Inline Small Square Baler

[Gphillips]

I'm looking at buying a new, well new to me, small square baler, and I have been thinking about going with an inline to keep everything inline with the center of the tractor. We will be bailing alfalfa, bermuda, mixed grass, and wheat straw. Looking for a baler that produces a 14"x18" bale as I will probably be purchasing a Kuhn accumulator and grapple in the near future. I haven't completely ruled out a "conventional" square baler just looking at the inlines. I'm just wondering what machines make 14"x18" bales. Also wanting to know what those of you who have used these type of balers in the past find to be the good and the bad of these balers.

 

[flaboy]

Why such small bales?

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Them bales would be little bitty.

 

[dyates]

Why such small bales?

Those are normal sized small bales. 14 x 18 x whatever. I'm curious to see answers to this as well. I've heard they take hay faster on less horsepower.

 

[Sage]

We use a JD 467 16"x18" bales for horse hay people. I would definatly reccomend a GOOD inlne baler ofer the convental balers. They are much more effecient, faster, and I believe just as reliable. There are more moving parts and more money but I think it's a better way to go. I might be wrong but I only know of 16x18 and 14x16 bales. I like the idea of an accumulator and it will work with both sizes but they are priced out of this world. Look into a stack wagon if your going to do lots of bales, such as a NH 1032, 1033, 1068, and such.

 

[hayray]

Why such small bales?

Those are normal sized small bales. 14 x 18 x whatever. I'm curious to see answers to this as well. I've heard they take hay faster on less horsepower.

I am on my 2nd in-line, just bought a new Hesston a couple of years back. Because of the stuffer fork center cam mechanism they make a more consistent shaped bale then the other makes, but they actually take a lot more horse power to run. I think if you were stuffing hay fast you would be hard pressed to run very fast with a 65 hp tractor. They pack bales much better and loose alot less leaf because of the low profile pickup, there is less pick-up distance and leaf shatter involved and the hay is dropped in a trough before it is stuffed in the chamber, there really is no comparison between the inline and the Deeres and New Hollands in that matter, but I do think the Deeres and New Hollands with the taller pick-up will eat hay a little faster because if you are gonna break shear bolts you are more likely to break the pick up shear rather then the plunger shear. But I can still tie a knot every 4 seconds if the hay is raked right and feeds good.

 

[1982vett]

But I can still tie a knot every 4 seconds if the hay is raked right and feeds good.

Don't see inlines around here and have never seen one work. Is this a typo?

 

[mobgrazer]

I sell a standing crop of alfalfa to a guy every year. He sells to the horse farmers and runs an inline. He is very meticulous about how the last raking gets done. If his dad is running the baler it's about every 10 seconds and he dose about every 7. I had never seen a pull behind baler with its own 4 cylinder on it till I saw his.

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

But I can still tie a knot every 4 seconds if the hay is raked right and feeds good.

Don't see inlines around here and have never seen one work. Is this a typo?

I don't think so, at least not if he's making lighter squares. In heavy hay, I can crack out an 1800 lb hay bale in 3 minutes. Assuming that he's making 70 lb squares, that would be a square every 3.5 seconds.

Rod

 

[hayray]

But I can still tie a knot every 4 seconds if the hay is raked right and feeds good.

Don't see inlines around here and have never seen one work. Is this a typo?

No sir, no typo. That is if the hay is raked just right, for me the limiting factor is how fast it goes into the pick-up. Stringy 1st cut grass that has been raked right (and yes I do use a wheel rake) feeds a bit slower.

 

[hayray]

But I can still tie a knot every 4 seconds if the hay is raked right and feeds good.

Don't see inlines around here and have never seen one work. Is this a typo?

I don't think so, at least not if he's making lighter squares. In heavy hay, I can crack out an 1800 lb hay bale in 3 minutes. Assuming that he's making 70 lb squares, that would be a square every 3.5 seconds.

Rod

I try to make a 50 lb. bale, sometimes I try for a 40 but then I often have problems with the bales staying together and tight. I sell almost all my hay and sell it by the bale.

