Is upgrading from a JD435 baler worth it?

[shaz]

Was wondering if any of you guys who use or did use a JD435-535 have tried one of the newer JD models with the "mega wide" pickup.
Is there a major difference is baling speed/clogging frequency?
My old 435 is a decent baler but EVERYONE can outrun me.

 

[cowski]

i have a jd 535 ,right now i would not upgrade.but my 535 is going to be faster than your 435 anyway.the newer balers are a little faster and start better.as long as mine remains reliable the difference is not worth the price of the upgrade to me.

 

[turklilley]

I upgraded to a new 458, and many times, I wish I had my old baler back. All the problems develop either after hours, on weekends, or can't get a serviceman until after the rain. My old baler would work when I wanted to bale. The wide pickup Is nice. The Service Manager is getting things straighted out, and I"m learning about it. But frustrated when adjustments are needed, and I want to make hay. It cost me a lot of money, to downgrade to a new baler. So you will go slower If you have luck like mine.

 

[johndeerefarmer]

I had a 335 (4x4) for about 10 years then went to a 457 about 7 years ago. It has net wrap and the high moisture kit. I see no difference in starting a bale between the two. The old one had the rubber converging wheels, which worked good but I kept tearing the rubber teeth or having to put them back into the wheels. My new one has the megawide and megateeth. I don't see that it feeds any better. My main troubles have been the netwrap system- if you get some torn net either wrapped around one of the rollers or belts it will continue to tear net on the bales until you find where it's hiding. Also hay tends to build up in the back door of the baler and will tear the net. Deere recommends that you run at a lower rpm to avoid this problem. Also the high moisture kit causes hay to ride up the back side of the belts so I have to stop fairly often and clean all of that hay out. Other than these few things, its a nice baler.

I just looked at the new 8 series and the only thing that interests me is the new hydraulic drop floor that you can get on the silage special balers. You can unclog the baler by hydraulically dropping the floor and not even have to dump the bale or get out of the tractor. A Deere rep told me several years ago that they were working on a lift system that would lift that spare roll of coveredge wrap up into the storage area and then lower it for you. With the new hydraulic drop floor, a lift for the netwrap and if they would make the bale eject process automatic (where I don't have to manually open and close the gate) I would buy a new one tomorrow.

 

[OklaBrangusBreeder]

My dad and I had a JD435. We traded up to a slightly used JD467 I guess about 6 years ago.

The speed of the the 467 is MUCH better over the 435 from the time that you begin the bale wrap/ejection process. As I recall, the 435 wrap had a single tie twine system? The 467 has the netwrap. The netwrap punches the bale out much quicker with less effort than the 435. I never put a stop watch on the process, but I would guess it ejects the bale in about a third of the time compared to the 435. My dad had some problems with forgetting to disengage the PTO before he ejected the bale on the 435 which busted belts a couple times (I never had a problem with it, but he did). The 467 is all automated. All you do is lift the gate on the baler when the indicator light comes on and it auto ejects the bale. Seems like the 435 makes you back up to eject? (as least it did on ours, we didn't have the bale kicker). I love the more automated, much quicker process of the 467.

The Megawide pickup is nice. Frankly, we never made windrows that were that tough to bale with the 435 because of the worn out rake that we had at the time. Now we have a Rhino 10-wheel rake that makes nice big windrows that the 467 gobbles up with ease.

I've never had any serious problems with the netwrap system. I did have a few times when the netwrap would wrap around a rubber roller and screw-up. The local JD dealer told me to rub some baby powder on that rubber roller at the start of the day each use. Since I've started doing that, I've never missed wrapping a bale.

On the 435, we were a little careful to go slow to start the bale and looked for just the right size of windrow to start the bale with. Seems like a thin windrow was tough to get the bale started. With the 467, I never pay any attention to the bale starting. I just drive ahead and watch the monitor to tell me when to stop for the wrapping to begin.

I love our 467. I expect it will continue to do the job for us for years to come. I like it much better than the 435 we had. For us, as I recall we traded in our older 435 for a slightly used 467 for a net trade difference of about $12,500.

 

[dun]

If the 435 has a kicker there is no need to back up before ejecting the bale. It also has 2 twine arms.

 

[jlwilson]

I just started baling hay (last week, actually) and I bought a JD468. Since I don't know anything about the previous balers, I can't comment there, but I will say that the 468 is incredibly easy to use and seems to make really good bales. I had about an hour's orientation and then I was off and baling. I've put 250 bales through it so far and it seems pretty bullet proof. I'm having a little trouble since I let the net wrap run out instead of changing it before it ran out. I am getting an error code. But I'm going to re-feed the net wrap tomorrow and I really think that will solve the problem. I bought a JD 285 Cutter and a Vermeer 1022 rake. No complaints about any of them so far.

 

[shaz]

My dad and I had a JD435. We traded up to a slightly used JD467 I guess about 6 years ago.

The speed of the the 467 is MUCH better over the 435 from the time that you begin the bale wrap/ejection process. As I recall, the 435 wrap had a single tie twine system? The 467 has the netwrap. The netwrap punches the bale out much quicker with less effort than the 435. I never put a stop watch on the process, but I would guess it ejects the bale in about a third of the time compared to the 435. My dad had some problems with forgetting to disengage the PTO before he ejected the bale on the 435 which busted belts a couple times (I never had a problem with it, but he did). The 467 is all automated. All you do is lift the gate on the baler when the indicator light comes on and it auto ejects the bale. Seems like the 435 makes you back up to eject? (as least it did on ours, we didn't have the bale kicker). I love the more automated, much quicker process of the 467.

The Megawide pickup is nice. Frankly, we never made windrows that were that tough to bale with the 435 because of the worn out rake that we had at the time. Now we have a Rhino 10-wheel rake that makes nice big windrows that the 467 gobbles up with ease.

I've never had any serious problems with the netwrap system. I did have a few times when the netwrap would wrap around a rubber roller and screw-up. The local JD dealer told me to rub some baby powder on that rubber roller at the start of the day each use. Since I've started doing that, I've never missed wrapping a bale.

On the 435, we were a little careful to go slow to start the bale and looked for just the right size of windrow to start the bale with. Seems like a thin windrow was tough to get the bale started. With the 467, I never pay any attention to the bale starting. I just drive ahead and watch the monitor to tell me when to stop for the wrapping to begin.

I love our 467. I expect it will continue to do the job for us for years to come. I like it much better than the 435 we had. For us, as I recall we traded in our older 435 for a slightly used 467 for a net trade difference of about $12,500.

Do you think the ground speed and maintenance are better with the 467?

 

[OklaBrangusBreeder]

* For me, the ground speed is more a function of the tractor pulling the baler than the baler itself. We've got a larger tractor now then when we had the 435, so yes our ground speed is faster with the 467. I'm just saying, hard for me to say how much of that is the baler as opposed to the tractor upgrade.

* Maintenance on our 467 has been nothing but the "routine" stuff. We had problems with the twine tie mechanism on the 435 and had down time in the field with it at times. Once we learned to feed the wrap right, our 467 has never missed a beat when the field was ready.