John deere round baler

[Lawnseed]

Just a quick one lads. My neighbour has bought a John deere round baler. It's a fixed chamber. Not sure which model yet. All I know is that it's fairly fresh looking. He tried to do some bales and she's 100% until the Bale is about half cooked then she throws the chain off. He's bitterly disappointed and as yet he's not got to the cause of the problem. I will find out which model tomorrow morning.
Any ideas what could be causing this to happen. The bearings all seem ok. I haven't had a look yet but I suspect that the door is opening half way through the Bale. But I am not familiar with the baler so I can't be sure.
He's a few acres cut down. Some of the neighbours offered him some contract baling to help him with the hp. He's keen to get going.

 

[spin cycle]

could be chain/sprocket wear?,,,,,,baler can cope til it pressure starts to build?....take chain off then do it back up again....lay it on some concrete then bend it.....if it stays pretty straight it's ok but if it's like a banana it's wore up......if the tops of the sprocket are sharp that indicates wear also

having said that i run old balers and have never encountered it .......you say he's just got it?......are you sure the chain isn't missing a tensioner perhaps?

 

[Dave W]

Where did he buy it from? That should be the first phone call

 

[Phil P]

The sprockets on the end of each roller are held on using a tapper lock, they don’t just butt up to anything so need to be measured.
Measure each sprocket against the side of the baler or place a straight edge across them and make sure they’re running in line with each other and also with the tensioner.

 

[Jdunn55]

Who's your john deere depot? Ours was snapping chains last year for a pastime, (every 10 bales) turned out to be the potentiometre and something on the shaft that needed welding up. Apparently pretty much all of these bales (john deere 644) need it doing after 10,000 hours. It's a design for if you dont have the drop floor mechanism so that you can reverse the pick up reel without all the rollers turning and chucking the entire bale out. But like I say, if you have the drop floor it isnt needed and is best just to weld it up rather than pay an insane amount of money for a part that isnt needed and will probably take a week atleast to get here.

If it's not that then I would definitely reccomend getting your JD depo to go through it properly (if its second hand), they sorted ours out and it did a 10x better job aftwerwards

 

[Lawnseed]

could be chain/sprocket wear?,,,,,,baler can cope til it pressure starts to build?....take chain off then do it back up again....lay it on some concrete then bend it.....if it stays pretty straight it's ok but if it's like a banana it's wore up......if the tops of the sprocket are sharp that indicates wear also

having said that i run old balers and have never encountered it .......you say he's just got it?......are you sure the chain isn't missing a tensioner perhaps?

I'm going to call over and see if I can help him. I'll see if I can spot anything obvious..
I have no real experience of round Balers. But I know that someone on this forum has probably had this problem before. I only saw the baler in his shed a few months ago and noticed how clean and tidy it looked.

 

[Lawnseed]

Where did he buy it from? That should be the first phone call

I'd say he's on the fone this morning. But it would be great to get him going ASAP.

 

[Lawnseed]

Who's your john deere depot? Ours was snapping chains last year for a pastime, (every 10 bales) turned out to be the potentiometre and something on the shaft that needed welding up. Apparently pretty much all of these bales (john deere 644) need it doing after 10,000 hours. It's a design for if you dont have the drop floor mechanism so that you can reverse the pick up reel without all the rollers turning and chucking the entire bale out. But like I say, if you have the drop floor it isnt needed and is best just to weld it up rather than pay an insane amount of money for a part that isnt needed and will probably take a week atleast to get here.

If it's not that then I would definitely reccomend getting your JD depo to go through it properly (if its second hand), they sorted ours out and it did a 10x better job aftwerwards

That sounds plausible.. I will mention that when I call with him. Thank you

 

[Jdunn55]

That sounds plausible.. I will mention that when I call with him. Thank you

No worries, I cant remember the exact part that had to be welded up, not sure if we replaced the potentiometre and then it turned out it was something different or if it was that as well but it sounds quite similar, bloody good baler when it's going though, caused very few issues since!