MF 1455e round baler advice

[euroliner]

we were looking at a neighbours 1455e baler , think it was built in the mid 80s , but been stood now about 7 years , we are looking something to bale four foot rounds for wrapping out of 15 acres of heavy silage ground every year , we usually mow it and wilt it for a day or maybe 2 though........... anyone any experience with these machines , would they be fit for the task ? or what were they like in there day

 

[Ts 59]

Used one of these up until about 10 years ago, was good for hay and straw, didn't like any damp bits round the headland though, would just spit the whole swath straight through when starting a bale. Would think wet silage with one would be hard going.

 

[Rs chunk]

I may be wrong but someone else is bound to know but if it's a 80s belt baler I think you might struggle with grass. Some of these early belt round balers were fussy with what they would bale even balers a lot later can be a problem with grass getting the core to start to roll and having the grass whip round rollers I think it would give you a lot of grief, you would be better with a older roller baler like a class 44

 

[euroliner]

We never had a round baler before , put everything in the clamp before , someone else told us a krone 155 would do the job ? Again we know nothing about these either

 

[multi power]

we had a jd 545 belt baler, i was able to bale in the rain
lumps are hard on the belts

 

[blackbob]

The longer you can wilt it the better, although I have no experience of the 1455E. Our neighbour had the older 1450 (which he bought new in 1985 or 86) and he got on fine with silage, probably did 30+ acres/year. There wasn't really much difference between it and the Farmhand 504 I got - but it was not nearly as good.

Don't just cut your grass and leave it to wilt - give it a good fluff up, the more often the better. As long as the baler does not find lumps of wet yellowing unwilted grass among the swath, it will be fine.

 

[blackbob]

You mentioned a Krone, is that one with the chains and slats? I went from the Farmhand to a New Holland with the chains/bars too, it works fine until the chains get worn and stretched, then you start to go through more shear bolts as the chains don't fit the sprockets so well - and then the chains start breaking New chains aren't hard to fit, but possibly expensive.
Post some photos of your balers before you buy one, let us have a gander.

 

[glasshouse]

we had a 1976 international 540belt baler, it made 5ft wide and 6ft high bales. It would not bale unfit hay, it just wrapped round the rollers.
it was really good for stopping you making a mistake. silage, no way.

 

[euroliner]

You think it might be ok with heavy silage bob ? A lot of people we spoke to say different all though none of them ever owned or used a 1455e , we generally mow it either a 8 foot Kuhn drum mower then the following morning scatter it , row it the following afternoon for baling and wrapping

 

[Dim Reaper]

I bought a MF 1455E new in the 80s and used it for a few years and baled plenty of silage and straw and some hay.
If you like stress, repairing belts, cutting wrapped grass off the starter roller with Stanley knife while the storm clouds are gathering, buy it. They will bale silage but were designed in the pre round bale silage era and are very temperamental. Fine in hay and straw.
We replaced it with one of the last JD550, superb machine in comparison.

 

[euroliner]

It's a near original machine been on the same farm for over 12 years and virtually done nothing for that time , it's really not a lot of money for the condition it's in that's why I'm thinking it's such a shame to let it go ,

 

[Henarar]

You want to run it up before you buy it, see if any bearings run hot,
see what the belts are like, make sure the box works ok
they were annoying balers some fields they would bale no problem at all then another all it would do was wrap round the starter roller and drive you nuts
Have a look round and see what they are making in case you need to get out of it without losing to much if you can't get on with it

 

[How much]

I bought a MF 1455E new in the 80s and used it for a few years and baled plenty of silage and straw and some hay.
If you like stress, repairing belts, cutting wrapped grass off the starter roller with Stanley knife while the storm clouds are gathering, buy it. They will bale silage but were designed in the pre round bale silage era and are very temperamental. Fine in hay and straw.
We replaced it with one of the last JD550, superb machine in comparison.

I would take the advice above and this is exactly what happened with one Had ocassional use of in anything damp it was impossible it to was changed for a JD 550 that was by comparison a breeze

 

[blackbob]

There is a Farmhand 504HE (which I think, would be the same as the MF 1455e?) at the Thainstone sale on Saturday. It doesn't look any different to how I remember the older one, although with fewer, wider belts. I didn't notice if it has that scraper/knife to 'prevent' stuff wrapping around the roller.

 

[Ray]

When I started round baling I bought a new JD550. This was a new model at time and went on to be a very good baler for JD and myself as I was soon running three of them. I remember at that time I was baling silage and picking up work where MF1450/55E could not work effectively. That was over 30 years ago, 1455E's were poor silage balers then, they certainly won't have bettered with age!

 

[euroliner]

No problems at all with silage with the 550 ? As in fresh grass

 

[Ray]

No problems at all with silage with the 550 ? As in fresh grass

I wouldn't go as far as saying no problems at all, but they weren't bad. Early 550's had their starter roller converted to incorporate a scroll type effect where it was then possible to tighten a scraper bar to within touching. This being a similar arrangement to a cylinder lawn mower concept. This was a good feature for baling silage, but when baling straw it was necessary to back off the scraper and fit some rubber coated steel bars making it more aggressive.

When using a 550, there was a certain knack to starting a bale forming. You got better with experience, but I remember fitting all my balers with our own hydraulic pickup reel mods. This made bale starting far easier as when a blockage occurred it could be easily resolved by simply raising the pickup and reducing the intake throat area.

IMO they were dam good balers in their day and performed very well with little bother.