Vicon square balers .

[whindy]

Who built them ? Are they any good?

 

[Roy_H]

Who built them ? Are they any good?

Do you mean 'Conventional' baler? ( Small square). If so the answer is no they weren't very good!

 

[Cowabunga]

Who built them ? Are they any good?

Since you are asking in the past tense then I assume you mean Vicon's own big square balers then they are descended from Rivierre-Casalis. They were then bought up and the company was called Greenland for a short while until Kverneland took them over. Not sure when they were first branded as Vicon really.
Any built this century or late last century should be excellent balers, although I'm sure there are exceptions out there. For quite a few years now they have been branded as Kuhn balers and recently also as John Deere.

The current Vicon company has nothing to do with the old one for grassland harvesting equipment apart from the name and mowers and Haybob and rakes. It, the Vicon baler division, was sold to clear debts, to Kuhn who rebranded them promptly as Kuhn round and big square balers.
KV on the other hand made an alliance with Galignani which had over invested in new factory facilities that were grossly under-utilised at the time. These round balers were sold as both Vicon and MF in the UK for a short while, although I doubt whether MF sold more than a few dozen in all.

Then KV were gobbled up by Kubota and that ended the association with MF but put more investment money again into Gallignani, which I don't suppose are marketed outside Italy under that name any longer. They are now sold as Vicon and Kubota balers. Kubota sell them as Kubota while independent [no tractor franchise or one with tractors but no implements] non-full-line dealers sell them as Vicon still. Vicon and Accord fertiliser sowing equipment and mowers and rakes etc are built in-house, owned by Kubota.

I do not believe that Vicon/Kubota currently offer a big square baler. They do still make sprayers though of course, which I had forgotten until now.

 

[Matthew Britton]

They are terrible balers! There were quite a few around here and had a reputation for being high maintenance. It isn’t helped by the fact that whilst the dealer was good Vicon did a crap job of training the service staff, then they went on to use chocolate in place of steel in many places. I had 2 (the second by default), the first was a 4 string 8100 and nearly bankrupted me when I was starting out, the second was a later 6 string 12200 and belonged to the farm I took over. It was better than the first but left here with bent bits that shouldn’t have bent! I believe the guy who bought it off me has got it fixed up now but with my experience of them it was way too much hassle/risk for me to want to mess around with. The only contractor around here that ran them had 5 or 6 running at the same time before he packed up. He knew them inside out as Vicon used to send him there pre production machines along with the r and d man who if I recall was originally from Rivierre Casalis and he trained him up on the spannering side. There are far better bakers out there! However if you have seen a cheap one and don’t mind a bit of risk carry on. Parts might be a bit tricky now what with all the change of ownership that has happened.

 

[quattro]

I think kuhn still make them

 

[traineefarmer]

Since you are asking in the past tense then I assume you mean Vicon's own big square balers then they are descended from Rivierre-Casalis. They were then bought up and the company was called Greenland for a short while until Kverneland took them over. Not sure when they were first branded as Vicon really.
Any built this century or late last century should be excellent balers, although I'm sure there are exceptions out there. For quite a few years now they have been branded as Kuhn balers and recently also as John Deere.

The current Vicon company has nothing to do with the old one for grassland harvesting equipment apart from the name and mowers and Haybob and rakes. It, the Vicon baler division, was sold to clear debts, to Kuhn who rebranded them promptly as Kuhn round and big square balers.
KV on the other hand made an alliance with Galignani which had over invested in new factory facilities that were grossly under-utilised at the time. These round balers were sold as both Vicon and MF in the UK for a short while, although I doubt whether MF sold more than a few dozen in all.

Then KV were gobbled up by Kubota and that ended the association with MF but put more investment money again into Gallignani, which I don't suppose are marketed outside Italy under that name any longer. They are now sold as Vicon and Kubota balers. Kubota sell them as Kubota while independent [no tractor franchise or one with tractors but no implements] non-full-line dealers sell them as Vicon still. Vicon and Accord fertiliser sowing equipment and mowers and rakes etc are built in-house, owned by Kubota.

I do not believe that Vicon/Kubota currently offer a big square baler. They do still make sprayers though of course, which I had forgotten until now.

Vicon in their independent days were one the finest machinery manufacturers in Europe, innovative and built to a standard normally unheard of in agricultural machinery. Now the only true "vicon" products are the wagtail spreaders. The disc spreaders are a hybrid of Vicon and Accord designs, the sprayers are Rau (but made in the old Vicon factory). Not sure on the grassland stuff, but I don't think even the haybobs are legacy Vicon designs.

