Vermeer 605c

Picked up a Vermeer 605c for $250 at a consignment sale (didn't go there for it but as luck has it). I got the baler to turn and eventually got the belts to turn. Guess they had some memory from sitting over winter. When the baler is running the belts wander from side to side and start to ride up on the dividers to keep the belts separate. Is that normal? Will it straighten out when a bale is forming?

Thanks.

Well that is a closed throat baler. I bet it has the all narrow belts. If it does and they are wandering around now when you go to make a bale they will separate. Then you have a BIG wad of hay on the wrong side of the belts. Lots of fun on HOT DRY days. The dryer the hay the worse it is when baling grass hay. The grass gets slick and the belts just slide off before starting the bale. IF you can get the bale to start turning you can bale normally.

Also the closed throat will mean the hay will have to be bone dry or you will wrap the rollers or have a slug get stuck in the compression rolls.

Truthfully you gave scrap price for it. If the belts are bad Like I think they are then you gave the market price for it.

It has 4 wide belts and 1 narrow. The belts look good but I have never had a round baler. Always did squares. Mainly got it for when I got tired of picking up squares.

If the hay is on the tough side it won't work well though, right?

First thing I?d suggest is go to eBay and get a
operators manual and a parts manual and a service
manual If you can find em

I have a manual on the way.

Your bailer has the later belt design. That worked better. Now you just need to do some simple stuff to make it work well.

The first thing would be to loosen the belt tension, lift the gate, an check all the rollers and bearings. A bad bearing or bent roller can cause your belts to do crazy things.

Second is to pull the belts out and make sure they are the correct length and all match. On Vermeer balers of the vintage your talking about, they used springs for the tension. So you want the belts to be the correct length so the belts are the proper tension. If the belts have stretched too long than the spring tension is too loose when your starting a bale. If one belt is a lot shorter then the others then it will have more stress on it than the other belts. This leads to broken laces and lacings. You said you have a manual coming. It will give you a maximum and minimum length for the belts.

Check the pickup over for bad/bent teeth and all the bearing in the pickup.

Now your ready for the field. Like I posted below the hay much be fit to bale too tough/damp and it will do everything but bale. Also how you rake the windrow will effect the bale shape and density. You want nice wide windrows that are even across them. An example is you may double windrow by just raking one on top of the neighboring one. The does not work well as the side that was next to the rake will have more hay in it. The other side is feathered out. So you will fight to make even bales. The best windrow is two smaller windrows laid side by side. Kind of like a figure "8". This will help you get good firm edges/sides on your bales. You will have to weave back and forth to fill the baler evenly. Your baler does not have any monitor so you will just have to "learn" how to make good even bales.

Your Vermeer baler is a much better baler than the JD ones of its age. That would have been a 500 or 510 baler. They where terrible to use. Your baler will be better than those where. You still will have to learn how the condition of the hay effects your baler. You hay and its condition will be a little different than what I might bale. So on your baler you would run it a little differently.

P.S. On your baler you will need to shut the PTO off when you dump the bale. On newer balers you do not but on yours you will.

My first roller was a Hesston 5560 I think was the number. 5x6 roller, 4" belts, twin tie arms located on opposite sides. CLOSED THROAT!!!!! Couldn't wait to dump that sucker on some other "unsuspecting soul". Been JD ever since.

Saw a Vermeer 604 for sale recently. Stopped by and had a look. Called the owner and he told me he what he paid for it and how much he had spent for repairs and the fact that this was broken and that was broken. Noticed a bright, shiny new, green one sitting with his haying implement.

My little 1991 is working fine, had no problems over the years other than roller bearings due to PO leaving it out in the weather, does a good job of making a bale now that Tx. Jim instructed me how to make a roll with it. I passed.

Thanks for the information. Hopefully I will get around to working on it soon.