# Hesston 5585



## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

I have a Hesston 5585 Rounder. I have put new belts on it and completely rebuilt the pickup. It still continues to be a very messy baler. Lots of chaff around the bale when it is made and hay gets everywhere in the baler. It has been so bad lately that it is clogging the baler as it wraps around rollers and gets wedged between belts. Any ideas on why this is happening or if I can clean it up? It has always been this way since I bought it, but it seems to be getting worse this year.


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

I also have a Hesston 5585 rounder and have experienced the same problems. Chaff will accumulate between the scraper and the belts, pushing the belts rearward into the square roller. When the square roller contacts the belt, it locks up.

I have used the baler for two years and the first year it never happened (rolled 180 rolls, all in one day). It happened twice this past year (rolled 111 rolls, all in one day). Not sure what changed from last year, except the hay may have been drier. Both years I was rolling wheat hay.

I agree, the rolls are not as "pretty" as those from a JD 535 or 567. I thought it might be partially due to the wheat. Not sure what makes the rolls look they way they do. Maybe the width of the belts or the gaps between the belt. Mine makes fairly tight rolls, but I have to manually operate the twine and can never seem to get it to stay tight.

Don't really have any solutions for you but I share your pain. I will post any ideas that I come up with.

Good luck!


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

Thanks for the input. I am going to adjust the bars that ride the rollers this tomorrow. I am going to try moving them slightly closer to see if this helps the clogging problem. That may help the clogging issue, but still can't figure out why the thing is so messy. I will let you know next week if it helped the clogging. I am going to put a couple of bearings in as well. I thought this weekend with the rain coming in, it might be a good opportunity. Our MF dealer here does not stock anything for them. You have to special order it all and it takes a couple of days to get the parts in.


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

I buy the bearings for the rollers from my local new holland dealer. I take the bearings to him and he matches them to one that New Holland uses. Its a pretty standard bearing and the NH dealer keeps them in stock.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

My NH dealer doesn't stock anything, but I take them to a local supplier that gets them for me much cheaper about half price of what the MF dealer charges.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

I have a 5545 Hesston that's new to me. Mine does the same thing. Seems like early in the morning it doesn't loose that much but the drier the hay gets the messier it gets untill it starts plugging up. Seems the bale gets dry and starts coming unrolled and stops up the pickup. I wonder if you can put wider belts on the baler ? There's room for 5 3/4 maybe 6 inch belts. I wonder if that would help with the loose material ? Also the kicker seems like a waste of time most of the time the bale rolls to far away for it to work and you still have to pull forward to shut the door. This is my first round baler and if they all work like this it may be my last !


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

That is odd. My kicker is the best I have ever seen. It works much better than the newer ones. Not sure about the wider belts. I just put new ones on last year and with the price of them, I went with what was reccommended. If you try it let me know if it works. I am going to be making some adjustments to mine this week. If it changes anything I will post it so you can see too. Good Luck and don't give up on the rounders, overall they are still pretty good.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

The 5545 I bought is pretty well used. I bought it because I knew the custom cutter I hired has the 5540 and uses it alot (and I mean alot). He has very little trouble with his and I know other people around that has the same baler as both of us. I been constantly fixing broken stuff on it since I bought it and I'm just a little frustrated that I haven't got all the bugs out of it. Bale a couple bales and something breaks. Fix that bale a couple bales and something else breaks. The pickup exploded on me this weekend and I had to get the square baler out to finish the field I was baling. It got to dry and was just grinding the hay into grass clippings. I was baling a love grass/bermuda mix for my cows and it seems to dry real fast during the day. Not much time to fool around before it starts shattering to pieces. It could use a few new belts on it. They don't have much grip left on them. Where did you get your belts ? What did they cost ?. I found a place on the web that sells belts 300-600 ft at a time and they sell a 5 1/2 inch belt. Ex-cel belting have you heard of them ? They sell a mini rough for 2.90 a ft or a diamond for 3.56 a ft. I don't know what is recomended for grass hay. I also am small time operator. Last year we put up around 4000 squares and 60 round that I hired out. I just trying to make some round hay to use not sell. Anybody got any Idea's feel free to chime in on the subjects above


