kenny thomas
Well-known member
Who is using one or has used one? Thinking about trading for a new one. What are the good and bad things about them?
I found out this week from a neighbor that NH uses really light weight (junk) PTO shafts on their balers.cfpinz":2efb8gmh said:Started off on a 605C when I was 11 years old, then Dad bought a 504I when he saw how much fun I was having. We wore that thing plumb out, the 1 1/4" bearings were junk, though. Then I bought a 504L and he got a new 554XL. My L has over 10k thru it and still clucks em out. It's the best baler out of the lot, the XL doesn't impress me as much as the L - it's made a good bit cheaper and has had a couple issues. Another friend has one and says the same thing. I'm dying to try one of the 604M's, but still waiting on that winning lottery ticket.
I've ran a couple JD's but have never ran a NH, if I were buying another baler tomorrow it would be a Vermeer.
I had heard they didn't like damp haycfpinz":mhpop0ra said:What a difference 24 hours makes. I ran Dad's XL for about 3 hours last night and was quite pleased with it, hay was dry and in perfect windrows. Had two more hours of baling to do this afternoon, wound up taking me 3 hours to do so, spent an hour laying under his baler. Hay was tough and damp, my L wouldn't have hiccupped at all but his XL plugged up 3 times badly. That was the first time I've baled damp hay with it and Dad said it plugs fairly often in damp hay. If that was my baler I would dump it off at the dealer's front step and tell him to call when Vermeer has a replacement for it. My L hasn't plugged in around 5000 bales, and the last time was my fault.
That being said, I cannot in good faith recommend a Vermeer to anyone unless the M is a vast improvement over the XL, and I wouldn't recommend the XL to anyone who bales anything other than perfectly dry hay. I had hoped to upgrade to an M in the future, but I'll be doing a lot of homework before I do.
Best of luck.
Angus Cowman":3ktq9mwn said:I had heard they didn't like damp hay