# Square baling with a Ferguson TO20?



## Stitch (Jul 21, 2016)

Will a TO20 sufficiently run a small square baler (no rack)? Theres the deal of a lifetime on one right up the street from me but the ONLY way id buy another tractor is if itd work as a back up for everything. Im not worried about it pulling a rack because i do everything by myself anyway!


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## HayMike (Mar 22, 2011)

It doesn't have live pto, that would be a deal breaker for me on the baler.


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## Stitch (Jul 21, 2016)

Yeah i know itd be a pain, just wondering if it has enough horsepower to bale in a no other option situation.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Stitch said:


> Yeah i know itd be a pain, just wondering if it has enough horsepower to bale in a no other option situation.


There has to be a better bad option than that.

If it's the deal of a lifetime, buy it and resell it. Then buy something useful for this century.


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## Stitch (Jul 21, 2016)

Ha, prolly couldn't resell it for enough to buy anything phenomenal. I can get it for $500, just need justification!


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## pede58 (Oct 27, 2015)

I doubt it, don't think my TE-20 would.


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## mike10 (May 29, 2011)

They probably baled hay with them back in the 50's, but they were baling hay that nowhere reached the volume that is grown now. No live PTO will drive you nuts unless you bale very small windrows. Clutch so a slug can feed in and the baler stops, shift to neutral and re-engage pto, clutch stop baler again, shift into gear and start moving as soon as pto starts, plugging baler again.

In my 45 years of working on small square balers, I have only failed to fix one, or I should say I gave up. The guy had a Ford 530 baler and was pulling it with a small Belarus with no live PTO. The rake job, if you could call it that, was one bunch after the other. Stop and start, stop and start, it was no wonder he had tying problems. I had enough and went home.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Stitch said:


> Ha, prolly couldn't resell it for enough to buy anything phenomenal. I can get it for $500, just need justification!


Then resell it it buy a few really nice dinners or a round at the bar, whatever you're into.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

8350HiTech said:


> Then resell it it buy a few really nice dinners or a round at the bar, whatever you're into.


After baling with a TO20, you'd need a few drinks!!!

To the OP, weren't you the guy gonna bale 200 acres of alfalfa and timothy? I take it it didn't work out as planned?


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

A TO-20 will absolutely run a square baler. I baled one summer with one when my MF50 diesel blew a head gasket. Pulled my New Holand 68. Not sure I'd run a 336 JD, but a 65 stroke baler with some common sense applied should be OK behind a TO-20.









Live PTO is great, but if you make your windrows a 7ft rake width and go 1st, you might not need it and if you do, you'll learn real quick how to knock the tractor out of gear without stalling the PTO.

I'd be more concerned with the TO-20 itself, i.e. cracked engine block, oil burner, overall condition.


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## Stitch (Jul 21, 2016)

stack em up said:


> After baling with a TO20, you'd need a few drinks!!!
> 
> To the OP, weren't you the guy gonna bale 200 acres of alfalfa and timothy? I take it it didn't work out as planned?


Its not that it didnt work out as planned, the bulk of it is on a farm i bought this spring, which is under lease until the end of the year, so its not available to me until next season. Ill be able to seed this fall once the row crops are out. Just some rented ground this year. Im just wondering if this tractor would makr a good back up or not. Thanks for your concern though (but not really).


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I'm sorry if I sounded belligerent or anything, I just meant of you we're doing 200 acres of hay, anything as small as a
Ferguson TO20 would be a lesson in futility. I just misunderstood, and I apologize for any confusion.


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