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

I will have to look up where I bought my belts. I paid 1100 for the set, that was about 50% cheaper than I could buy them from MF. I know what you mean on the fixing. I guess I just learned to go through mine all the way. Last year before season we completely rebuilt the pickups. New pipes and cam bearings as well as teeth. Someone had cobbled them up before I got it. Once you get it down and go over it good, you should have few problems with it. This season we are going to replace all the roller bearings as well as chains and sprockets. It doesn't cost as much if you do it yourself and look for after market parts or make your own. They wanted 200 a piece for the pick up pipes. I made them myself out of some pipe I bought at a sale and it only cost me time. I will try to remember to look at the boxes from the belts when I get home to see where they came from.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

I just bought the baler 4-5 wks ago and used it some to bale the same lovegrass/bermuda field that I did sunday again. Its the only thing growing in this heat. I was told the baler was "FIELD READY". Yeah rite. Just to hook it to the tractor had to replace a u-joint. No monitor was "found" by the previous owner. Using 2 hot wires to run the string in and out. Ran it to the field and 2nd bale the belts started coming off. Clipps came undone from shortning the belts. Fixed two belts and went back to field and baled several bales and saw the clipp pins coming out and replaced some on the spot. Baled a couple more bales and it plugged up and broke the pick-up chain. Fixed that the next day after going to town and buying several master links for the chain. Replaced several pick-up teeth during the week (they needed when I got it) noticed the pipe was welded back together during the teeth replacement. Next weekend I baled 2 bales and the bearings went out in the bale sizer? arms . $218.00 later this weekend started. By next hay season I will have had time to go through the pick-up and everything should be ready for next year. You got to be kidding about the pick-up tubes being $200 a piece ? There's nothing to them a tube with some holes drilled in them.


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## nwfarmer (Jun 16, 2009)

stevemsinger said:


> My NH dealer doesn't stock anything, but I take them to a local supplier that gets them for me much cheaper about half price of what the MF dealer charges.


I can appreciate that. My NH dealer 100 miles away doesn't stock anything either. I have to order from a NH dealer about 400 miles away and have it overnighted to me. If the dealers don't stock the item and they come from different warehouses you can get nailed with a lot of shipping charges.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

Yep, price those puppies and you will see. I just used some schedule 40 pipe. You can probably pick up a drill press used for the price of one pipe and then you will be in business. My baler was the same way when I bought it. They lied about it real bad. Difference is that I went to look at it 5 times and took different people with me to get their opinion before I bought it. Even with all of that, we didn't catch everything. I can't fault the baler for that though. It is the people that owned it. I try to take good care of my stuff, but seems that a lot of folks don't. If you need a pipe and can't find one, let me know, I can get one for you.


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

The first year I used my 5585, I had a lot of problems. That winter, I took off all of the belts and chains. I spun every shaft with my hands and made sure they turned smootly and were not bent (I had to replace two bearings). I found some sprockets that were not lined-up. I cut all of the belts to the same lenght and installed new laces.

When I went into the field this summer, I knew I would not have any failures. I rolled 111 rolls without any problems (except for a few chokes). I did notice the laces were pulling out of one belt, so I'll fix that before next cutting.

I am debating on how often to remove the belts and lay hands on the bearings/shafts. Maybe every other year. It's certainly better to find the problems and fix them in the winter than in the field.

I would never trust a used baler to be "field ready". If I ever buy another baler, I would try to buy it with the belts off so I can check everything by hand.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

Yes I was a little trusting on the field ready part. Thats my fault. I didn't know anything about what to check for since this is my first baler. "Kick the tires looks okay".Thats one of the reasons for buying cheap. I would hate to spend $10,000-20,000 for a piece of junk. "Ridgerunner" Did you know you can open the door and pin the bale rollers where they'll be loose enough to check most of the rollers ? Thats something a neighbor showed me when he help me redo the belts. Also is a good learning tool for when I by a better machine.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

When you say pin.....is there a pin that will do that for you on the baler itself? I use a chain but that does not allow me to check the two rollers that I have chained together to create the slack. I have to pull the belts to check them. If there is a better way, I would sure like to know.


