used baler questions

Get a good baler, JD or NH - if you are getting an older one. These 2 companies figured out knotter design first, & made many many balers with similar parts, easy to go to a dealer & get replacements off the shelf, easy to find mechanics who have worked on these machines before.

My NH 270 can make bales any length you want, down to a single push of material which depends on the size of the windrow - which would be silly, but anyhow.... All it takes is setting one little set-screw, simplest adjustment there can be....

The other brands of older balers can be fine, and sell cheaper, but you can have more difficulty getting them adjusted right, & parts can be more difficult to find. Then again you can get a good one & it will work fine for you. A bit more of a gamble tho is all.

If it were me, I'm partial to NH balers model 69 & up, but JD also has a good name with models 14T & up.... If you want more volume of bales or newer, NH & JD with a 3xx number are bigger better faster.

--->Paul

I'm near your age, and for all my years there has been one square baler on this farm, producing 2000 - 6000 bales each year. Dad & now I have put _very_ few parts into the old gal, a NH 270. About the worst was when the chain broke, dad put it together & never thought of the timing issue - broken needles - our fault.

I been following the back end of that baler for 3/4 of my life, only square one I know!

--->Paul

On a square baler, just shorten the tie arm linkage stop and bale whatever size bale you want.

Mark

I have an old New Holland 66 now, paid $110 for it and it has been very reliable for me for 3 seasons now. Bale length is not as adjustable as the MF, but can be done.

I make 30" long bales, the shortest it'll make, but I also make them lighter than normal because my wife is a little gal and dense bales almost outweigh her. I can produce 22 lb bales that are dense enough to stack a mile high, but light enough for anybody to handle.

Tom A

by the way, those weights look really nice now that I've got them painted

I baled thousands of bales with the MF-12 that I use to own.

Knotter adjustments can be particular in any baler. Sometimes changing brands of twine improves tying.

Besides bale length, you can adjust the bale compression pressure to change the bale density.

The MF-120 is probably the next thing in the MF line after the MF-12.

Base your selection on local dealer service.

Be aware that a baler can hurt you big time if you get too close while its running.

Over the years, I've seen more NH baler owners happy than others.

Gerald J.

The 12's were made for a number of years, I'd guess early 60's until atleats the mid 70's. All the ones I've seen exept ours has round decals on it like the 135-180's, where as ours is a later model and has square decals on it. Ours does have a bad bearing behind the timeing gear. It hasn't affected the performance yet, but it really should be replaced some day.

I'd just scan the Wis. farmer classifieds, I ussually see a few balers in there of all brands. the 120 and 124 are descendents of the 12, so they are also good balers, and a bit newer. I've never personally used a NH baler, but I've heard quite a few people complaining about "banana bales" that dont stack. JD are good, but you're paying more for the paint than the machine is worth. I used to drive for a relative baling hay w/ a 336 JD. Good baler, made tight bales, but if the hay was laid down, mower didn't pick it up and you drove against the grain the pick-up belt would constantly slip, making for a long day. Simple answer is don't go against the grain!

Ours makes good, heavy, square bales w/ a clean cut edge, and we NEVER sharpen that knife in there, and have never had to adjust it. Also has a chain drive pick-up.
Donovan from Wisconsin

P.S.-We plan to bale next weekend if you wanna help!

• all my pic's on YT

I bale with an 8N, that's what I drove the MF 10s with. They were both PTO balers, and I had knotter problems. I am not certain, but some of the knotting problems may have been due to the fact that I couldn't keep a really constant PTO speed with the 8N while baling. My New Holland has a separate engine on it, so all my 8N has to do is pull the baler (at 2,500 lbs, it weighs more than the tractor so even that is a big deal!)

So I'd suggest that no matter what you get, you consider getting a baler with its own engine. I was told the old MF 10s came with engines, but they're pretty rare.

good luck,
Bkeepr