Question about rolling hay.....

[Hondac]

I roll hay with a 530 john deere roller with a 540 rpm pto. I am pulling the baler with a 120 horse tractor.
The tach on the tractor does not work. Generally, I run at about 3/4 throttle. Is there any way of knowing whether or not I am running too high or too low in terms of the pto speed?

 

[bigbull338]

since your tach doesnt work theres no true way of knowing your rpms.but you can get to know whewre to run by listening to your tractor an baler.an watching how fast or slow the windrow feeds into the baler.it sounds like your running your tractor at close to 2000rpms or a tad over.an thats about where you want to run baling hay.

 

[Hondac]

Thanks.............. Does the rpm's on the tractor dictate how tight the roll will be?

 

[MasseyFerg]

what is tractor's max rpm. most are 2300. So if you are at 75% you are at about 1725 rpm. typically pto speed would be at about 2150 or 2200 rpm so I guess you are running a little slow. I would run more like 85-90%


if the tractor's hydraulic pump makes lower pressure at lower rpm the bales will be softer. Some round balers had their own hydraulic pump to make the pressure, in that case it might not matter

 

[Hondac]

Thanks...........I will try that to see if it makes a better bale.

 

[1wlimo]

The windrow size can make a differance too

a light crop takes longer to make a bale so th bale will be tighter, than a heavy crop when you do not have to travel very far for a bale. The higher number of turns the bale makes in the chamber thetighter the bale, same as plunger strokes on a sqaure baler