M&W Balers

[joeboy]

Does anyone have any experience owning/using an M&W baler? I have heard that they are a good option.

Does anyone have any experience with one or perhaps own one?

Since they are part of Alamo what do you think their future is?

Thanks...

 

[scrapironford]

Welcome to TBN. I have an M&W 4500 baler, it is a 4x5 soft core string tie baler. The baler uses chains to roll the bale,the center of the finished roll will have a star about 3 feet across that is soft sort of. My 4500 has twin tie arms, takes about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes to rap a roll at max number of raps. I have had to slow down a little as compared to a hard core belt baler,and pack the outer shell as hard as possible then the rolls stand up good outside in the weather. My baler is a HP hog, I use a MF 492 ,85-90 HP and on some hills with a extra large winrow it knows it has a load, never has hit the govener though. I bale pensacola bahia,tift 44,tift 85 bermudas and oats. The baler was used when we got it 2-3000 rolls and we have had very few problems with it. It does a very good job with our hay on this FL sand, I just dont care for the baler or bales,will not be unhappy when it goes down the road. I prefer a hard core, belt baler. scrapironford

 

[chh]

Scapironford pretty well summed it up. M&W's have the rep for being good personal use machines(if you like soft core bales), but not suited for heavy use and not particularily noted for long life(or people get tired of using them quicker). Higher than recommended hp seems to be the key to making good bales with a soft core baler. I had a 5x6 OMC soft core at one time and it would bale ok with a 4020 JD (96 hp?) but really would make a bale with a Ford 9600 135 hp tractor in front of it.