JD 328 square baler

I know of 336 and 338 balers, but can anyone give me any info on a 328 baler? There's a 328 coming up for sale, but I was wondering if it makes a normal sized bale, or is there something different about it. I've not ever heard of this model.

Little brother to the 338. Normal size bale, just lest capacity. Been made since late 80's or so. Yellow pickup is older model, green pickup is newer.

I'm pretty sure a 328 is a newer,warmed up vertion of the
'old' 336

So what model is high capacity and is there such a thing as a wide pickup?

328 has a 74" pickup, makes the same size bale as a 336, 346 ect 14"x18". Plunger strokes were 80 strokes per minute, less than a higher speed 346-347 which have 93 strokes per minute. Does it have a thrower on it? I paid $1000 for my 346 with a thrower and I love it, works great.

In 14x18,346,347,348 are the hicapacity modles.If you really want put up hay,a 466,467,468(16x18) is the baler for you.

no it doesnt have a thrower and has baled less than two thousand. We use a 214t for near thirty years punching out over two thousand per year. I am thinking it may give up some day.

The third number is the series. 6 being oldest then 7 series, and currently 8. The second number is the capacity of the baler. 2 being lowest, 3 in the middle and 4 being highest capacity. The differences lie in strokes per minute, number of bars of teeth in the pickup, the category of the drive line, etc...
David

so what kind of price are we looking at on a 466, 467' 468, baler in near new counditon?

Anew 468 isNLA,the last new price was over 20,000.A used one..anywhere from3000 to12000.,

A 346 is high capacity, multi, lube and a wider pickup than a 336.

Just to throw a spanner ( OK wrench! )into the works. In Europe the current biggest "conventional" JD Baler is the 459.
459

(quoted from post at 23:10:02 03/02/11) The second number is the capacity of the baler. 2 being lowest, 3 in the middle and 4 being highest capacity. David

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David
Basically I agree with the number designations that you posted but I'll bet you a field ready JD 224 will out bale a JD 336. IIRC I think a JD 224 is closer to the capacity of a JD 346.

Not likely, we had a MF 224 that had put in 10-20,000 a year for 30 years and only minimal problems, mostly from the previous owner not wanting to repair properly.

its just normal baler i had a 327 for several years was very good unit. Now have a New holland 570 high capacity unit. no longer need so if someone looking for clean high capacity unit its hear in shed,with or with out accumulator. out of the small bale business. hay trailers,tractor and loaders,baler and accumulator

I've got both a 327 and 328 JD baler with throwers. The 328 has a wider pickup, but the 327 is easier to service because of the differences in shields around the knotter. They are both hybred machines, having metric parts and English system parts, so you are going to go nuts when you work on them. The 327 has a greasable cross auger bearing, while the 328 does not. Both have a plastic "bearing" on the feeder forks. It wears badly but only needs replacement about every 50,000 bales. The knotters are quite similar, but the 328 knotter has some improvements for servicing. We have broken the left side axle stub shafts on both of them.

Neither is bullet proof, but they have served us well, as we do over 20,000 bales per year. We use the heavy duty 7000 ft twine, not the plastic twine which I think is more abrasive to the knotter parts.

Paul in MN

(quoted from post at 09:50:31 03/03/11) The knotters are quite similar, but the 328 knotter has some improvements for servicing. We have broken the left side axle stub shafts on both of them.Paul in MN

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Paul
Could you please divulge the knotter differences as I looked up the AE13424 twine disk,AE48700 multi-twine bill hook,AE48451 knotter frame and the E43527 billhook drive gear and these are all common to the 327 & 328 models. The E41454 feeder finger plastic brgs are common to all JD sq balers since the beginning of the 336/346 series. The reason a 327 has a grease zert on the auger is because JD labels the brgs as bushings while 328 has ball brgs.
Thanks as I'm just curious,Jim

Jim,

I have rebuilt the knotters on both of these balers, and it is getting a little fuzzy in my mind what the differences are. I agree, I do think the parts are the same, but as I recall the main drive cross shaft is set up a bit different making the shimming of the drive gears easier on the 328. I have the 327 baler here in my shed, but the 328 is out at my son's place. So right now I can't put them side by side to compare. I think there was some difference in the wiper arms, making that adjustment easier in the 328.

If the "ball bearing" on the cross auger shaft is at the far right end (pulley side of the auger), then my 328 machine was cheated out of a bearing. I think it is a wood or plastic block and it has been a noisey hassle since we got it. We squirt 90 wt oil at it to quiet it down. The 327 definitely has a grease fitting there and it gets greased daily. Maybe the bearing you describe is located near the middle of the auger.

Both machines have stress cracks in the sheet metal at the right side of the pickup house. Some of the sheet metal was spec'ed to be too thin or too high strength (brittle) and has cracked from vibration.

I have personally met the lead engineer at JD who designed these 2 balers. He claimed that there was a real push from the corporate guys to have everything spec'ed in metric dimensions so that the same exact machine was being built in Europe and the US, but that the US steel suppliers were not providing metric thickness sheet metal at that time. The engineers knew what worked well, and were forced to make compromises to keep the management happy. One of the later compromises was to spec the thickness of sheet steel with a wide tolerance of +/- dimensions so that a standard US steel gauge would meet the specs. He is retired from JD now, lives in Iowa, and has grandchildren here in the Mpls area. It is fun finding out the battles the engineers faced as they designed a product and brought it to market.

Paul in MN

John Deere 328 is the smaller capacity brother to the JD 338 and 348. The difference is in strokes per minute, pickup size, and throat size. 328 is a current model. I sold a new JD 338 with a 40 thrower two years ago. It was pocket change under $30,000.

Thanks for all the replys I let the 328 go I dont think it was what I wanted.

Roy the square balers you have over there are not built here. The balers talked about here are built in Ottumwa, Iowa.

(quoted from post at 14:36:36 03/03/11) Jim,I have rebuilt the knotters on both of these balers, and it is getting a little fuzzy in my mind what the differences are. I think there was some difference in the wiper arms, making that adjustment easier in the 328.

Maybe the bearing you describe is located near the middle of the auger.Paul in MN

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Paul
You're correct on the knotter. The knotter shafts & trip mechanisms on the 2 balers are different. The wiper arm is the same. The brgs and bushings on each baler on the auger are both located in the same places(at both ends of the auger frame that auger spins on) Each auger having either a bush or brg in the middle of auger for support of auger. The wooden block in auger end part #E50308 is common to both baler models 327 & 328.Thanks,Jim