Hesston 5400 round baler.........

[jltrent]

Anybody still use one of these? I had a neighbor that used one for years and could make some pretty good bales. It is not fixed nor variable chamber. It rolled the hay on the ground as its chamber and to tie you had to leave the windrow and tie it as the bale rolled on the ground. The belts you see on the back are all the belts it has. I thought at the time that sure beat handling square bales and wanted one. That seems like about ten years ago, but probably 40. Dang I am getting old.

 

[kenny thomas]

Yes you are, it was around 1980 when the first ones came to here. FIL demoed one for Hesston then bought it. Like you I thought it was great because we didn't have to do square bales anymore. Looking back i bet there sure was a lot of wasted hay because they didn't roll very tight. We called them a groundhog roller.

 

[Allenw]

They didn't work on some of the sandy ground around here, the bale would start dragging instead of rolling. The first round baler I remember was a neighbor had a Vemeer that he had to get off and hand run the twine mechanism to tie a bale.

 

[jltrent]

Yes you are, it was around 1980 when the first ones came to here. FIL demoed one for Hesston then bought it. Like you I thought it was great because we didn't have to do square bales anymore. Looking back i bet there sure was a lot of wasted hay because they didn't roll very tight. We called them a groundhog roller.

I remember him having it. Wonder if the baler is still around?