BeeferMan
Gold Member
I find our 8420 can be plugged when starting a bale if you feed too much hay in before the bales starts spinning. You have to be careful of hay that is slightly moist - like if it has a bit of dew on it, or real dry. Feed hay evenly across the width of the pickup and make sure that it's all being pulled into the bale chamber. As soon as the bale starts spinning then it's pretty hard to plug it, it'll suck up about anything.
If yours is the manual twine tie like our 8420, then the cutter is not very reliable. You're right that the twine doesn't stay on the anvil. I made a hook to keep the twine where the knife could cut it, I posted pictures here some where. But later I found that Case/Hesston actually made one too (much more expensive than mine!) - part #700117238, "ROD - twine, guide" in the diagram below. If your baler doesn't have one, that could help. (Sorry, that's a crappy picture, the guide is in the lower right - you can see the full size picture on Messicks parts site)
Here's a couple shots of the fix I made. Pretty simple, you just have to make sure the twine arm clears the hooked pin...
If yours is the manual twine tie like our 8420, then the cutter is not very reliable. You're right that the twine doesn't stay on the anvil. I made a hook to keep the twine where the knife could cut it, I posted pictures here some where. But later I found that Case/Hesston actually made one too (much more expensive than mine!) - part #700117238, "ROD - twine, guide" in the diagram below. If your baler doesn't have one, that could help. (Sorry, that's a crappy picture, the guide is in the lower right - you can see the full size picture on Messicks parts site)
Here's a couple shots of the fix I made. Pretty simple, you just have to make sure the twine arm clears the hooked pin...
