a rough day :(

[Grrrr]

I guess I am lucky in this respect.

We live minutes away from a large dealer / exporter who has hundreds of small balers pass through his yard each year.

There is a very large export market for the small baler to the Far East so he sends many of them out there.

He has a couple of guys who really do know everything there is to know about these balers, and whilst he isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, it is his backup service that you pay for.

We are also lucky that the baler we have (Claas Markant 65) is also still in production and we can get parts for it overnight ready for the next day.

And if something goes really really wrong on it he would have no problems bringing us out another baler from his yard to take over.

These are all true, one thing around here though. Small square balers seem to be going away, more round or large square balers. Our baler is a JD 336, probably about 30-35 years old. There are only 2 people who have been able to get it set up correctly. Myself who I was taught over many years picking up from different people what I could and 1 guy at a local dealership. If he isn't around forget having one of the other service people come out. The newer guys come adjust it or repair whatever it needs and then leave sometimes without seeing it bale 1 bale. It has never worked after one of these newer guys has worked on it. One time he got it back from the dealer after a "winter service special" and it wasn't timed correctly. Another time they forgot to tighten something down and a needle hit the knotter.
Now a few of these were mistakes anyone could make, but it really suck that it seems like the smaller balers are becoming a lost art as far as set up. To some degree it may be the age and wear on the machine. I have had to set it up from the "book" and then adjust from that point by walking along and watching it tie to see why it is having issues. Over the years though it's been a very good machine.