Best "cheap" square baler?

[zzvyb6]

Are you running with a YM1802 or an YM1820?

My machine is rated at 26Hp PTO and the balers I posted about work with this range, just like his Ford models.

I once tried the JD19T. The only downside with that series is the hard kick each cycle that shakes the back-end of the tractor. It's a common theme with the series. With filled rear tires, the kick/jolt isn't as badly felt in the seat.

I'm now running with a JD-1070 that I got for running a NH-1012 Stack wagon (the hitch weight is huge). I'm also now running a JD-335 4x4 round baler that easily puts out 900# bales.

The 'jolting' you mention is common when the plunger & stationary knives are very dull and their proximity is too wide. Also, a sloppy hitch connection allows the dead space in it to create a lag which increases the rocking motions. Keep the 2 machines tied together to take advantage of their total mass.

Another issue to face is the drawbar length position on the tractor. When hooked up, the CENTER of the baler's driveshaft on the hitch should be exactly over the drawbar pin. This ensures equal angles on the pto yoke and baler's U-joints. Height should be level, too. If not, you'll feel some vibration because the pto shaft is not delivering a constant velocity input to the baler. ignore this and you make tear up a clutch and chains on any machinery you run.

I noticed once that my hookup had developed an unusual rocking motion and found out later that the flywheel shear pin had broken and I didn't realize it at the time. This should give you and idea on how little effort the baling process is with the right tolerances and conditions.

 

[CH4Ohio]

What do you consider "cheap"? I'd think any baler that is field-ready and makes a good bale and isn't about to fall apart would be worth $4000 or so.

You could buy something "cheap" that someone is tired of fooling with . . . something that won't tie or misses a lot of knots . . . something that makes banana bales, etc. But it's hard to know what you're going to spend to get it running . . . IF you can get it running.

There are quite a few New Holland and JD balers out there. I'd stick with one of those. Tell the seller that you want to see it run. Take 5 bales of hay with you or ask if he has some available and run them through it to see it in operation. I would expect to pay about $4000 for a JD 336 baler that is truly field-ready. I would advise to NOT buy anything older than a NH 273 or a JD 336. Those balers are already 50 years old.

You'll find balers that don't run well at all priced about the same as ones that do. It's hard to know unless you actually see them run. A "cheap" baler may not be the one that costs the least.

 

[Hay Dude]

I ran a JD 336 baler with a lot of success when I first started.

 

[zzvyb6]

I ran a JD 336 baler with a lot of success when I first started.

When I helped at a dairy farm just down the road a long time ago, I watched a young 'kid' run over a tightly packed already formed heavy small square bale with a 336 behind a 4020 and it never even grunted. I ran a bicycle thru a 348 a few years ago and was disappointed that I didn't get 2 unicycles out of the deal. Cab tractors with CD players can be a problem.

It says my photos are too large to include...

 

[slingworks]

What do you consider "cheap"? I'd think any baler that is field-ready and makes a good bale and isn't about to fall apart would be worth $4000 or so.

You could buy something "cheap" that someone is tired of fooling with . . . something that won't tie or misses a lot of knots . . . something that makes banana bales, etc. But it's hard to know what you're going to spend to get it running . . . IF you can get it running.

There are quite a few New Holland and JD balers out there. I'd stick with one of those. Tell the seller that you want to see it run. Take 5 bales of hay with you or ask if he has some available and run them through it to see it in operation. I would expect to pay about $4000 for a JD 336 baler that is truly field-ready. I would advise to NOT buy anything older than a NH 273 or a JD 336. Those balers are already 50 years old.

You'll find balers that don't run well at all priced about the same as ones that do. It's hard to know unless you actually see them run. A "cheap" baler may not be the one that costs the least.

Cheap to me is $2k or less. Yeah a baler is tough to buy just sitting, so your idea sounds of testing it with some loose hay sounds like a good one.

I'm only looking to make an acre or 2 of square bales.

 

[GrandpaSmurf825]

I wouldn't necessarily be afraid of a baler that for example struggled to consistently tie knots. As long as the knotter bill and the rest of the mechanism is intact many times they only a little polishing up to get the twine to slip off smoothly. A little spot of rust can cause problems and a lot of people don't understand how they work. So that could be a way to pickup an otherwise good baler pretty cheap. They aren't high tech but they need someone to put a little effort into getting things working right. Unless it's sat out in the weather and is badly rusted then I would probably lose interest quickly.

 

[Hay Dude]

Or a slightly cracked/bent billhook.
I had one of those drive me nuts. It would sometimes tie, and sometimes not

 

[CH4Ohio]

Cheap to me is $2k or less. Yeah a baler is tough to buy just sitting, so your idea sounds of testing it with some loose hay sounds like a good one.

I'm only looking to make an acre or 2 of square bales.

Right. You can break bales open and manually feed into the pickup to see how it works. Takes about 4 bales to give you a little cushion. What pops out the chute can be carried back around front to run it through again as needed.

Whether you’re making 2 acres or 20, it needs to pick up loose hay and tie strings around it. You just don’t need high capacity. I think you’ll be lucky to find a baler that’s reliable for $2000.

If you’ve never owned one or worked on one, you really need to buy one that works. Until you’ve watched one run for a while, it’s a mystery how it operates and you don’t want to try to figure that out while working on it in the middle of a windrow.

 

[zzvyb6]

As a heads up, most of the vintage balers originally ran with sisal fiber based twine. The knotter and twine box pull-out force was set to about 10 lbs per string. This prevented twine entanglement in the various parts of the mechanism caused by too much twine coming across during the periodic plunger pulses. Any tighter and the twine would break. Newer balers have been adjusted to also have about 10 lbs of pull-out force, now with the 'plastic' type of twine. Plastic is more slippery, so the older balers need to have the twine box pullout and the twine holding disk springs tightened to achieve the 10 lbs pullout force. Otherwise snafu.

I see this situation all the time with youngsters near me, trying to save money by doing their own hay for horses. They buy the 14T, 24T, or 224T JD balers and get bad news. Once on a trip to Germany, we stopped the car near Frankfort to observe a haying operation with a baler stopped and a bunch of guys all standing around it. I was dared to go see what was going on because of my background. Sure enough, they had just joined plastic to sisal without regard to the setting changes needed. They didn't know English and I didn't know very much German, but the next day they found me at the Cranfield airfield and gave me a signed coffee cup as a thank-you. I was surprised by the gesture and still laugh for a long time thinking about it, even 28 years later. Good thing I knew about what 10 lbs was like, because their manual showed the needed force in kg. That could have restarted WW-II.

 

[bmaverick]

If you’ve never owned one or worked on one, you really need to . . .

Also think SAFETY.

These machines can ripe a finger, hand or arm off in the blink of an eye. Even when the PTO is not spinning, there is tension in the baling system. And watch out for the knives!