Older baler comparison

[Pnw Farmer]

Thanks in advance for any help. I grew up on a JD 224W baler with a Wisconsin motor, I could make a bale with it most of the time but ultimately the tie system got the best of me as the bill hooks would hold the wire too long and pull the tie in 2 quite often. We rebuilt the knotters, new bill hooks, retarded them, advanced them, did most everything we could think of. I don't know if maybe the newer rolls of wire had lighter oil or no oil to help release, I never looked into that possibility. Anyways, we finally just parked it as we weren't doing enough to justify a newer baler and I was going to burn that thing to the ground if I broke any more bales so we just hired out custom for our little hay patch. Last night looking around Google I came across a shed kept 336 for a nice price. One picture so I don't know condition until I look in person but I was wondering if anybody has ran these 2 machines and what improvements were made to the 336, pickup width, maintenance, all those goodies. Thanks again.


Farmer

 

[SBMF 2015]

Thanks in advance for any help. I grew up on a JD 224W baler with a Wisconsin motor, I could make a bale with it most of the time but ultimately the tie system got the best of me as the bill hooks would hold the wire too long and pull the tie in 2 quite often. We rebuilt the knotters, new bill hooks, retarded them, advanced them, did most everything we could think of. I don't know if maybe the newer rolls of wire had lighter oil or no oil to help release, I never looked into that possibility. Anyways, we finally just parked it as we weren't doing enough to justify a newer baler and I was going to burn that thing to the ground if I broke any more bales so we just hired out custom for our little hay patch. Last night looking around Google I came across a shed kept 336 for a nice price. One picture so I don't know condition until I look in person but I was wondering if anybody has ran these 2 machines and what improvements were made to the 336, pickup width, maintenance, all those goodies. Thanks again.


Farmer

Probably the same machine. Maybe a wider pick up, but not much. I worked for a neighbor in high school that had a JD 336 twine. It seems like I lived behind that baler all summer. I now have a JD 336 wire tie. So I feel your frustration. I have pretty good luck with Red Brand baling wire. We were having trouble with it not twisting the wires tight enough. The tube that the twisters run back and forth on was full of chaff gunk. We cleaned it out, replaced the springs, and spray it with a multi lube spray before we start each field. Problem solved. The only time it misses is if it's trying to tie while sucking in a big wad of hay or when switching boxes of wire.

I happened to be at a JD dealer this morning. They had a BRAND NEW JD 348 square baler on the lot. . . $30,000

 

[Pnw Farmer]

Thanks for the input, the twist was good on the knot, it would wedge in the bill hook itself and pull the wire in 2 right at the base of the twist. The wire had cut grooves in the old bill hooks and that's why we replaced them but the brand new ones did the same thing. I can't remember what brand of wire we ran but I do know it sat at the coop warehouse for quite awhile as we're not a big haying area and the balers that are around are all twine.

Speaking of 348's, there's one just posted on Craigslist with rebuilt knotters and plunger bearings, preserver spray kit, knotter fan for $8k. I've got the cash though for the 336 and don't want to pull a loan and add more debt to my life.

I did get a hold of the seller of the 336, he says his dad converted it from wire to twine, any red flags with this conversion?

 

[SBMF 2015]

Thanks for the input, the twist was good on the knot, it would wedge in the bill hook itself and pull the wire in 2 right at the base of the twist. The wire had cut grooves in the old bill hooks and that's why we replaced them but the brand new ones did the same thing. I can't remember what brand of wire we ran but I do know it sat at the coop warehouse for quite awhile as we're not a big haying area and the balers that are around are all twine.

Speaking of 348's, there's one just posted on Craigslist with rebuilt knotters and plunger bearings, preserver spray kit, knotter fan for $8k. I've got the cash though for the 336 and don't want to pull a loan and add more debt to my life.

I did get a hold of the seller of the 336, he says his dad converted it from wire to twine, any red flags with this conversion?

I didn't know you could convert them, but I suppose you change the needles, knotters, add twine tension mechanism, and change wire box holder to twine box.
I guess I'd make sure those all look different on the 336 compared to your 224.

If you go look at the 336 check if there is a grease zirk on the plunger were the push rod pivots its kind of on the bottom of the cross tube that connects the to. It's a pistol to get to. Some people don't grade it, some don't even know it's there. But that would be an expensive fix if it's wore out.
I'll try and get some pics of ours.

A 348 for 8k with all those options has probably had tens of thousands square bales ran through it. So it would all depend on how well it was taking care of.

 

[SBMF 2015]

The grease zirk is on the under side.

 

[Pnw Farmer]

Thanks for posting those, I remember greasing something in there on the 224, it's been several years since I even looked at that baler. Looking at those knotters brings back some angry feelings. Haha. I have yet to get a hold of the seller again for an inspection of the machine and the post has been pulled so I have a feeling that baler may not be available anymore. He was supposed to get a hold of me at the start of the week to meet up, I tried him a couple times yesterday evening to see if it was still available with the post being pulled and no answer. I'm half tempted to throw out a lowball offer on the 348 and see what happens. It'd only see a couple thousand bales a year so even worn out, it'd take me a few years to put it in the grave. I looked at the ad again and it says new plunger system and replaced knotters.

 

[Pnw Farmer]

Here's the 348.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Here's the 348.

pics look good. I'm guessing it has been well maintained. I wouldn't want the kicker, but other wise it looks good.