 

[1982vett]

But I can still tie a knot every 4 seconds if the hay is raked right and feeds good.

Don't see inlines around here and have never seen one work. Is this a typo?

No sir, no typo. That is if the hay is raked just right, for me the limiting factor is how fast it goes into the pick-up. Stringy 1st cut grass that has been raked right (and yes I do use a wheel rake) feeds a bit slower.

That is packing some hay away. I did do a little research and found the inline balers plunger runs "faster". That helps bring things into perspective.

 

[robert]

my neighbor bought a hesston inline and I ran it for him this summer, a complete pain in the ass (the baler, not him). You don't get a good view of the material going in, it needs more hp than the NH575 conventional that preceded it. Can't have too many shear bolts (two different sizes).

 

[littlefarmer]

We have two Hesston 4590 inline small square balers. 14X18 bales. We used to have NH conventional type balers. We pile bales with a NH bale wagon. The center feed balers make nice square ended bales and not shaped like a banana, which makes them hard to pickup. With the center feed type you can bale wherever you want and are never trapped against a swath you can't bale until you pick up the row next to the unbaled swath.No problems, just bale and look in the mirror ever so often. Pretty boring job. Always makes uniform lengh bales too. VERY IMPORTANT if you use a balewagon to pile.

 

[hayray]

my neighbor bought a hesston inline and I ran it for him this summer, a complete pain in the ass (the baler, not him). You don't get a good view of the material going in, it needs more hp than the NH575 conventional that preceded it. Can't have too many shear bolts (two different sizes).

ya know it is no different then running a round baler.

 

[robert]

my neighbor bought a hesston inline and I ran it for him this summer, a complete pain in the ass (the baler, not him). You don't get a good view of the material going in, it needs more hp than the NH575 conventional that preceded it. Can't have too many shear bolts (two different sizes).

ya know it is no different then running a round baler.

depends on the round baler, we run a NH644, wide pickup, starts easy, makes a good bale and fast with the net wrap. In a decent windrow can kick out a bale every 75 secs, including tying. Used JD balers in the past and the new ones especially its tough to see a problem on the pick until its well blocked up. The 644 rarely breaks a shear bolt. Got over 20,000 bales on the current machine.

 

[Angus Cowman]

my neighbor bought a hesston inline and I ran it for him this summer, a complete pain in the ass (the baler, not him). You don't get a good view of the material going in, it needs more hp than the NH575 conventional that preceded it. Can't have too many shear bolts (two different sizes).

ya know it is no different then running a round baler.

depends on the round baler, we run a NH644, wide pickup, starts easy, makes a good bale and fast with the net wrap. In a decent windrow can kick out a bale every 75 secs, including tying. Used JD balers in the past and the new ones especially its tough to see a problem on the pick until its well blocked up. The 644 rarely breaks a shear bolt. Got over 20,000 bales on the current machine.

Does the NH644 have a shear bolt the NH 654 has a clutch on the pickup so it doesn't have a shear bolt

 

[hayray]

I have a NH BR730, just makes the 4x4s and I don't see the pick-up any better then on my inline and also my 4x4 is more comparable in capacity to the small square baler then those larger models. It is all what you are used to running. Like I posted, I think the low profile pick-up will not swallow hay as fast as the conventional side delivery small square balers if the hay is clumpy, but if it is raked right I don't think there is any difference. Also, after I got this second Hesston 4590 I did have a lot of problems breaking the plunger shear alot and after getting the dealer out there another time we came up with the fact that the stuffer forks needed to be adjusted another link advanced with the plunger and that made alot of difference and the same on one of my friends balers. So now I think about it I can see the problems you might of had, actually, I told the dealer to bring me back my old baler if he couldn't get this one going better. So everyone who has one of these balers and if you are having problems check on the stuffer and plunger timing. A couple of years ago the plunger went slightly out of time and I had the dealership owner mess with it again and we could not figure out how it jumped but it did and was knicking the stuffers, never happened again. The knotters have worked flawlessly however after baling around 20,000 small squares per year for the last 4 years with it. On my older Case-IH version I had a never ending fight with the Raspy type knotter.