Oliver 50 baler

[JeffinIA]

Anybody have much experience with a 50 baler? Have a chance to buy one that was completely restored 3 years ago . It is supposed to work good , he said the knotters needed fine adjusted because it missed every so often.Baler has been used the last 3 years on about 6 acres . I will be using it on about 2.5 . So it's not going to see heavy use.

 

[JeffinIA]

Have found a Much Newer NH baler :thumbsup:

 

[rankrank1]

My 2 cents is unless that baler is real cheap then I would pass. I have heard that the Oliver balers were okay balers, but there was never very many of them around. Where will you find parts? Some the Oliver Hay line was bought buy Hesston back in the 1970's and was the foundation for the early Hesston hay tools line. Hesston is now owned by AGCO. I doubt AGCO still offers hardly anything for that Oliver baler and used salvaged ones will be few and far between when searching for used parts.

Best to stick with New Holland first or John Deere 2nd in vintage old balers. Those 2 had the market cornered and for good reason. Lots of new parts still available, used parts sources very common, and people know how to make them work.

Have fun on your 2.5 acre hay adventures, but take it from someone who bales only 4.5 to 5.5 acres every year. You should not expect to make any money. You will do good to break even at best (assuming you enjoy donating all your time for free and tinkering on old junk). Actually on 2.5 acres I expect you will certainly lose money.

 

[JeffinIA]

Not in it to make any money at all in fact if I have too much hay ,(which I doubt) I will donate it to anyone that needs it. And Yes, That's the thought I had with the 50 baler, Parts and the need to get things done when needed to be done.

 

[rankrank1]

After you experience how much time, work, and personal effort goes into making good hay, I doubt you will be so willing to give it away.

Gonna bale with the Farmall M?

 

[powerscol]

If you find a good inline Hesston, New Idea, or the current Hesston branded MF ones, give them a look. I am running a Hesston 4550 with a 26.5 PTO tractor. Current model is the MF 1835. Works great in small fields and easy to get parts for. Baler can be very expensive to maintain, so I spent a bit extra to be sure I got a good one.

 

[JeffinIA]

After you experience how much time, work, and personal effort goes into making good hay, I doubt you will be so willing to give it away.

Gonna bale with the Farmall M?

Yes I will be using the M.

 

[rankrank1]

Yes I will be using the M.

The Farmall m will work fine on the baler even though many will claim you absolutely have to have live PTO to bale. Not so at all, but careful raking is necessary as an idiot on the rake can make for a long day when any non live PTO tractor is used to bale. No problem at all though if the rake operator sizes the windrows to a consistent appropriate size that is suitable for a gear the tractor actually has, in relation to the capacity of the baler, along with tractor hp available.

My Farmall M is now my frontline baler tractor, although the Farmall h, and even my Kubota L285 have all baled for me. None of these 3 tractors have live PTO. Course I am only piddling on about 6 acres or so every year.

If your M is narrow front end (like the majority of them are) then a conventional side pull baler will likely work better than an inline baler. NF will mash the windrow when using an inline baler since you typically straddle a windrow with an inline baler. Mashing the windrow may not be a huge problem is grassy hays but less than desirable in leafy hays. Conventional balers you run to the side of the windrow so the NF is not a problem at all with them in any type of hay. Not to mention, that a modern inline baler is going to run $10k plus and is fiscally impractical on a 2.5 acre hobby patch. Good conventional side pull balers can still be had for $500 to $1500 with careful shopping. Your great grandkids would still not have a $10k or more baler paid for baling 2.5 acres.

 

[JeffinIA]

I Pick up a New Holland 273 this coming Friday.At the same time I'm getting a 7' Oliver ground driven sickle bar mower and Oliver crimper. All from the same person. I Have a line on on older NH rake will find out about Monday on it .

 

[rankrank1]

I Pick up a New Holland 273 this coming Friday.At the same time I'm getting a 7' Oliver ground driven sickle bar mower and Oliver crimper. All from the same person. I Have a line on on older NH rake will find out about Monday on it .

Good choice. The 273 is an excellent baler. Know a couple people personally that had/have them and they love em. It is also the newest baler from New Holland that I would personally try running with a marginal low horsepower tractor. Course your M is not a marginal low hp tractor at all and will run it easily and handily. Parts should be no problem in obtaining for that baler either.

The Oliver crimper sounds good to me. Not sure I would get too excited over a ground driven sickle mower though, but in fairness I have never used a ground driven sickle either. Now if you meant a pull behind sickle on wheels that is PTO driven then I like the sound of that a whole lot better. Some of those sickles on wheels that are PTO powered even have an auxiliary PTO shaft out the back of the mower so you pull the crimper directly behind the sickle mower in tandem in the same pass. (These hooked in tandem tools were the precursor to haybines.)

