Browns Juggler - a brilliant machine and a great company to deal with.

[jd6820]

Hi there,

I was going to post this in the classic section but I feel with the modifications we have made it is worthy of 'modern' status. I'd firstly like to thank Browns Agricultural Equipment. An excellent firm who answered any queries I had and took the time to offer solutions to any parts they no longer stocked. On a now obsolete machine, that hasn't been supplied since the 80's. I believe I was speaking to a relative of the original director, plenty of time to talk and nothing was too much trouble. Even sending me a copy of the operators manual, something a few manufacturers could do to learn from. I'll certainly be making an effort to purchase a machine from Browns in the future.

Anyhow, on to the machine itself, we inherited it with a farm we have just purchased. We are mainly producing forage for the local equine trade. Thus requiring high quality forage and minimal soil and dust contamination, which we feel is vastly helped by not dragging the bales along during the flat 8 process, when conditions aren't ideal.

I must admit we have adapted the sledge to be trailed, based on another members idea, which works very well. We haven't many working examples in our area and I can't understand why. It's a simple but brilliant mechanical design, maybe hindered by the hydraulics of the time. We have fitted a new motor supplied by FlowFit online and it works a treat, maybe a little faster than the original design was intended for? Thought some on here would like to see one in action so I've uploaded some footage for all to see. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask...

Sorry for the dodgy camera angle, I wasn't thinking about which way my phone should have been oriented.

 

[Flat 10]

Glad you had a good experience. Fair play to browns. Farmhand also made one.

 

[Exfarmer]

We had a juggler, great machine it was just the balers of the day struggled to make the bales consistent enough

 

[ploughman1963]

Back in the late 90's I bought a juggler to go behind our Massey 137. The way I modified mine was to basically take the middle out of a cooks sledge and weld the juggler in. A pair of stub axles and 13" wheels were added towards the rear of the Juggler and the castor wheels removed. So, we used the ramp and centre front wheel off the cooks - the bales then entered the juggler and were sorted and grouped as usual, but when they were 'ejected' as a flat 8, it was into the 'windrower' section of the Cooks sledge which grouped them tighter and allowed the '8' to be carried to a convenient release point which couldnt be done by the Juggler in its original configuration.
We were doing a lot of small bale haylage at the time and my reason for building the above was to save dragging the bales along the floor as te '8' were formed and contaminating the bales with soil. When baling haylage, the sledge could operate with the windrower section folded up in the transport position. The flaw in the machine for me was the keyway that located the arm that shuttled the bales from side to side to its driving shaft. The haylage bales were heavier than the Juggler was perhaps designed for and we sheared the keyway a few times. I think we resorted to permanently joining the two in the end.
It was sold when I had a dispersal sale of the then contracting business in 2003 and I think it went to a haylage business up Wrexham/Oswestry way.

 

[ploughman1963]

 

[X344chap]

Its missing the great decal on the middle doors - it said ' juggler bale accumulator' with all the letters of juggler up and down.

 

[rob h]

Just sold our juggler with ih445 baler always worked well if you kept the bale length even.

 

[Spudie]

Brother bought one as a project, now I can see how it worked. Better hide my cook or he will be cutting it up

 

[robandles]

Thank god you spelled “cook” correctly.

 

[ploughman1963]

If anyone has a browns juggler for sale get in touch as I’d love to build myself another crossbred ?

 

[rob h]

Ring Watson's he bought ours 2 months ago with the baler paied for it but still hasn'tcollected it

 

[ploughman1963]

Watson’s? Sorry, are they a machinery dealers?

 

[rob h]

Yes Mark Watson. Google him we advertised the baler with sledge back in July on face book.next day I got a phone call from him he said I'll have it and pick it up when I'm passing. Transfered money the same day.its still hear .he buys small balers for export.if you're interested give him a ring

 

[Shep]

I must say that John deere is making light work of that baling...

 

[jd6820]

Back in the late 90's I bought a juggler to go behind our Massey 137. The way I modified mine was to basically take the middle out of a cooks sledge and weld the juggler in. A pair of stub axles and 13" wheels were added towards the rear of the Juggler and the castor wheels removed. So, we used the ramp and centre front wheel off the cooks - the bales then entered the juggler and were sorted and grouped as usual, but when they were 'ejected' as a flat 8, it was into the 'windrower' section of the Cooks sledge which grouped them tighter and allowed the '8' to be carried to a convenient release point which couldnt be done by the Juggler in its original configuration.
We were doing a lot of small bale haylage at the time and my reason for building the above was to save dragging the bales along the floor as te '8' were formed and contaminating the bales with soil. When baling haylage, the sledge could operate with the windrower section folded up in the transport position. The flaw in the machine for me was the keyway that located the arm that shuttled the bales from side to side to its driving shaft. The haylage bales were heavier than the Juggler was perhaps designed for and we sheared the keyway a few times. I think we resorted to permanently joining the two in the end.
It was sold when I had a dispersal sale of the then contracting business in 2003 and I think it went to a haylage business up Wrexham/Oswestry way.

