Claas 5200 big square baler
- Thread starter sledgeit
- Start date
- Location
- East Sussex
Easy to use, easy to work on, got a steering axle on mine which is great for some of our gateways, I struggle to make a good tight silage bale with it though, straw and hay are fine. Fair weight on the road, feels like a grain trailer behind you.
I've not had a 5200 but am no stranger to 3200, 2200, 2100. Good balers, go well and can get good weights. They are not built like a hesston but are not weak balers. Things to check/maintain.
Pickup spines can crack up, repair them early, cam tracks can wear, sharks teeth in chamber wear and can close in catching needles, 5200 I think are bolt on, 2100 they were integral to bottom of chamber and a big job to replace, plunger rollers not unknown to collapse, knotter rollpins last much better if you clean the grease holes out in drive gears. Prone to collecting straw in the string eyes through chassis, wreaks havoc with string tension and drops knots if jammed up, roller presses are bloody expensive to replace if bent, auto lube pipes can block, check knotter shaft for wear. Electric trip mechanism needs lubricating and checking before the season... if that doesn't trip its a pig if bale goes over length, only way to correct it is wind star wheel backwards which means emptying the chamber. Top notch bale ejector and tailgate, excellent pick up, they feed well, very simple knotters, bilhook tongues press straight if you bend them, great string boxes. Got the 2100 to 147000 bales and sold 3200 in good order at 90000, says enough to me they don't need to be built like a hesston to last like one
Pickup spines can crack up, repair them early, cam tracks can wear, sharks teeth in chamber wear and can close in catching needles, 5200 I think are bolt on, 2100 they were integral to bottom of chamber and a big job to replace, plunger rollers not unknown to collapse, knotter rollpins last much better if you clean the grease holes out in drive gears. Prone to collecting straw in the string eyes through chassis, wreaks havoc with string tension and drops knots if jammed up, roller presses are bloody expensive to replace if bent, auto lube pipes can block, check knotter shaft for wear. Electric trip mechanism needs lubricating and checking before the season... if that doesn't trip its a pig if bale goes over length, only way to correct it is wind star wheel backwards which means emptying the chamber. Top notch bale ejector and tailgate, excellent pick up, they feed well, very simple knotters, bilhook tongues press straight if you bend them, great string boxes. Got the 2100 to 147000 bales and sold 3200 in good order at 90000, says enough to me they don't need to be built like a hesston to last like one
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Thank for all the replies, I looked at a MF /Hesston yesterday thought it was better put together than the Claas but after speaking he dealer about it he began to tell me all the part that give trouble on them which left me thinking that all balers have there issues. L P to put those sort of bale counts through a Claas says a lot about them, thanks again for the replies.
Sledgeit
Sledgeit
Hesstons are good balers, having run both there isn't much in them, you can ultimately get a bit more straw in the bale with a hesston, but it's pretty minimal, Claas pull a lot easier on the banks