Curved bales?

[FTV]

Hello, I just spent four frustrating days baling with my "new" IH 440. Lost a lot of knots on the cut side and had the twine wrap around that knot holder a lot. But worst of all the bales were all curved. They were curved out to the cut side as if that side's knots slipped or something. The hay was very dry and slippery so I had the tension set pretty hard tried it lighter too but then the bales were just looser and curved.
Set the hay feeder arm on every setting but it didn't seem to make much difference. Also banged pretty hard and rocked the tractor a lot. And broke a few shear pins, whenever it got too loaded up.
...apologies for the long explanation, still tired from all the work...
Any idea what could be causing my banana bales and how to resolve it?
Oh, the string on the non cut side seemed to end up really close to the edge of the bale ( probably because the ends were not 90 degrees. I wish I would have a picture of them to explain.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bcp]

I never saw that problem in my long but thin baling experience, but it must be more common than I thought.

Google had over 2000 hits when searched for "banana bales"

Bruce

 

[foreman Etexas]

Only thing I have run into is one sides tension set to heavy,came to find out one sides nut was backing off. The other thing was shearing bolts cause the timing was off just little(just 2 sprocket teeth) and was pulling on the brake cable to hard after a bale trip. That was just what I have run into on a NH

 

[Mace Canute]

There's several reasons why bales can be banana shaped but I believe the main cause is that the windrow is not thick enough. Best bales come out when the windrow is raked very thick, and forward speed is very slow. A constant, steady, thick feed does best.

 

[jagyzf]

Check the hay dogs and you should also have some other device that holds the hay in place. The dogs are spring loaded things that help to hold the hay that has already been shoved into the chamber in place. They are in the top and btm of the chamber usually close to the knotter on top. Some balers also have wedges or other things on the sides for the same reason to help hold it in place. I would say it could also be a feeder fork issue, but you said you adjusted that. Also make sure the tension on the twine is the same on boths sides and that you have the proper twine path to the needles.

As already stated make sure tension is same side to side on the chamber. Knife on the knotter is sharp and the hook scraper is set proper. This would be the device that pushes the knot off the hook.

 

[cowski]

i had a problem like that once.my baler was set right. but i used a kubota 9000 for the first time.it kicked out banana bales.it turned out i was not running the tractor engine fast enough for the pto to be 540 rpm.for my baler to work right ,it needs to be close to 540 pto speed.

 

[BeeferMan]

In about 99% of cases "banana" bales are caused by one thing - uneven feeding of the hay into the bale chamber. I'm not familiar with your baler, but there will be some adjustment of the feeder mechanism to correct an uneven feed - sounds like you tried adjusting that already, but that is the key. Windrow size was mentioned and that will indirectly affect the feeding - you can generally adjust the feeding to work with any sized windrow, but varying size windrows will usually not produce consistent bales for whatever the feeder setting is. That said, you certainly can have windrows that are simply too small or too large. So a windrow size, ground speed and feeder adjustment that produces a steady flow of hay into the bale chamber is what you're after. Sounds complex, but with most decent balers it's not that hard to achieve. Good luck!

 

[Rara Avis]

Hello, I just spent four frustrating days baling with my "new" IH 440. Lost a lot of knots on the cut side and had the twine wrap around that knot holder a lot. But worst of all the bales were all curved. They were curved out to the cut side as if that side's knots slipped or something. The hay was very dry and slippery so I had the tension set pretty hard tried it lighter too but then the bales were just looser and curved.
Set the hay feeder arm on every setting but it didn't seem to make much difference. Also banged pretty hard and rocked the tractor a lot. And broke a few shear pins, whenever it got too loaded up.
...apologies for the long explanation, still tired from all the work...
Any idea what could be causing my banana bales and how to resolve it?
Oh, the string on the non cut side seemed to end up really close to the edge of the bale ( probably because the ends were not 90 degrees. I wish I would have a picture of them to explain.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Banana Shaped Bales
1. Ground speed of baler too slow and/or windrow too small.
1. Solution. Increase ground speed, reduce baler rpm and.or make larger windrows.
1. Solution. Decrease baler speed.
2. Bale tension too loose.
2. Solution. increase bale tension.
3. Baling extremely light hay.
3. Solution. Travel in the direction that rake or windrower traveled to pickup hay in a head-first position.

