NH 315 series v. 316 series Balers- farmerZ

I make a lot of square bales and bale with two NH278's and 1 NH320. I know these balers like the back of my hand. They are old balers but still serve us well.

Don't be scared of these balers they are heavy duty high output balers that will keep up with anything new on the market. Weak spot on them would be thier feed rack. However with seasonal maintance they are trouble free. Our original 1975 NH278 as over 700,000 bales on it and a pile of hrs. To date the feed rack has never "flew apart" or crashed up etc. I always take a look at it when ever I grease the baler. A couple 9/16" wrenches for 2 bolts and 3 minutes later the whole feed rack comes out the back. If you pull it out every 15-20K bales and check over the guide rails, plastic bearing caps and bearings they are trouble free during haying season. If you never check it over and run it till it fly's apart then yes it can be costly. With the bales we do I also pull out the plungers yearly and make sure the bearings are good, knives are sharp and knive clearances are in spec. Makes for better opertation and nice bales.

I was at an auction last fall that had a nice NH278. I really don't need 4 balers but I had to bid on it as it was in such excellent shape. I let it go for $1700. Probably if it had been closer to home I'd would have gone higher on it. There are still some of these balers sitting up here in Canada, in sheds in near new condition with few bales through them collecting dust.