New holland round baler

[Smokey16]

Iv been and seen a new holland 548 round baler today whilst I was there the chap showed me a new holland 740a belt Baker what's people thoughts on them

 

[robbie]

I loved the case coloured version I had, not the strongest of balers but I could bale anything in any sort of swath and make a very good bale out of it, something Im struggling to do with a McHale.

 

[Smokey16]

Thanks. I havent had much to do with belt balers

 

[Drillman]

740A isn’t a bad baler. External greasable bearings and a decent control box. Biggest fault is the Rotor is too far back and no drop floor. So if you plug it (which you will if you push on too hard it’s a pain to unplug. For some reason there not at there best baling behind rotary lexions but cope with Axail flow stuff just fine.

Silage, halyage, hay they will deal with just fine.
The trick with them is to not let the Wind guard on the front start to lift with volume of crop. If it is your pushing a bit too hard and only a hair away from plugging the pickup.

By modern standards there not as fast and won’t pack as much into a bale but not a bad machine of cared for.

 

[robbie]

Not being a drop floor means that you usually only bung it up the once!!!!!!
Personally I never found the rotor distance to be a problem but I know lots of others found it a pain.

 

[Drillman]

Not being a drop floor means that you usually only bung it up the once!!!!!!
Personally I never found the rotor distance to be a problem but I know lots of others found it a pain.

To be honest the 740-740A and 7060 were much better balers than the RB series that replaced them.

NH totally lost the plot with the RB series. Lost a lot of sales to McHale,Kuhn and vicon round us.

I’m told the New NH round balers are supposed to be the dogs danglies, but from past experience I will take some arm twisting to go back to one after the McHale V660

 

[Smokey16]

Thanks. Il be baling mainly haylage and hay and may be a bit of straw. Which one so you think I should go for the 548 or the br740a

 

[robbie]

Personally I'd go for the belts on the 740a.
I miss mine, if they made a br 750 with the strength and built quality of the McHale I'd have one tomorrow.

 

[Smokey16]

Thanks robbie

 

[nxy]

We are on our 4th New Holland baler and have had both a 548 and a 740.

Both of them had the same common fault which was the woodruff keys in the packer shaft getting play in them allowing the counterweights to get out of alignment with each other. If you don't notice this the packer will quickly then shake itself to bits. Over the various generations of New Holland balers they did modifications to rectify this including splitting the packer in two halves etc but the problem remained until on the very last of the 700 series they did a modification that included a much bigger shaft. The bigger shaft came with bigger keyways so were much longer lasting.

I would never buy a New Holland baler without getting underneath it and looking at the packer. Make sure it's got no play in it and that the counterweights are at 180 degrees to the packer fingers. We now check this regularly and routinely change the woodruff keys. Careful when you get some replacements as they are imperial not metric and when you give the storeman your worn one he will measure it and give you a wrong one.

 

[robbie]

Most UK models are rotor feed not fork packer. I do know some of the very early red ones had Packers.

 

[nxy]

Most UK models are rotor feed not fork packer. I do know some of the very early red ones had Packers.

Probably a good thing given the preference for silage and the heavier crops in the UK.
I have been in France for over twenty years and never seen one yet with rotor feed.
Mind you plenty round here see net wrap as a luxury product let alone pay extra for a rotor.

EDIT Just realized the baler I had was a 648 not a 548 anyway.

 

[spin cycle]

what is a 'drop floor'........'roto feed'

 

[spin cycle]

ah ok...worked 'roto feed'.....seen them in past and thought they were knives

 

[NHMatt]

The drop floor is exactly that- a floor under the rotor that can be hydraulically lowered if the baler starts to block. The RB150 allows this to be done from the cab.

 

[robbie]

what is a 'drop floor'........'roto feed'

A drop floor is the best invention in the world when trying to bale some snotty wet old rope.
I've blocked a non drop floor once and every bit had to be cut out with my pocket knife in 1 inch pieces. My hands looked like theyd been through a cheese grater!!!!!

Now I stop, push a button, engage a spool start the pto again, wait a few seconds raise the floor and off you go again

 

[gatepost]

I have run a 740 for the last 7 yrs, and found it a good reliable baler that can cope with just about anything, easy to repair and good net wrap system, mine has the reverser so not to bad on blockages, just sold it yesterday (in theory).

 

[Wellytrack]

A drop floor is the best invention in the world when trying to bale some snotty wet old rope.
I've blocked a non drop floor once and every bit had to be cut out with my pocket knife in 1 inch pieces. My hands looked like theyd been through a cheese grater!!!!!

Now I stop, push a button, engage a spool start the pto again, wait a few seconds raise the floor and off you go again

I blocked my old Vicon baler a few times. No drop floor but they did give you a spanner 3 foot long

 

[daveydiesel1]

I blocked my old Vicon baler a few times. No drop floor but they did give you a spanner 3 foot long

Is that the vicon same as the greenland/deutz baler? Theyd be good at intake. Must of been big lump swallowed

 

[Wellytrack]

Is that the vicon same as the greenland/deutz baler? Theyd be good at intake. Must of been big lump swallowed

Good intake yes, but capacity is less than Welger/ McHale. If the blockage rolls on over the auger and happens farther back your in trouble.
Was usually my fault though for pushing too much in with not enough PTO speed up.