John Deere 430 Baler Problem

Hello All,

I'm new to round balers overall. I have a John Deere 430 round baler. It baled 5 rolls just fine. on the last one if jammed at the front on pick up. I opened it and unclogged it. Since then it will start pick up fine and gets about half the chamber full with a core and then it just instantly stops taking in hay and even spits it back out the front. It has done this three times in a row now. It seems like I have to drive very slow as well.

here is what I have done so far that has not worked.

1. took the compressor rack off.
2. adjusted lower the bale density.
3. inspected it for any bad chains, belts, etc. - don't see any.
4. looked for any shear bolts broke - dont see any.
5. Slip clutch - it appears in working order and has not been tripped.

I don't know what else to do. I am still very new to these. I have the original manual and can't event find where in the manual it says to adjust the belts.

John Deere dealer says adjust the belts.

I run the baler on a John Deere 5500 tractor at 540 E setting. It seems that I cant go faster than the lowest gear setting, about the same speed as a square baler which seems to me to be very slow, but maybe I am wrong.

Could I please ask for your experts help here? Please help - rain coming in two days and I have 50 acres of hay cut.

Thank you so much in advance.

JD

Do you have a pressure monitor ? Round bales need to start
rolling in the chamber ,some/most older balers you start slow
once the chamber pressure shoots up your good to go.
Otherwise your just jamming the chamber because the core
isnt getting a chance to properly form and start turning. There
may be YouTube videos showing how to start your bales.

Welcome to YT
I demonstrated/delivered new JD 430 rd balers plus custom baled with one when I 1st started custom baling. My 1st question is the majority of the teeth in the pickup attachment? 2nd what condition is the pickup drive belt? My guess is belt is worn & cracked. Pickup belt is part # E70675 @ $45.76 from JD or $16.37 from A&I dealer JD 430 rd will bale hay @ 5-6 mph & faster especially with an experienced operator. When I served as a JD dealer service manager supervised welding on rectangular bars on the metal starter roll(see photo below) which drastically improved hay feeding on balers with high bale count.

It would be interesting to know what dealer meant when he stated ""adjust the belts""!!




This post was edited by Tx Jim on 06/16/2021 at 08:52 am.

I will assume 430 is same as 530 just smaller. When you start the bale throttle your
tractor to 1000-1200 rpm. Once you have a 16 inch bale in it then throttle up and away you
go.
Be sure you are not hanging any hay out the side of the pickup at the start, it will plug
every time.
I try to stay center of swath to start.

I am not sure of what type of hay you are trying to bale but if slippery grass you may have
to go early morning or late evening when it has a little moisture on it.

as for speed, once the bale has started you can go 6-8 MPH. Just remember that if you get
to far over the swath that it hangs up on the edge of the pickup it will plug again.

Double check if it plugs again that the belt that turns the pickup is not slipping( might
be just a clutch and chain no belt, been a few years.) That belt has to be tight.

I have made 10s of thousands of bales with 530 and 535.

Low RPM and not hanging over the edge of pickup and you can bale anything.
I have been told that when the belts are to wore down you can have way more problems.
should have 2 steps minimum on the diamonds of the belts.

One trick others have told me with wore out belts is to have a spray bottle with coke in it
and give the belts a spray as soon as you kick out a bale just before starting again.
I have never done it but some say it makes the belts sticky and every few bales is all it
takes.

Hope this helps

All,
I'd like to thank you for the help on this issue. I looked over all the suggested items that each of you provided. Could still not see any issues.

I called a local guy to come see if he could diagnos the issue. A little background, I am originally from upstate NY and now live in East Tenn. This is my first season baling hay here and also my first time using a round baler. I have always square baled in NY in the past.

In NY we cut, ted, maybe ted again, rake and then bale.

In TN I found out that most don't ted here, because its so hot.

A number of things came together that just really made it the perfect storm for operator error. The guy came today and he baled just fine. Here is where he showed we went wrong.

1. We tedded the hay - no need to here
2. We were baling mid day - he said that we should bale early morning or late evening to use the dew to our advantage to help it roll.
3. we were using the lowest of gears, trying to pick up and make sure it was going in. He used the highest of gears and rammed it in as fast as he could.
4. because of a late frost this year and now so hot, the hay was /is thin. this made the wind rows small. contributing to the issue of not enough pick up.

All of these items came together as a perform storm as mentioned as operator error. he said the baler itself is in great shape, but the older 430's are finicky and with a little extra moisture we should be all set. He said that even if the hay was thicker with no moisture it would have worked.... it just multiple factors made it difficult. he is very expierneced in hay and he had to finese it to make a bale. All in all best $60 bucks spent to teach us more.

That said, thankful for you all here and how fast you responded to give us ideas to check.

Thank you,
JD

Thanks for update. As you bale more rd bales you find out that you'll get better at operating a rd baler & rd baling will be easier