Course I gotta remember we only talking for 2.5 acres. A good man can cut like an acre an hour of hay with a hand scythe. Even a ground driven sickle will easily handle 2.5 acres.

Post some pics of the toys when you get em (we love pics)...

 

[JeffinIA]

Ok, The Baler Turned Out to be a NH 269 with a 53-A thrower , The Crimper is a NH 402 and the Sickle bar Mower is a 7' Oliver PTO driven.Mower needs a new pitman arm made and a deflector off the cutting bar.

 

[rankrank1]

Really nice looking baler. The baler the super sweep pick up which is nice. Having a kicker/thrower is way overkill for a 2.5 acres. Crimper looks nice too. Certainly glad to see the sickle mower is PTO driven instead of ground drive although I am not sure how it mounts to the tractor. Often times the original user's manuals showed how to mount those type sickles to all different brands of tractors of the time period. Also looks like you will be making a separate pass over the field to crimp as I do not see an auxiliary PTO shaft on that oliver sickle mower to pull the crimper behind that mower at same time.

 

[JeffinIA]

The thrower will be coming off and will be for sale , I got all the PTO shafts and the bale pans with purchase. I was kinda disappointed that the mower didn't have the rear PTO shaft but my Buddy has one on his old mower we could put on it , but as you say for 2.5 acres it isn't a big deal. I am glad it's PTO driven, Its a little old and needs a new pitman arm and a deflector on the end of the sickle bar.The Mower mounts with 2 pins on either side of the main draw bar pin. I will have to center the PTO shaft and make to plates to go on the mower, There are to plates on it now but they have small mounting holes. Shouldn't be to big of a problem.

 

[JeffinIA]

I have the manuals for the baler , thrower and crimper . Also have found the manual on evilbay for the Mower . Now to find a rake and get this stuff greased up and Running!

 

[powerscol]

Be sure to get some spare pitman arms as you will be breaking a few. I think Tractor Supply is a source.Also be sure the bearings in the head are good and hold downs on the bar properly adjusted. Later you will want to trade up to a balanced head sickle mower (no pitman arm - belt driven) or small drum mower.

The other critical issue on the sickle mower is sharp knives (you can get bolt on replacements over the rivets) and the guard to knife clearance is correct. A company called Webs Sickle Service is on line and carries a lot of parts for various mowers

Do you have anyone to help set up the baler? The knotters probably need adjustment and go over the rails for wear and adjustment. Also I suggest changing out any gear box fluid and making sure all the grease zerks work.

You have your work cut out for you, but once the first bale comes off the baler you will be grinning from ear to ear

 

[JeffinIA]

I was thinking of making the pitman arm my self but I need to go to tsc and get a seat cover for my M and will look and see if they have them. I have a good friend that will help me get the baler up to snuff. I'm Going to pick up some new twine ,change gearbox oil and regrease everything .It doe's look like they greased it when put away last fall.:thumbsup:

 

[mhineman]

I have an Oliver baler, but it is a little newer (but not much) than the one you pictured. Mine feeds the hay into the chamber with something like a 4 bar rake and fingers pushing it the last foot.

Mine works great, but each year it takes about 100 bales run through it to get everything shined up and smooth again. Once that much hay is through the machine I rarely ever have a bale not tied.

The biggest issue I have is with a light windrow, the hay does feed to the "far side" of the chamber (away from the pickup) and the string on that side is then a little loose. As long as I keep the windrows size right or speed up through the field the bales are a good as any.

The knotters are largely the same as most other balers and not an issue to get parts. I think the AGCO dealer near me was able to get the exact billhook for my knotter I needed off his shelf. Parts like sprockets, chains, etc. are available at TSC or NAPA. If a larger part were to break on most any of these older balers, I'd guess most of us would be looking for another baler.

 

[JeffinIA]

A Little update , I have also got a #37 John Deere sickle bar mower. It along with My Oliver 22-B sickle bar mower needed a pitman stick . Having some nice 1x1 1/8 " native oak I made my sticks for both Mowers and they work great ! . I have tested both mowers and the Oliver is cutting fantastic and the John Deere 37 needs about 4 rock guards a hold down and 7 sickle sections replaced. the crimper runs and will be tested this week if the rain holds off. I fired up the baler yesterday and it took running about 10 bales thru it before we got it to start tying right. (some operator error here) and things just needing to be shined up , but I got it tying everybale and got the lenght of the bales set so I'm ready to bale weather permitting next week, Hope to cut tomorrow but we had 2" of rain this morning and maybe more tonite . Time will tell.