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

The manual for the hesston 5585 says to place a bar or block of wood between the scraper (located between the lower front two rollers) and the tension arms on each side of the bale chamber. However, the tension arms are slightly less than an inch thick and right up against the sides of the bale chamber. So, I am a little leery of using a block of wood. I plan to make some steel bars that have a little lip on each side so they will not slip off of the tension arms. Personally, I use the chain method in the field when I have a choke or a broken belt.

The manual doesn't mention any pin holes and I have not been able to find any. Could probably weld in a plate on the outside of the bale chamber sheet metal to support a hole for pin. The pin would be inserted through the side of the bale chamber just below the tension arm on each side. Might be hard to access due to the drive chains and safety shields.

There might also be a way to attach something to ends of the springs or the chains that run between the springs and the tension arms. You could lift the door, lock the springs in position, then lower the door, leaving the belts loose.

Anyway, the reason I recommend removing the belts to check bearings is that it is difficult to spin the rollers to check for bearing problems when the belts are hanging on the rollers. I agree that some of the rollers could be checked, but not others.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

Hadn't thought of that Ridgerunner. It is a good idea. I have just always either used the chain or took the belts off. I think rigging a steel lock would be a good idea. I made my own mechanical locks for the cylinders because I don't trust the hydraulic lock for when I am working on the chamber with the door up. Thanks.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

Sorry for the delay. Weekend I,m away from the computor. On the arm that swings when the bale grows. Right in front of the rearward roller there is a hole in the arm. Mine arm has a piece of pipe from the right to left side of this swinging arm with a 3/4 to 1" hole through it. When you open the rear door 1/2 way this hole is exsposed by the belts getting tighter. On each side of my baler there is 2 holes below the windrow pickup adjusting arm in which there is a pin. (maybe lost on your baler). Remove the pin and install into the hole. Shut the door back down. The pin holds the belt roller in place and loosens the belts enough so you can squeeze inside the baler and check the rollers for bearing falure. You can also remove and in stall several belts at a time this way. When I had to rebuild this assembly a couple of weeks ago I had to use a couple of large tiedown straps to pull the arm up enough to get a couple of belts back on the baler. (Forgot about moving the chain stops on the bale springs).In this case all the belts where off and the pins had to be removed to remove the three rolers and arms to replace the bearings in them.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

I pretty sure the manual shows the chain stops for loosening the roller tension. The manual I have is for both balers. Haven't looked at it for the holes I descibed.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

I don't have a manual but I can get one. I have been looking for a monitor box that would allow for automatic tying. I didn't even know they had one for this baler until I read it here on this post. If anyone has a lead on one let me know. Would be real nice to have. I will check on those pins tonight if I have time after baling what we have down.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

Baled 5-6 bales of native grass this weekend with my round baler. Made it through with only one hitch "no breakdowns". I baled early am for the dew because its been so dry here. I was baling short windrows of maybe 100 ft long. I had about a 1/4 to 1/3 bale in the chamber and it started a second bale below this bale and locked the baler up. It definetly was a second bale in there because I had to unload the baler and unrolled the bigger bale then had to unroll another smaller bale that stayed in the baler on top of the pickup. Any body have this happen to them ? Do you think It could be due to worn belts "no grip" on the belts ? The baler has 3 real good belts and 3 soso belts on it. I'm trying to work the bugs out of it on small fields before I try a large field. Hate to let a lot of hay go to waste.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

Never had that happen. I do know that when it gets real dry here we have more problems with ours. Seems like the hay gets caught between the rollers and what I call cleaners, just a bar that runs beside the roller. There is a narrow gap and when the hay is real dry it gets in there and will plug when the bale is getting larger. I don't know what would cause it to start a second bale. I have newer belts on mine, so I can't talk to that either. I put them on when I bought the baler a couple of years ago.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

