twine laid into the discs better; and the problem went away.

So, maybe the discs are the problem this year, and they need another tweak?... it's possible.
 
A little confused by some of the terminology so maybe I am just not getting it? But am interested to understand what happened and why. My experience with Red Clover is a long time ago. I bought a pasture mix of grass, alfalfa and minimal red clover. I got almost all red clover as far as what came up. It was almost as bad as one of the seven curses of old. It wouldn't cut, it wouldn't dry and I had a lot of it. Eventually l learned to let it get very old before I cut it and keep the tension looser than normal as it had its own characteristics.

Now what kind of baler are we talking here? I have been using the same NH 273 for nearly 30 years and it was worn out when I bought it. Have never had "loosey goosey" twine. While if this is a old worn out baler like mine it may be worn parts, but going from grassy hay to red clover the baler enters and leaves different universes. Heck I have that in my own field where the alfalfa and grass is thicker to thin or different types of grass. So please keep this going and let us know what you found to be the problem. My NH 273 does have a tensioner for lack of better description but I have never ever had to adjust it. My twine rolls do not sit on ball bearings and it is hard for me to fathom that being the problem. Not saying it isn't, but I never had the problem and I have had I think almost every problem known to man at one time or another. This year it was thrower belts mostly. Haying with old square balers to me is a test of endurance some years. If there is a breakdown rain is coming that night or afternoon. Or Monday morning and you broke down on Sunday. Good luck, John.
 
Take your Twine tensioner at the twine box apart and see if there are groves worn in it. If so, you can tighten the spring all you want but, it won't do any good.
 
Check your plunger head for chaff build up in the needle slots. Clover will drift in and fill the gap pulling the twine out.
 

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