Bale packers

[Double D]

Am looking for opinions on the bale bandit and the acusin bale packers for use on hay and straw. Thanks

 

[BDBed]

Bale Bandit is a good machine but unfortunately the back up in the U.K. and from the USA has drastically reduced over the last couple of years. To the point I had a machine down for three weeks. No one from bandit in the U.K. was willing to come to me to help diagnose the problem. I did receive phone support but had to travel three times to collect part they actually didn’t have in stock. When we did find which part was needed neither Bandit in the U.K. nor America had it in stock. The Americans managed to track one down for me but again took some time. At one stage I was told the part wouldn’t be available till November.

Like I side the machine it self does a good job and I have run three over the years. I found it to have the best pack for my job. It is very complicated and not the easiest to keep running consistently, especially when working with the weather.

As for Acusin packers. I have never run one but there is plenty locally. There quite a few advocates on here for them @Clever Dic would be one.

 

[daveydiesel1]

@Bale Baron UK sells these kinda things as far as i know

 

[Double D]

Bale Bandit is a good machine but unfortunately the back up in the U.K. and from the USA has drastically reduced over the last couple of years. To the point I had a machine down for three weeks. No one from bandit in the U.K. was willing to come to me to help diagnose the problem. I did receive phone support but had to travel three times to collect part they actually didn’t have in stock. When we did find which part was needed neither Bandit in the U.K. nor America had it in stock. The Americans managed to track one down for me but again took some time. At one stage I was told the part wouldn’t be available till November.

Like I side the machine it self does a good job and I have run three over the years. I found it to have the best pack for my job. It is very complicated and not the easiest to keep running consistently, especially when working with the weather.

As for Acusin packers. I have never run one but there is plenty locally. There quite a few advocates on here for them @Clever Dic would be one.

Thank you for your reply, sounds like the bale bandit is not an option then.

 

[Simon Chiles]

Thank you for your reply, sounds like the bale bandit is not an option then.

I think you’ve only got two real choices, either the Bale Baron or the Arcusin.
I’m not an expert on the Baron, it’s advantage is that baling and packing are a one man operation.
The advantages of the Arcusin are that it can handle all bale sizes, it’s much better on steeper and odd shaped fields, better on the road and I reckon capable of a higher annual output because you can generally run the packer later into the night than you’d sensibly want to run a baler.
If you’ve got limited labour, big flat fields, and don’t do much roadwork then possibly the Baron is the machine for you, all other scenarios warrant the Arcusin. I’ve run Arcusin’s for the last 17 years, pm me if you want more details.

 

[Goweresque]

They all have their pluses and minuses. The Arcusin is a stand alone operation, whereas the other 2 are (generally) towed behind the baler. The Arcusin can be slotted into a smaller scale operation more easily as it doesn't need a massive tractor, 100HP is plenty, you could probably manage with 80. The Arcusin is more tolerant of bale lengths and types (ie standard size vs Welger), but the packs are not as tight as the other makes. The Arcusin is small, its hardly any bigger than towing a 3t weekes trailer. I think the BB requires quite a short bale which is not that liked by end customers I've heard.

I have a C14, and I have to admit I've had to make a fair few changes to mine to make it work better, whether I got a duff one I don't know, it certainly was one of the first C models in the country and I've often wondered if it was a pre-production machine or something because there were loads of silly little things that drove me mad when I got it, and a small amount of blacksmith style engineering solved them overnight. For example just this season I removed some zig zag bars at the bottom of the chamber (designed to stop bales sliding about I think) and this almost eliminated popping bale strings entirely, allowing me to increase the pack pressure massively and get tighter packs. Its entirely possible that on the new model (D now I think) a lot of these little issues have been solved. The hydraulics and electronics have been faultless.

 

[powerontheland]

Steel bands used on the bandit are pretty lethal IMO, especially if you are selling to the horse trade. I have used both the Arcusin and the baron in recent years, they both have a place. By the very geometry of the packs, the Baron packs handle far better with less bale breakages. I can load 588 bales in around 15mins with a tractor loader with baron packs. The Arcusin is less dependant on bale length and is a separate operation, but in the right hands is capable of huge output. I regularly used to get 600 bales plus packed per our with a B14.

 

[Mark C]

I ran 2 bale bandits consecutively ( a 100 and then a 200) since 2006. They were great machines at the time but I feel they haven’t evolved an awful lot, partly down to the passing of Owen Brown who developed it. Lots of bespoke parts. I had excellent backup from Bale Bandit UK as they also run a machine themselves and are always on the end of the phone S day send parts out promptly.
However I now run a bale baron. I switched as they offered a 9 bale pack option which I wanted. Mine trails behind the Baler but you can get a pickup version that runs like an arcusin. They do need a short bale but you can bale them tight to get the same bale weight.
Output is fantastic. I run mine behind a welger 830 with a sleeved chamber and can do 600/ hr without breaking a sweat. In a catchy season , baling 20 acres after tea isn’t a problem but would be a thing of dreams with the Bandit. As with most balers and packers the tying mechanism is what gives trouble but any one who knows their way around a big Baler can fix a bale baron. They use the Rasspe or Heston knotter.