( stevemsinger) I've had alot of problems with it "plugging up" when it was dry. Grass has been short and been hot early this year. I plan on getting new belts this fall and rebuilding the pickup for next year. What type a belt you running on your baler ? I have the origanal mini rough on mine. Thought about getting the cheveron style belt (maybe I should start a new topic on belt styles ?) . I've seen another guy running the double diamond grip belt on a 5540. Don't know if one is better for grass or alfalfa or does it matter. Everything I put up is a grass hay "bermuda, bluesteam native mix, or lovegrass." most of its a finer hay than alfalfa. As hot as it's been you can cut in the morning and its dry and ready to bale by the end of the day.


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

I also run the mini rough 2-ply belts. Never had a problem with the baler starting a second roll, but I have had it choke up on top of the pick-up before. My main problems with this baler are:

1. Sisal twine breaks at the tip of the twine tube (closest to the bale)
2. Sisal twine does not cut after tying is complete
3. Tailgate pops open (may be due to bouncing on rough ground)
4. Chaff gets between the belts and the scraper, pushing the belts backwards into the square roller, jamming the square roller
5. Belts slip if I try to make the bales full size.
6. Pickup chokes if I fill the baler until the pick-up shuts off (provided the belts haven't slipped yet).


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

(Ridgerunner) I've had to get off several times and pull the string of the spring that retracts the cutting blade. It wouldn't feed the string. It doesn't seem to want to cut the string cleanly (frayed end). I've sharpend the blade a couple of times trying to get it real sharp. Also had problems with the rear door comming open. I built up the latch some and squared the seat so that it didn't slide off the catch. The guy with the 5540 heated his catch and bend it inward so it would catch better. The 5540 got a solid catch where mine has the spring loaded latch.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

(Ridgerunner) On the belt splippage have you tried traction tape ? Legg Acc


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

No, I haven't. Does it work well? Is traction tape just basically adhesive backed heavy grit sand paper?


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

Don't know if really works. Round baling is new to me this year. Maybe someone else has tried it and can give some input on it ? I myself was wondering about it. One of my rollers has a dent in it and thought about getting some to even this out.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

So here goes. I run the rough belts not chevron. They are doing an excellent job. My string cutter was doing the same thing. I went through a lot adjusting the arms and was still having trouble cutting and fraying intermittently. I found the problem was the tensioners. Once I loosened them all up and got more tension it fixed the problem. Mine does the same thing with pushing against the square tube. Don't know a fix for that. Rebuilt my pickup last year and now it will pick just about anything up that you put in front of it.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

I also have a problem with the back door. Rebuilt my cylinders last year, but still had the problem. I found a leak on my tractor so I will fix that and see if it still does it. I am also switching tractors on it next week so we will see if it is in the tractor or the baler. In the mean time I just pull the lever and put more pressure on the door every time I switch sides on my feed.


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

I found my problem with the tailgate popping open. I would put downward pressure on the door when I closed it, but was forgetting to put downward pressure after re-starting the tractor. Anytime I re-start the tractor (first bale of the day or first bale after lunch, etc.) the tailgate would pop open just before the bale finished. Pressurizing the cylinder everytime I start a bale has remedied this problem.


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## okhillbilly (Jun 18, 2009)

(Steve and Ridgerunner) I talked to the guy that does some custom cutting and baling for me sometimes and alot of the neighbors around here. He has 2 of the older 5540 4x5 balers. The holes I talked about for putting the pins in to loosen the belts was one queston for him. One of his balers has the holes and the other one doesn't and he runs a couple of chains up to the top roller and lets the door back down. So it may be a later model upgrade or after though on Hesston's part adding the holes to later models. (Ridgerunner) I will try to hold the hydralics on the door latch the next time I use my baler. I may have gotten that fixed temperarally by welding up the lock plate and grinding it flat again. But I will keep what you said in my mind incase it still wants to act up. I usually just shut the door and take off baling. The only dry days we have had have been during the middle of the week and I haven't been able to put any hay up on the weekends.


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