JD Square Balers and other options

[ddivinia]

JD 328 - 16,938
JD 338 - 18657
JD 348 - 20,545

I am pretty much convinced I am going to buy a used square baler, but looking at the prices - why is the 348 so much more money?

I am thinking twine. People around here seem to like wire, but the horse people seem to prefer twine - easier to work with.

I am not going to be making my living wit it, but I won't want a pile of junk either.

Advice?

D.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

JD 328 - 16,938
JD 338 - 18657
JD 348 - 20,545

I am pretty much convinced I am going to buy a used square baler, but looking at the prices - why is the 348 so much more money?

I am thinking twine. People around here seem to like wire, but the horse people seem to prefer twine - easier to work with.

I am not going to be making my living wit it, but I won't want a pile of junk either.

Advice?

D.

348 is a high capacity baler. Hook it to enough HP, rake your windrows big and wide, stand on the throttle and stuff all the hay you want to in that model. It'll spit bales out so fast you'd have a hard time counting them. It's one heck-of-a baler. A neighbor had one for sale last summer (bought a round baler) He INSISTED I try it. (Thought he was gonna get $15,000 outta me for a USED baler ) Without much trouble at all, I could move along fast enough to bog down a 60 hp tractor in dry alfalfa. And the 348 wasn't even close to capacity. It's a BIG small square baler.

Keep looking. There's a gang of nice 336/337's still around that aren't worn out and 1/3 to 1/2 of "new prices". Good balers. I'll personally vouch for the 336. GREAT baler!

 

[pengs68]

Are those prices with a bale chute. I know JD gets around $7000+ for their kickers.

 

[Dunham Farm]

I have a JD 336 and love it. With JD parts are easy to get.
Brian

 

[flusher]

JD 328 - 16,938
JD 338 - 18657
JD 348 - 20,545

I am pretty much convinced I am going to buy a used square baler, but looking at the prices - why is the 348 so much more money?

I am thinking twine. People around here seem to like wire, but the horse people seem to prefer twine - easier to work with.

I am not going to be making my living wit it, but I won't want a pile of junk either.

Advice?

D.

Wow!! Are those TX prices?

A nice looking 1991 wire-tie JD348 sold for $7100 on eBay about a month ago.
See

eBay.com Item Bid History

The guy who sold me his MF-124 baler a few months ago for $2K planned to use a JD338 on his 35 acres. He paid about $5K for his 338.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Wow!! Are those TX prices?

A nice looking 1991 wire-tie JD348 sold for $7100 on eBay about a month ago.
See

eBay.com Item Bid History

The guy who sold me his MF-124 baler a few months ago for $2K planned to use a JD338 on his 35 acres. He paid about $5K for his 338.

Those be NEW prices! The 328/338/348 series has been in production for near 20 years now, best I recall. Some of 'em around with a passel o' bales ran through 'em. They sell a little cheaper'n new.

 

[ddivinia]

Wow!! Are those TX prices?

A nice looking 1991 wire-tie JD348 sold for $7100 on eBay about a month ago.
See

eBay.com Item Bid History

The guy who sold me his MF-124 baler a few months ago for $2K planned to use a JD338 on his 35 acres. He paid about $5K for his 338.

That is list MSRP on those units.

D.

 

[flusher]

Those be NEW prices! The 328/338/348 series has been in production for near 20 years now, best I recall. Some of 'em around with a passel o' bales ran through 'em. They sell a little cheaper'n new.

Aha! I thought the OP was talking about used balers.

 

[ddivinia]

Aha! I thought the OP was talking about used balers.

All is fair in square balers. I just use new as a baseline.

D.

 

[vsteel]

JD 328 - 16,938
JD 338 - 18657
JD 348 - 20,545

I am pretty much convinced I am going to buy a used square baler, but looking at the prices - why is the 348 so much more money?

I am thinking twine. People around here seem to like wire, but the horse people seem to prefer twine - easier to work with.

