Vermeer 504 Super I

I just got this baler and hooked it up last night and the tailgate wont open. It will move about 3 inches and stop, go back that much and then stop. Ive checked the connectors and they all seem fine. Im kinda stumped on what might be the problem... Any ideas?

If it has Pioneer tips,one of them could be the problem.

does the baler gate require pressure both ways or just to open? how is your tractor valve set up? did you try reversing hoses?

you are sure you are hooked to the correct couplers on the tractor right? by that I mean you have not crossed hooked one hose to one remote and the other hose to a different remote,, if you are sure its hooked right pull both hoses and depress the coupler tip,, oil may squirt out so be ready,, work the remotes levers back and forth with engine off and try recoupling ,, of course you need them hooked to a two-way remote,, if its set for one way operation it can does this also

Everything is hooked up right. Its all on one two way remote and the baler does require this. I cant say for sure that we switched the hoses but Im fairly certain the tractor is not the problem as it works the loader just fine. We did pull the hoses once and when we pushed the tips in, we had oil seep out but it didnt squirt out. When we first went to hook the hoses up, the ends were wrong so we changed them off to the style we needed but there was no oil in the lines that we could tell. We messed with it some again tonight and we are starting to think it might be in the block on the baler.

What tractor is on it? I have a 6640 rancher and it takes a lot of pressure to open the door. I run it with a 105 white. had problems with that and tried to switch to a 2-85 with a weaker hyd system and the 85 wouldn't open the door.

The tractor is a Farmall 706. It worked fine on the other baler I had it on but it was older than this one. Any way to figure out if this it the problem?

If things are working properly, it should work. Ive run my 505 Super I with an 830 Case, 970 Case, 686 IH, 886 IH, and 4020 JD. all are older tractors, but none have had an issue with raising and lowering the gate. Id start with switching the hoses around to the remotes, then new tips on the hoses if no change.

It could be in the line lock on the gate, I have a 505SI I have had for 20 years,, also worked on a number of them for customers,, never had one lock like this is doing but have seen debris get in the lock and cause them not to lock the gate so sticking closed is possible,, I assume you have tried powering the system at say half throttle for 20 seconds or so each way, might or might nor help,, you do need 1800 plus psi to make the lock work on these,, I have seen the relief cartridge on the IH units fail all at once,, can you plug a 2500 psi gauge with a coupler in the remote and check what you have each way to be sure its not on your tractor before tearing the lock block apart? I was just going through my normal check list of problems I have seen over the years, also can you have some one feel the hyd lines at the cylinders when you cycle each way as you should be able to feel some pressure when you do, if you can hear/feel oil moving rather than just pressuring up you may have a cylinder problem, I have seen pistons come off and let oil just flow in a circle rather than moving the gate, have had some guys just try another tractor to to isolte things

Is it possible that there is something in the block on the baler that has gotten messed up? Would it be okay to bypass that just to check to make sure everything is working and then try to figure out what is wrong with it if everything were to work?

I honestly dont know enough to say yes or no.

Even the 105 Struggles to open the gate when its empty. No problem when ejecting a bale, cause the bale helps get it past the hardest part of the cycle. Lots of good ideas given. let us know the problem when you solve it.

Pulled my baler (855 NH) with a 398 Massey, everything was fine.

Bought a Ford 8700 to use with the baler, hydraulics were locking up similar to what you describe.

Finally figured out the 8700's connectors didn't like the no-name male hydraulic connectors on the baler hoses.
Bought name brand male connectors, everything was fine. The new connectors also work fine when hooked to the Massey.

FWIW

Fred

Finally got a chance to look everything over with more than just an hours worth of day light and after looking through the manuals the last couple of nights, decided to try and change where a hose was connected. Took a cap off of one port and put the hose on and everything work like it should! Whoever had this previously took the kicker off and put the line that closes the baler on the port that pushes the kicker out. I wish everything was that easy to fix!

Glad you got it working right. It should be a good baler for you.