Haying with compact tractor

[SwingOak]

Not much in the way of big hills around here. I've found 7' Haybines are hard to come by in this area. Not because there aren't any out there, but because people don't sell them. They are better for small to mid size fields and easier to take over the road.

 

[farmer2009]

When we first got that mower you needed 50 hp to pull it. Now same size requires 55.

 

[SwingOak]

I think I should be able to run this with 38 PTO horsepower:

I'm going to put it in the shop soon and give it a full go-over. Rollers are pretty nice, edges look good, no chunks missing or gouges. From what I understand the rollers are the most expensive part of a Haybine.

 

[powerscol]

Thanks folks - big auction the end of the month, with the Agg Expo mid month. Some shopping to do

 

[SwingOak]

I looked at a NH 256 rake the other day. Ground drive, and the tires and short drive shaft were completely worn out. I think he wanted way to much money for it, asking $1250, and even if I got it down to $750 it would still need $400 worth of repairs.

 

[RalphVa]

I've seen a picture of a Gravely with a hay bailer mounted on its front PTO. Guess maybe in Europe?

Ralph

 

[petes]

I'll consider myself very lucky then! I recently picked up an "almost working" JD 640 rake for $350 and the seller happened to mentioned he had been scavenging replacement teeth off a broken NH 260... it's gearbox had failed. I asked how much he wanted for the NH and he gave it to me for free when I bought the JD. The JD needs some tine bar bearings replaced (to make it extra fun, some smart fellow welded the nuts on!). The NH gearbox turned out to just to need a new bearing plus a keyway and threads on the output shaft repaired (already done in just a few hours with my welder and lathe, including teaching myself how to cut threads). Sometimes, occasionally, I win!

 

[flusher]

Forget the modern inlines - You do not have enough tractor for those in hp, PTO driveline strength, or even ground clearance for that matter.

Baling with a compact can be done but the key is picking the right size baler. (similar to towing a trailer with a 1/2 ton V6 pick-up. Yes a v6 will tow fine -just not the same trailer that a 1 ton diesel pick-up will tow. Lots of hills better go even smaller.).

Lots of threads (hours worth of reading) in the archives on various sites with creative searches. Need to search along the lines of baling with a Ford 8n, Ford NAA jubilee, Farmall A or B, John Deere B, Farmall h, Allis WD, etc in order to expand your thread options. You will read both horror stories and success stories. Again the key is to pick the right size baler.

Generally speaking any baler that is going to work well with your itty bitty tractor is going to be at least 45 years old - so hope your mechanically inclined.

a) My thoughts I would look for a New Holland 65 (smallest baler ever offered by the mainstream manufactures and is what I use).
b) Ford 520 also small (parts nearly impossible to find though).
c) New Holland any size between 66-273 but skip the alabatross 77 and 78 balers.
d) JD 14T (some parts getting harder to come by and pick up not the best).
e) JD 24T

Reason, I would recommend the NH 65 over the others is your lack of PTO driveline strength. Modern compact ractors do not have the metal in tranny driveline like those oldies did to handle the baler rocking. In general, the smaller the baler capacity, the less the baler's flywheel gyro effect will be.

You're right about that--my neighbor messed up the internal pto shaft on his Ford 8N by trying to run an old IH wire-tie baler without a slip clutch in the driveline. He got the baler spinning. The problem was trying to stop it--the spinning flywheel has a lot of rotational energy that needs to be decoupled from the internal pto driveline during spindown vial a slip clutch.

Another neighbor bales 8 acres using a Kubota 4520 tractor towing a NH square baler (three-twine) that is self-powered by an on-board air-cooled Wisconsin engine. So damaging his pto is not an issue.

Another neighbor baled about 25 acres of irrigated alfalfa using a NH three-twine baler powered by an on-board Deutz diesel engine that was part of an attachment that powered the baler via triple V-belts and powered a steerable front wheel via a hydraulic motor, making it into a 3-wheeled completely self powered baler (no tractor needed). Kinda neat seeing that contraption moving among the windrows.

 

[TractorToolsDirect]

Forget the modern inlines - You do not have enough tractor for those in hp, PTO driveline strength, or even ground clearance for that matter.

Baling with a compact can be done but the key is picking the right size baler. (similar to towing a trailer with a 1/2 ton V6 pick-up. Yes a v6 will tow fine -just not the same trailer that a 1 ton diesel pick-up will tow. Lots of hills better go even smaller.).

Lots of threads (hours worth of reading) in the archives on various sites with creative searches. Need to search along the lines of baling with a Ford 8n, Ford NAA jubilee, Farmall A or B, John Deere B, Farmall h, Allis WD, etc in order to expand your thread options. You will read both horror stories and success stories. Again the key is to pick the right size baler.

Generally speaking any baler that is going to work well with your itty bitty tractor is going to be at least 45 years old - so hope your mechanically inclined.

a) My thoughts I would look for a New Holland 65 (smallest baler ever offered by the mainstream manufactures and is what I use).
b) Ford 520 also small (parts nearly impossible to find though).
c) New Holland any size between 66-273 but skip the alabatross 77 and 78 balers.
d) JD 14T (some parts getting harder to come by and pick up not the best).
e) JD 24T

Reason, I would recommend the NH 65 over the others is your lack of PTO driveline strength. Modern compact ractors do not have the metal in tranny driveline like those oldies did to handle the baler rocking. In general, the smaller the baler capacity, the less the baler's flywheel gyro effect will be.

I have to disagree with you about the baler needing to be at least 45 years old. You are right that over the last 45 years, the american brands have gone towards implements that require more and more horsepower (not just hay equipment). At the same time though, Europe was going the other direction. They have smaller, hillier fields there, and so smaller tractors to boot. So their design direction has been to make commercial-duty implements that don't require industrial tractors to operate. Abbriata, an italian company, took the original International square baler design, and made changes so that tractors as small as 20 hp could operate them. They have been building these smaller balers since the 60's.

 

[flusher]

You're right about that--my neighbor messed up the internal pto shaft on his Ford 8N by trying to run an old IH wire-tie baler without a slip clutch in the driveline. He got the baler spinning. The problem was trying to stop it--the spinning flywheel has a lot of rotational energy that needs to be decoupled from the internal pto driveline during spindown vial a slip clutch.

Another neighbor bales 8 acres using a Kubota 4520 tractor towing a NH square baler (three-twine) that is self-powered by an on-board air-cooled Wisconsin engine. So damaging his pto is not an issue.

Another neighbor baled about 25 acres of irrigated alfalfa using a NH three-twine baler powered by an on-board Deutz diesel engine that was part of an attachment that powered the baler via triple V-belts and powered a steerable front wheel via a hydraulic motor, making it into a 3-wheeled completely self powered baler (no tractor needed). Kinda neat seeing that contraption moving among the windrows.

Here's a previous TBN with photos of the balers I referred to in my previous post.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/haying/277610-oat-hay-baling-issues-4.html