D.

As FWJ said, the 348 is for the big hay producers, though I have never really worn out a square baler. My father bought a 336 in 1975. (I think its a 336, its the small baler John Deere made at the time.) Its had 5K+ bails put through it every year since then and its still going strong. Best I have got out of it was 3562 bales between misses. (got a little dew going on and made the bales a little to heavy and I missed one.)

I would suggest that you go twine. Wire is really only if you are going to be shipping the bales all over the country. Feeding wise twine is much better, wire is for making really heavy bales that you can ship on a semi long distances because they stack like bricks.

 

[Grrrr]

Do you have Welger balers in the States?

They are ludicrously expensive ($30K - $40K) but the output from these things is often as much as a round baler. They are completely shaft driven with no chains. The big models require 150HP to work at their best.

I think they might just be European though...

WELGER BALERS

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Do you have Welger balers in the States?

They are ludicrously expensive ($30K - $40K) but the output from these thing is often as much as a round baler. They are completely shaft driven with no chains. The big models require 150HP to work at their best.

I think they might just be European though...

WELGER BALERS

There may be one or two over here but they are not really sold here currently (at least in my areas of travel)

 

[threeman]

I havent seen the Welger square balers but I know of at least 4-5 round balers here locally. Most of which are worn out but they have been used hard. Especially the one being used here today. Its been rebuilt at least three times. A new vermeer rebel came in last year to help replace it.

 

[matt21]

I run a JD 337 twine baler behind a 43 PTO HP tractor. It bales best with really thick windrows running it to it's capacity. It hardly ever misses a bale and when it does it's mostly due to operator error. I can run it all day long without any problems. I paid $3,000 for it back in march of this year. Like any piece of equipment if you take care of it, it'll take care of you.

 

[Wildcat Ranch]

Like any piece of equipment if you take care of it, it'll take care of you.

Amen!

 

[Mickey_Fx]

I'm a former JD 336 owner and my experience didn't match the other comments here.

I must have broke at least a half doz needles before I found out the timing info in the manual was wrong. Broke a knoter frame the first yr for no known reason. When I bought the replacement the first thing I noted was it had to be modified in various ways depending upon which model baler it was going on. Went though the big end ball bearing on the plunger crank once, twice a season. While the bearing slipped out of the mount, the dealers around here only carried the bearing with the mount making cost about 2x. To add insult to injury, JD had a special bearing made so was only available through JD. Fortunately the only difference was the ID was unique size. I made a sleeve and purchased the bearing from a local bearing house. And the noise jack was a killer, somewhat like a bumper jack and the handle wasn't attached. It came flying off one time missing my head by a couple inches. Noted JD went to a more normal crank noise jack the following yr.

When it was working, it would pump a lot of hay out the chute. I tried for 50# bales and on 1st cutting, popping out a bale about every 10 sec about the norm.

 

[ddivinia]

Sounds like later models might be better. The 6 series balers are pretty aren't they?

D.

 

[ozzie tractor]

isnt anyone going to mention new holland, or is that a swear word in a green tread

 

[slowzuki]

I'll mention my good experience with a JD 336, I've had mine about 4 years now. Its only misses about 1 out of every 2000 ties now.

Of the bad things I have to say is I hate the swing design, the MF 224 we used to use had a ball bearing pivot that was silky smooth to swing.

Also, it will pump out a lot of hay, but I find if I push it hard on 40 lb bales, they start to banana. I still have to go through it to see what is causing this.

 

[vsteel]

Also, it will pump out a lot of hay, but I find if I push it hard on 40 lb bales, they start to banana. I still have to go through it to see what is causing this.

Its your feed forks into the bale chamber. You need to adjust them deeper or shallower. If you are standing at the back of your baler and the bale is coming out like a C, then you need to adjust them shallower to pull the hay in less. Backwards C and then you need to adjust them to pull the hay in deeper.