The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

civilian · Sunday at 8:26 PM

That's a bummer. Jon

Hay Dude · Sunday at 8:33 PM

I may have to climb up to the top of the baler and manually grease the main manifold with my DeWalt power grease gun every 20-30 bales until we get this resolved.

Luckily, the main manifold has a manual grease zerk on it for just such an emergency.

Here’s a line I pulled off one of the smaller manifold blocks still pushing a little grease.

Here’s the motor under the greaser. It was plenty warm, but not moving. Is it jammed???

Is it unrealistic to think the greaser would last 12 years? (My baler is a 2014 MY)

anomad · Sunday at 8:56 PM

Crawling up on the baler sounds somewhere between time consuming and dangerous. Be careful. I'll just hope that it is one of those self healing problems that goes away for you. I don't know enough about balers to offer any practical advice. I can definitely hand tools to the man that knows how to use them though - LOL!

LouNY · Monday at 8:36 AM

I wonder if it has replaceable brushes.
Good luck with her, definitely a fickle her

Rustyiron · Monday at 12:25 PM

That's a bummer HD!
What's the chances that you're dealer would hook you up with a loaner just to finish the season?
You must be VERY close.

Hay Dude · Monday at 8:39 PM

Turns out the pump is jammed. We think it broke a cog off the spinning collar inside. New greaser unit on the way $950. Was expecting much more expensive. Not bad, but while using the baler today, I nuked a u-joint and a yoke.
Been a bad run since Saturday.
Sometimes the bear gets ya, and he mauls ya real bad! I was so close to finishing, but we have cooler weather and rain starting tomorrow night. Guess I’ll be fighting these last few fields till November now!

Hay Dude · Monday at 8:42 PM

Rustyiron said:
That's a bummer HD!
What's the chances that you're dealer would hook you up with a loaner just to finish the season?
You must be VERY close.

Slim or none.
And Slim just left town…

Hay Dude · Tuesday at 7:27 PM

Mangled yoke
$368 with new cross and comer shaft pinned back on.
Had to drive 300 miles to get it fixed on the spot.
Took it off at 7AM and was back about 2PM.

I need something good to happen soon with this baler. It makes a heck of a bale, and it was cheap. If I wanted a baler with more common & easy parts, I’d get a Massey-Hesston, but $120,000 for a used one is ridiculous.
All that money buys a heck of a lot of parts & service.

BleedingOrange · Wednesday at 6:46 AM

Great job Hay Dude ! I enjoy reading about your adventures and your get er done attitude. My kind of guy. Find the problem, decide on the solution, and make it happen, fast. One of my biggest frustrations during my working career was having to wait for others to make a decision so I could proceed with doing my part. I admire your take charge attitude.