 

[Simon Chiles]

Steel bands used on the bandit are pretty lethal IMO, especially if you are selling to the horse trade. I have used both the Arcusin and the baron in recent years, they both have a place. By the very geometry of the packs, the Baron packs handle far better with less bale breakages. I can load 588 bales in around 15mins with a tractor loader with baron packs. The Arcusin is less dependant on bale length and is a separate operation, but in the right hands is capable of huge output. I regularly used to get 600 bales plus packed per our with a B14.

I’d agree with you on the output of a B14 Arcusin, I aim to have made a pack every 90 seconds. The newer versions ( C and now D ) are meant to be slightly quicker. Arcusin pack rigidity is improved by getting the right pack pressure in relation to the bale. We found we could increase pack pressure and substantially reduce the amount of bale breakages by swapping the baler onto 9250 ( trucker ) twine. I have a customer who we bale and pack for who has one tractor in the field loading, one tractor carting the trailers and a telehandler unloading the trailers and stacking in the barn. They handle two packs at a time and can clear, cart and stack 1000 bales an hour into the sheds.

 

[daveydiesel1]

How much roughly does these machines cost?

 

[Simon Chiles]

How much roughly does these machines cost?

Roughly £70k new. There are starting to get a lot more secondhand ones around now. It sounds a lot but depreciation on them is very little. I can’t speak for the Bandit or Baron but the Arcusin machines are very reliable, probably one of the cheapest machines we’ve ever run for parts. I think I’ve put one hydraulic hose, one chain link, two sensors and a couple of springs on the pickup in 17 years. You’ve also got to remember that the cost of packing has to be divided by every time you handle a bale, if you calculated the cost of manually handling the bales each time then the packer would work out way cheaper. I’d suggest you’d need to be doing 30k+ bales a year to justify a new one.

 

[Double D]

Bale Bandit is a good machine but unfortunately the back up in the U.K. and from the USA has drastically reduced over the last couple of years. To the point I had a machine down for three weeks. No one from bandit in the U.K. was willing to come to me to help diagnose the problem. I did receive phone support but had to travel three times to collect part they actually didn’t have in stock. When we did find which part was needed neither Bandit in the U.K. nor America had it in stock. The Americans managed to track one down for me but again took some time. At one stage I was told the part wouldn’t be available till November.

Like I side the machine it self does a good job and I have run three over the years. I found it to have the best pack for my job. It is very complicated and not the easiest to keep running consistently, especially when working with the weather.

As for Acusin packers. I have never run one but there is plenty locally. There quite a few advocates on here for them @Clever Dic would be one.

Does any one do work for other people with a PACKER and if so how do you charge. To warrant having one would have to do packing for other people.

 

[BDBed]

Does any one do work for other people with a PACKER and if so how do you charge. To warrant having one would have to do packing for other people.

My bandit operation was just contracting. I started off doing my own with a bit of contracting. I got to the stage of having run two machines to keep on top of work. Due to a few other business changes I stop doing my own work and completely focused on the contracting. This was the main reason for staying with the bandit as the pack could be handled by anyone and with most grabs and spikes etc.
As for charging, I baled and packed in one operation so can only comment on that. With the price of these machines and ever shorter working windows, I was charging just under £1 for larger customer over 6k bales and up to £1.20 for smaller jobs. We pretty much always went with a rake as well which we charged per acre for larger job. For smaller jobs we charged an extra amount per bale.

 

[Simon Chiles]

Does any one do work for other people with a PACKER and if so how do you charge. To warrant having one would have to do packing for other people.

As above, baling and packing seems to be about £1/bale mark, packing on its own about 60p.

 

[Bale Baron UK]

As above, baling and packing seems to be about £1/bale mark, packing on its own about 60p.

Agreed we would say £1/bale but more for a small fiddley job.

Would be happy to chat about Bale Barons. Please feel free to give us a call on 01403 887720

 

[8100]

These guys run the arcusin...

 

[Bobthebuilder]

These guys run the arcusin...

Making hard job of chucking straps over

 

[Simon Chiles]

These guys run the arcusin...

We pick the packs up with a Quadrogrip TS, you don’t get the packs sag like they do in that clip with the flat 8 grab. Can also travel faster with the packs and stack higher.

 

[Simon Chiles]

Making hard job of chucking straps over

You’d get the sack here if you threw the metal end over. A few seconds rolling the strap up would save a lot of time throwing it over.