 

[Rara Avis]

Hello, I just spent four frustrating days baling with my "new" IH 440. Lost a lot of knots on the cut side and had the twine wrap around that knot holder a lot. But worst of all the bales were all curved. They were curved out to the cut side as if that side's knots slipped or something. The hay was very dry and slippery so I had the tension set pretty hard tried it lighter too but then the bales were just looser and curved.
Set the hay feeder arm on every setting but it didn't seem to make much difference. Also banged pretty hard and rocked the tractor a lot. And broke a few shear pins, whenever it got too loaded up.
...apologies for the long explanation, still tired from all the work...
Any idea what could be causing my banana bales and how to resolve it?
Oh, the string on the non cut side seemed to end up really close to the edge of the bale ( probably because the ends were not 90 degrees. I wish I would have a picture of them to explain.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Banana Shaped Bales
1. Ground speed of baler too slow and/or windrow too small.
1. Solution. Increase ground speed, reduce baler rpm and.or make larger windrows.
1. Solution. Decrease baler speed.
2. Bale tension too loose.
2. Solution. increase bale tension.
3. Baling extremely light hay.
3. Solution. Travel in the direction that rake or windrower traveled to pickup hay in a head-first position.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Twine tension is also a factor. If one side is binding for some reason or loose it can cause bowed bales.

 

[BeeferMan]

Ditto Paul's list particular #1

See my post #7. If there isn't enough hay in the pickup for the feeders to push hay all the way into the chamber then one side - the knife side - gets more hay than the other side and the bales gets formed unevenly. That goes somewhat counter to your comment about breaking shear bolts when "too loaded up", but maybe other issues there.

Not familiar with the IH balers, but with the NH balers you can adjust the back panel of the feeder chamber closer to the feeder is you're doing a lot of light hay.

 

[Localmotion]

Banana Shaped Bales
1. Ground speed of baler too slow and/or windrow too small.
1. Solution. Increase ground speed, reduce baler rpm and.or make larger windrows.
1. Solution. Decrease baler speed.
2. Bale tension too loose.
2. Solution. increase bale tension.
3. Baling extremely light hay.
3. Solution. Travel in the direction that rake or windrower traveled to pickup hay in a head-first position.

Another solution if the windrow is narrow / light is to weave from side to side while travelling down the windrow, to ensure the crop feeds evenly across the pickup...

I've never had it happen with small bales, but with large square bales and especially roundbales, in a light crop or narrow windrow you can get too much crop feeding into one side of the chamber - the result is excactly as you describe being banana shaped or (with round bales) conical shaped bales. :thumbsup:

 

[Mistyridgefarm]

Every baler and crop is different but there were a lot of common issues already posted above. Your description has me wondering if your ground speed was too fast for the windrow or the PTO speed too low. You should be getting 12-18 flakes per bale. A flake of hay is the amount each charge of the plunger pushes into the chamber. If you push too big a flake, the knives have such a hard time cutting that it breaks the shear bolt. If you have the tension too tight and try to stuff a large charge, that will break the shear bolt. flakes should be 2-3 inches.

I would start by checking the twine tension using 9000 twine, back off the bale tension, set your feeder forks to middle setting, run at 540 PTO speed, and go extra slow. You might get more than 18 flakes but that's okay to start. Oh before you start, check the knives for sharpness and alignment.

Bale a couple light bales. Pull the twine off and check they are the same length. If they are twine tension is even. If not, correct that before looking elsewhere.

Increase bale tension a bit and try again, keep ground speed slow. When feeding the windrow, keep it it closest to the plunger side of the pickup. This keeps the hay feeding in consistent increments rather then feeder fork grabbing a big swath and stuffing it in.

If you start to see bananas, adjust the feeder fork to push more hay to the short side. Make small adjustments to feeder fork and bale tension until you get the right weight bale, with square ends. One thing about bale tension, most balers have two screws. Make sure they are applying equal force.

Adjust ground speed till you get the 15-18 flakes per bale and barring dog or wedge issues, it should come out straight. It can be frustrating until you get all the variables under control.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[flusher]

I'd break apart 5 or 6 small squares and hand feed them to see what's going on with your baler. IMHO it's easier to trouble shoot problems like this with the baler stationary than trying to do diagnosis while the baler is in motion. Once you get good bales this way, then try the suggestions made earlier in this thread.

Good luck.

 

[AGRIMAN]

I pretty much agree with all the advice already mentioned above. One or a combination of them should resolve the problem, but there has been times when I’ve tried everything and still couldn’t completely resolve the banana problem. I believe it’s mostly due to the type and condition of the grass/crop, which affects the feeding in usual ways. Here’s a step that I have used several times with good results when nothing else seem to completely solve the problem.

There “should” be bale wedges inside the bale chamber. These are wedge shaped metal pieces that are bolted inside the chamber and usually there are one per side ( I should also mention that, I have seen balers that didn’t have any so if you don’t see them, then someone may have removed them).

By adding in an extra wedge (or two if you can) to the long side of the bale you create a little more resistance on that side of the chamber which can help to straighten out the bale. Sometimes I have removed the wedge from the short side and added to the long.