Vicon's biggest contribution to the KV group was its electronics and the control systems are still designed and made in Nieuw Vennep.

 

[Cowabunga]

I think kuhn still make them

There are many generations of these balers and very early ones were not brilliant but as they evolved they got better. However Kv were notorious for being sparing with steel where it mattered at times. However, later ones are fine performers from what I’ve seen and heard.

Yes, Kuhn make them and have further developed them. I have not seen one in the metal in Kuhn colours though.

 

[Cowabunga]

Vicon in their independent days were one the finest machinery manufacturers in Europe, innovative and built to a standard normally unheard of in agricultural machinery. Now the only true "vicon" products are the wagtail spreaders. The disc spreaders are a hybrid of Vicon and Accord designs, the sprayers are Rau (but made in the old Vicon factory). Not sure on the grassland stuff, but I don't think even the haybobs are legacy Vicon designs.

Vicon's biggest contribution to the KV group was its electronics and the control systems are still designed and made in Nieuw Vennep.

Haybob came as part of the PZ Zweegers and Zonnen purchase, as did the drum mowers. There is a rich heritage and history to what is now a division of Kubota.

 

[whindy]

Ok thanks. Is one advertised on local fb page I recognised the shape did not now origins. Looks like JD .now I know

 

[goodevans]

Kuhn 1290 here and very pleased ,bales a good weight as long as good twine used

 

[d williams]

There are many generations of these balers and very early ones were not brilliant but as they evolved they got better. However Kv were notorious for being sparing with steel where it mattered at times. However, later ones are fine performers from what I’ve seen and heard.

Yes, Kuhn make them and have further developed them. I have not seen one in the metal in Kuhn colours though.

We have a 2009 120x70 and is some baler put in a field with others no problem

 

[Roy_H]

Guy l knew had a Massey 5 big square baler, l believe it was built by Vicon (?) and he had no end of problems with it.

 

[Roy_H]

Vicon in their independent days were one the finest machinery manufacturers in Europe, innovative and built to a standard normally unheard of in agricultural machinery. Now the only true "vicon" products are the wagtail spreaders. The disc spreaders are a hybrid of Vicon and Accord designs, the sprayers are Rau (but made in the old Vicon factory). Not sure on the grassland stuff, but I don't think even the haybobs are legacy Vicon designs.

Vicon's biggest contribution to the KV group was its electronics and the control systems are still designed and made in Nieuw Vennep.

We had a Vicon CM 240 disc mower and it was utterly and totally bullet proof!

 

[Chae1]

@glasshouse runs one iirc.

 

[glasshouse]

@glasshouse runs one iirc.

Yes i have 12290
Identical to the new john deere
It goes well

 

[Cowabunga]

Yes i have 12290
Identical to the new john deere
It goes well

Has yours got the hydraulic motor PTO start helper? Seems like a very very good idea to reduce wear on the PTO clutch when starting something with a large flywheel and the inertia involved with spinning it up from a dead stop. I know that some balers need to be started up in 540 speed then switched off and then the tractor speed quickly switched to 1000 before re-engaging the now spinning PTO.

 

[glasshouse]

Has yours got the hydraulic motor PTO start helper? Seems like a very very good idea to reduce wear on the PTO clutch when starting something with a large flywheel and the inertia involved with spinning it up from a dead stop. I know that some balers need to be started up in 540 speed then switched off and then the tractor speed quickly switched to 1000 before re-engaging the now spinning PTO.

No, it doesn't. I think
Havent had a problem that way

 

[Cowabunga]

No, it doesn't. I think
Havent had a problem that way

You would know if it had. The flywheel is lighter than a Krone hi density of course but even so Kuhn and JD do offer this feature as an option and as far as I know, Krone don't. Don't think MF do either, although in this grassland area there are very few MF balers [I am not aware of one].

 

[Richard Smyth]

You would know if it had. The flywheel is lighter than a Krone hi density of course but even so Kuhn and JD do offer this feature as an option and as far as I know, Krone don't. Don't think MF do either, although in this grassland area there are very few MF balers [I am not aware of one].

Krone definitely do have hydraulic motor startup on their balers. One lonely farmer on YouTube has plenty of videos showing it on both his krone balers

 

[Cowabunga]

Krone definitely do have hydraulic motor startup on their balers. One lonely farmer on YouTube has plenty of videos showing it on both his krone balers

Is that right? I must have a look.

Edit
Just had a look at the Krone website and indeed they do. Only on the High Density models, which almost certainly have a much heavier flywheel than standard versions. I do not believe that Lonely Farmer has a HDP model, so if he has hydro-start, then it will have been an optional extra. I don't believe he has it, but am open to persuasion.