730 Hesston Round Baler

I have a Hesston 730 Round Baler. It has never done a good job of cutting the string. At most maybe 80%. I have had 2 dealers work on it and it has not gotton any better. I baled today after the last dealer made an adjustment and it cut 5 out of 8 bales correctly. Has anybody else had this problem?

Yes. It is a $#@! machine. The bales look like ice cream cones and the middles are usually moldy no matter if you baled death valley tumbleweeds. Hire an illegal alien with a jack knife, you will save time and money. Seriously, a friend came up with a sarcastic joke, and we thought about it- then he volunteered to ride along with his 4 wheeler. When the bale was ready, and the twine was spun so's it was ready to cut, I would stomp on the clutch, soon at it stopped spinning, he reached out and cut it with a razor sharp knife. we did that 1100 times... if we didn't, I'd still be there. I played with the knife, the spring, the chopping block? When I sold it, the fellow that bought it said "oh, this is the kind that only cuts old fashioned sissle isn't it? you can't use modern twine can you?".... So if I was you, I'd buy one bale of each sort of twine you can find from everyone, and see if there is one- my bet is on the cheapest, cheesy-est, reaady to rot stuff. I wish you luck, you need it.....

I have two I work on for customers. You need to set the twine drag so hard you can barely put the twine through the arms. Then adjust it to leave a pretty long tail or it will not start on the next bale. Also take a good file and keep the twine knife sharp. I found that if you harden the edge on the twine knife it stays sharpe longer. Take it off and heat the edge red hot with a torch and then rapid cool it in cold water. Just heat the edge not the whole thing or it will break.

I think the main problem is the knife is soft and will not stay sharp. Both of the ones I have worked on will cut 95% of the time with good heavy twine. The first one took me all day to get it to work.

Well JD, you were a dealer? tech? These balers were suppose to be 'user friendly'. Some people farm 10-20-50 miles from a shop, that's a real drag. If the things were the price of scrap by the ton, you could take the chance of buying one. If you pay several thousands, then re-engineer the design, fine tune adjustments the factory should have done before it left the door, and do blacksmith and suchi chef detailing, that is a rip off. If this was an automobible, they would all be re called, and purchase price refunded. We aren't talking about antique gadgets that always needed tinkering, this is sold as a machine people depend on to stay in business. For heston to not resolve this is bad business. BTW, mine was a 530 if I remember right.

I have worked in four different dealerships over the years and have done repair work in my own shop for close to forty years. I will agree it is a disappointment to have something not work well. On the Hesston round balers the biggest trouble is that they will cut the 16000 foot twine. That twine will rot before the bale is hauled in out of the field. LOL So if you use heavier twine or plastic they will not cut with the factory settings. Not the first piece of farm equipment that needed to be field modified to work and will not be the last either.
Tony there is a reason that Hesston round balers around here sell for half the money that a JD or NH will. Also Hesston"s checkered ownership past would worry me.

Got the Case version of this baler, and yes, the twine cutter design is pretty bad, IMO. It took a long time to get this thing to cut reliably, and I can't say it still works 100%. What I found was the twine wouldn't stay in the "table" long enough so the knife could catch it, the arm would drag it past the knife to the outside of the machine. So I installed a hooked pin made if a piece of threaded rod that kept the twine where the knife was. You need to position it carefully so the knife doesn't catch it when opening and closing. That got it to about 100%, and you didn't have to do the thing where after wrapping you move the arm back in to about the 30% mark. Just finish laying the twine on the right side of the bake and release the arm.

On the cone shaped bales, this baler ain't for someone who just likes to drive around while the baler tells you what to do - no fancy sensors or monitors or other stuff to tell you which side is light or heavy. YOU need to MAKE the bale. I can make nice bales with it 19 times out of 20, but good consistent windrows are almost a necessity. But not too big, as the other thing that sucks about this baler is the pickup is very narrow - it's between the wheels rather than in front of the wheels like most balers - real easy to leave droppings...

I've had no problems with moldy bales as long as I'm baling good hay, but we do cover our bales.

This baler is on our short list to be replaced, the biggest thing we're looking for in an upgrade is net wrap...

Yeaah, I got my bales home soon as I could, before the birds took all the twine home. After that, I just used the neighbors IH, much bigger and heavier bales, but in the long run.... I never could stay awake while studying Heston's corporate history... I think the light twine is the easiest fix, just get the bales in before they unravel...