I was hoping you would offer input as I kinda had your design in mind when I set about making a copy of my Cook's sledge front end to fit the juggler. Yes folks, no sledges were harmed during the making of this Cooks Juggler as it will now be known.

So I'd like to thank you personally for giving me the inspiration to have a go and an idea to start with making it trailed. Now it can be mounted behind most inline balers as they are mainly fitted with a drawbar or any balers with a hitch. As opposed to having the Brown's specific brackets. Never mind the fact it floats over the bumps and doesn't flex the chamber in the same way as being fixed.

We like to bale Haylage heavy so the advice about the bale weight and key way failure has been noted. I'm wondering if the slippery phenolic ply we have used may help here. It is currently able to throw the straw bales far enough to trip the lever on first bale out if you run the flow too high.

Its missing the great decal on the middle doors - it said ' juggler bale accumulator' with all the letters of juggler up and down.

We have kept the panels, they do indeed have the Juggler logo intact so I may on the final revision get some new stickers made. This was a trial run and the panels are rotten, so figured it would be quicker to fab some new'ens out of 3mm steel.

Brother bought one as a project, now I can see how it worked. Better hide my cook or he will be cutting it up

Hahaha, we haven't cut the sledge up, 1.5" or 40mm box section works well for the input chute/passage, then fit the sides up with 3mm plate. Job's a good'en. Just borrowed the front wheel and drawbar off the sledge so I'll be making up a new one for the juggler with a slightly wider tyre to ride on the moss land a bit better.

If anyone has a browns juggler for sale get in touch as I’d love to build myself another crossbred ?

I think I'm gonna look for another myself as having a couple could prove useful in the backup and output stakes given the "brilliant" weather we experience in Lancashire. So it'll get the same treatment. I reckon I currently stand at way less money than a secondhand belted sledge in well used condition. Best of all no belt to worry about tracking, the mechanics on the juggler are very simple.

I must say that John deere is making light work of that baling...

Yeah, was working well for the photo shoot, it bales well and handles big rows no bother. The bit I didn't show you was the two hours previous I spent diagnosing why the knots were hanging on the billhook for right knotter! Flipping tucker finger out of adjustment/worn to the point it was contacting the side of the needle as it swung round and it was hit and miss as sometimes it would clear the needle and tie perfectly. Sooo glad I'm a mechanic by trade, with a half an idea about knotters, even then it was stressful enough. I can't imagine how I'd feel having to wait for someone to look over it while the weather closes in. But for consistency and output the 456 is a good bit of kit. I'll be going through it front to back this winter as it is a new machine to us and I don't like chancing my luck next season.


Thank you everyone for the positive responses, if anyone has any questions or wants some close-ups of the modifications just give me a shout.

 

[bobajob]

Please don't take offence, only comment I would say compared to a normal flat 8 does it not seem to throw the bales off the back quite quickly and with a gap between each bale?! . Does the grab push them back together ok

 

[Boohoo]

After seeing that video I'll add my name to the list of people looking for a juggler, it looks ideal for haylage on our damp ground.

 

[jd6820]

Please don't take offence, only comment I would say compared to a normal flat 8 does it not seem to throw the bales off the back quite quickly and with a gap between each bale?! . Does the grab push them back together ok

No worries, if you speed it up or adjust your travel speed it’ll place the bales tight no bother. We had it running fast enough to stack them at one point. ?

I had set my brother operating whilst I got some footage. Most of the packs were spot on and even with that spacing grab bunches them up no bother.

 

[jd6820]

After seeing that video I'll add my name to the list of people looking for a juggler, it looks ideal for haylage on our damp ground.

I’ll have to get mine bought quickly with this surge in demand. Hahaha or maybe take orders for conversions ready to rock ? ?

 

[Boohoo]

I’ll have to get mine bought quickly with this surge in demand. Hahaha or maybe take orders for conversions ready to rock ? ?

A conversion that's ready to rock sounds perfect to me.