Whew!! 900 bales in the barn.

Sunday morning I wake up with 900 bales on the ground and no help!!!!! Rain Forcast for Monday..

We get every thing ready and get out there and start baling about 11 am.
I show the wife how to run the tractor and I load the rack. Lucky for every one the land owners are real good sports. He and his wife pitch in and do the heavy work of unloading the full racks.
We baled as fast as my little NH68 could bale and with the wife busting a shear bolt every round. ( I bit my lip on that one. No need getting her mad and having her take off in a huff)

We got 500 baled and stacked and 200 on the racks in my barn by dark. Not up to any real farmer standards for sure but pretty good for a rag tag bunch and the girls left us there at 7pm.
We lucked out on the rain and got the racks unloaded and the final 200 baled on on the racks in my barn after work.

It was not a fun weekend but also was great at the same time. Felt good to be done and lookin at the hay.
I let the owner keep 500 bales but was glad to do it. They made it work. I am sure having to buy hay at market price was a motivating factor on thier part but that was not thier fault.

Besides I have 400 of the best horse hay bales I have ever seen. Cut at exactly the right time.

Oh well my NH68 worked great and so did the NH469.
Now I have to go cut my 25 acres. I will be doing that in manageable chunks.

I just removed my ram to install new cam foller bearings (6) and after reinstallation, I was manually moving the machine thru it's cycle and hit a snag. Not paying enough attention, I pushed harder and heard a snap. Broke the end off a tucker finger ($52, rod is $80).

So now that you told me what happens when the needle gets in the way, when I install the new finger I will check the clearance on the needle.

"..... should have changed the rod setting". Assume you are talking about the tucker rod. Did you mean change the timing for that tucker? Mine is the Ford (Long?) design having one chain on top driving 2 tuckers. Changing the timing to me would be to slip a tooth on the chain. Right Wrong??

Thanks,

Mark

On a 336 Deere the left side knotter outter ring has a trip roller that pushes down on a hook on the tucker finger control rod. That rotates the rod and pulls the fingers over. My book clearly says that you hold UP on the tucker finger when checking clearence (1/32" to 3/32"). After the first rod you'd think I would have looked closely and followed the directions :-). I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes :-). To adjust tucker finger clearence from needle (on mine) there are 2 bolts that allow it to slide closer or further from the needle it akes 3 hands and there is only room for 1 to check all that :-). I slid it back from the needle to set to 1/64. But I put the rod (eye bolt) that connects it to the drive rod back to the same 21 turns that I had it set before. That made the right tucker finger timed ahead of the left (they were even before I moved the finger back). Now I have the right side timed at 19 turns in and the left side 21.

Based on this I would speculate that you dont need to move the chain but should have these same kinds of adjustments.

Thanks,

Mark

If your tieing brake shoes are not doing their job the ram hits the backup fingers (or something big) and the pin shears.

Get some new shoes and you'll quit. I was shearing a pin every other bale.

Mark

My wife kinda liked to help by driving the baler for me be4 I got the hay basket. We still laugh about the time I was on the hayrack & she got 4th gear instead of 2nd..... She said she was just trying to help me get done quicker. ;)

--->Paul

Mark

Most rain in June I ever recall. The rye is going to seed so I guess I just missed it. However the burmuda and johnson are coming up through it so may get some good hay anyhow.

Well it's hard to even think about hay with all this rain but I guess it's better than dust. So thank God it's still growing.

Congrats on your success at dry hay bales.

As to baling, I just took my 300 down to the mechanic - again. Had $2000 engine rebuild 4 years ago, & it's blowing so blue it fouls itself out. Sigh. Don't know what happened. It's the perfect tractor for my square baler & basket. Sigh.

Just cut the rest of my grass hay, 3-400 bales. Took the front of the gearbox apart on my NH 55 rake. Bearing was gone. Then took the whole gearbox off. U-joint is bad. Seal is gone. Is there a bearing on the inside of that output shaft? If there was, not now. Not sure how to get to it, will have to try to ram the good input shaft out I suppose. U-joint not coming apart. Sigh.

605F made a few real wet bales I took straight to the cattle. Looks like a top bearing is getting warm - well, more than warm. Looks good, but I trust the feel more than the look....

My 1209 moco has a bearing holder framework cracked out of it where it holds the lower roller - oy. That just doesn't look fun to get to. Fortunately it was so wet, I couldn'ta pulled a moco through the fields - used the 501 mower. Was getting wet from the surface water the wheels threw at me a few times.....

But, Friday & Saturday I got 500 bales in the barn. & I have a pulled shoulder muscle, so I'm not much good, had a friend help stack in the barn Fri, my wife & a friend of hers helped a bit Saturday. The last 1/2 of those alfafla bales are good stuff, dry & kept their leaves. :)

--->Paul

I am going to try and get 1/2 of my 25 acres cut this Thursday. Maybe get that up if I am lucky.
One good thing. I sent out some emails last night.
Pretty much have those 400 bales sold lickity split for top dollar. So thats a good thing.