New balers, and hi speed, low profile pickups

Been baling hay since I was 13 , and I have never in the past 44 years had this happen. New Big round balers do a much better job of sweeping the field clean than balers of years gone by. And there is more clearness in the throat for the hay to pass pver the pickup as it enters the baler. It seems to have achieved this, the pickup is smaller, and the bars holding the pickup teeth turn faster and have very little clearance between the bars that hold the teeth and the stripper bands on the outside of the pickup. So if the baler drops into a hole , or hits some other object that is hidden from view by the windrow of hay causing the pickup to bottom out , the stripper bands will come into contact with the rotating bars holding the teeth.
Last year we had too much rain, and I left some ruts in the field while haying, bales over this area, and baler dropped into some wheel tracks 4-6? deep at the end of the field, I didn?t think much about it. While later the pick up wasn?t working as it should. Bent a stripper band and ripped it right off !! Never seen anything like that happen before.
So while I checked out the carnage under the pickup, I found two more bands bent a bit farther over from the broken band , bent another occasion . Both of these other bands had little more than a quarter inch of clearance before hitting the rotating bars. My baler has about 3000 bales through it now , and it is a Kubota. Went to my buddies place he has a year old NH , crawled under his pickup for a look, similar story. Many bands with small bends in them from bottoming out, and almost contacting the rotating bars holding the pickup teeth.
So if you have a late model baler, crawl under the pickup and have a look now and then. New balers are not the rough rugged machines of days gone by. And you had better have billiard table smooth fields. Just a heads up .

Does the baler have gauge wheels on each side to hold the pickup off the ground?In addition to the wheels on each side on my NH balers I add chains to limit how far the pickup can drop
if the baler goes across a dip and the wheels aren't touching the ground.No surprise that things are being made cheaper with less metal all the time that's the trend with everything.When
I see new tractors with fiber fuel tanks on the underside I know what would happen happen to them brush hogging some of the rough stuff I cut with older tractors.

Yes it has gauge wheels and they are set about like I always would set them. I think the pickups are muck wider is part of my issue

I agree the strips are close to twice that wide on my NH 851,guess the extra fingers is supposed to make it pickup cleaner.

Every year I cuss my old balers and swear I?m buying brand new. There?s really no reason for it with just 300 acres of hay ground but I hate the speed of my old square and round machines. I need to get about 2000 bales through the 24T today so I?m about to head out.

Bruce can you set the height of the baler any higher??? On JD balers you can change the axle mounts to raise or lower the baler. I set mine so the baler is as high as it can go. The allows the pickup to have more travel up. Yes in some cases the pickup may not pivot all the way down to get some hay crossing a ditch or some thing like that. Also there are float springs on the header. I keep them set to where the pickup has very little weight on it. See if you can do any of this on your baler. It will help you if you can.

To the Deere guys saying that the "book" says to set it differently, as in lower, Setting the baler higher opens the throat up so you can bale bigger windrows easier. This is really true in shredded corn stalks. Been doing this for close to 25 years now and it does not hurt the baler any and actually saved the pickup from damage sometimes.

Bruce be glad it is only a few bent. One of my custom baling customers raked the windrow over a small stump. MY Grand Daughter could not see it at all under the hay. We had to replace the majority of the stripper bands, the rake cross bars and do lots of straightening on the pickup frame.

Making hay can be fun at times.

You need to move that lake you swim in further south for us other YTers to share. LOL We are going to be HOT and HUMID for the next few days.

Local JD Dealer was Piedmont Tractor then delivered a new baler to a farm across the river from me.The new owner started to bale got about 100 yds before he hit a stationary rock in
the windrow and busted up the pickup so the delivery guy hauled it back to the dealership for repairs.

Thanks for the tips JD Seller, going to look at these things. As for the lake we swim in, the county we live in is called Kawartha Lakes, many lakes here to enjoy. Gets us lots of city folks on the weekends though.

Does the kabota dealer sell a plastic band for the pickup? NH sells plastic ones . I started replacing them one at a time on my NH BR7090 and they are cheaper than the metal ones. Though when you hit a sleeper rock, not much will save the pickup. A good baler is the Hesston balers. They mount the pickups from the front and the pickup will slide up and over the big rock quite easily, where the NH pickups are mounted from the back and if you hit a big rock or rut the pickup is forced to bend as pickup is pulled down into the rock.

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