BANANA BALE SHAPE PROBLEMS WITH NH 570 BALER

[cowski]

vary the pto speed

 

[coondle]

Thanks Cowski for the suggestion. I have tried ground speed variation and pto speed variations and encounter quite varied windrow sizes.
To list the variations adjustments and modifications i have tried:
Rotor to rotor timing
Rotor to packer fork timing
Packer fork to plunger timing
pickup drive belt slippage
Packer fork to link adjustment
link to baler frame anchor point adjustment
Left hand feeder wedge (a NH option)
Long grass wedge (a NH option)
Ground the front (blunt end) of the plunger knife to prevent drag back
Fitted a third teardrop rotor to the left set
Added more link to packer fork adjustment holes to packer fork as per the you tube video on this thread
Varied ground speed
Varied pto speed
Tried 3 different tractors
tried raking windrows to fluff the hay
Investigated adding further leading spikes to the packer forks but would not clear the top of chamber where the stripper bar is anchored
Considered but not installed a dummy rear wall in the cross-transfer area. We have had the wettest September in 16 years so far and this year is now looking like there will be plenty of strength in the straw. When the straw strength is high I do not have a problem with bale shape. In years when the finish to the season is very light on on rain the straw does not develop the usual strength in the straw.
When conditions are like that you can hear the straw crackling as it goes up the pickup into the cross transfer area. Other farmers have commented on this crackling of the straw on small squares and round balers. No big square balers in the group of farmers I am involved with.
I would really like to hear from anyone that has seen and or used a baler with a moveable rear wall in the cross transfer area. The 570 has some holes in the top of the cross transfer area and in front of the bale twine box, that could well be for a rear wall of different profile to the small one that sits in the right side of the cross transfer area and goes across to about the middle of the cross transfer area just before the left rotor.
Does anyone know of a different rear wall for a 570? Questions of our present local dealer are of no use. The dealership has changed hands and baler knowledge there now is minimal to non-existent.

 

[cowski]

hire someone to bale a few bales with your windrows ,and see what their bales look like.i wish i could pop over and help you out.pto speed or windrow shape would be my first guess.

 

[coondle]

I have taken my baler to a big operators place and run it alongside his JD doing same windrows re-baling hay into smalls. Mine produced satisfactory bales but not as straight as the JD, however my rate of production was appreciably faster than the JD though I was not at top pace. He does 50 to 70,000 smalls a year so is well experienced and agreed that the JD could not bale as fast but had better shape. Slowing my 570 down to his rate of production did not result in any improvement in my bale shape. I tried varying pto speed and ground speed combinations, no difference. I left my baler there awaiting the new hay season and tried it out on freshly cut hay, again the results were similar. He was very keen to assess my 570's performance because the local dealer had offered him a deal on a new 570, in stock from the last season, that made economic sense. He was wanting a spare baler as a backup for his very busy program of small squares and thousands upon thousands of rolls. He has 3 trucks with employed drivers delivering year round. Another farmer about 20 miles away bought a 570 the year after me and when asked he claimed to be not having any problems. I saw some of his bales in storage and they were worse than mine for shape. He doesn't have an issue now as he sold the farm and went working elsewhere. I run the same cutter and plant and the same variety of oats as I did when baling with a NH 317 (very similar in operation to a NH 568). I could adjust it to give great bale shape and density. There are two factors that have changed. The first I changed baler and the second is that for some of the years since the new baler we have either had a dry spell in the middle of the growing period, 2 occasions 5 weeks without a drop of rain through July and followed by poor finishing rains through September. This year no rain to speak of from end May to beginning July, I planted beginning of June and slow germination with the last not appearing until the rains in July, but very good rains since to the point of concern about wether the rains will stop to allow haying to happen so i think I will not encounter a problem this year.

 

[Renze]

Bale longer on the knife side means feed rate is too big. Increase your travel speed to get the correct amount of hay in front of the feeder rake so the hay is centered in the bale chamber.

 

[MARCBELOEIL]

I WILL TRY TO MAKE SHORTER BALE AND HAVE THE KNIFE IN GOOD CONDITION

 

[alb01]

My previous NH model had an adjustable back panel and it made square bales just fine in very light hay conditions, the 570 won't, V-rake is the solution.

 

[coondle]

My previous NH model had an adjustable back panel and it made square bales just fine in very light hay conditions, the 570 won't, V-rake is the solution.

After a myriad of adjustments and modifications including adding an additional rotor, I came to the conclusion that the problem could not be solved.
I raked very large windrows but the real problem was "straw strength" with every component in the sideways transport system running in the same line and breaking a track in the straw and not stuffing it all of the way into left side of the baling chamber.
The straw strength was a seasonal issue because in good seasons with high straw strength the bales were great, but i needed to be able to bale after all seasonal variations. I only had one cutting per year so my entire year's income depended on good bales.....no second chances.
That it could not be solved was confirmed by several other operators nearby that bought machines after me and returned them to the dealer under Australian Consumer Law provisions.
I had nought one early on and had had several good seasons with minimalbanana bale issues.
I had had mine too long and was not eligible t return it, so I sold it and bought a John Deere 348 which although touted as a machine of similar capacity it was of a much lower capacity output, but made square bales without a banana in sight.

I have since retired and sold the farm, so my haymaking days are behind me.

Thank your your interest and replying to such an old thread (nearly 9 years)

 

[Hay Dude]

I have found that banana shaped bales come from the tendency to drive the tractor “off center” from the windrow of hay.
That causes the baler to pick up hay and pack more of it in on the left or right side, causing the bale to be longer on one side and make it look curved.

 

[Tx Jim]

I had had mine too long and was not eligible t return it, so I sold it and bought a John Deere 348 which although touted as a machine of similar capacity it was of a much lower capacity output, but made square bales without a banana in sight.

I have since retired and sold the farm, so my haymaking days are behind me.

Thank your your interest and replying to such an old thread (nearly 9 years)

Although too late in your life I'm glad you found the "Green solution" to stop making banana shaped small sq bales. And to think JD has been using that same design since the late 1950's it's no wonder the green machines aren't as high capacity as their red competition

On JD small sq balers I was taught to feed windrow into extreme RH side of pickup to give auger the opportunity to spread hay out going into bale chamber.