# Hesston 4550 baler good deal?



## tdjjjs (Nov 16, 2009)

Hey everyone, I've been looking for an inline baler for awhile and found a Hesston 4550 for $6500. That seems expensive to me but I cant seem to find many good used ones around. I don't bale up a massive amount of hay but my 13 year old son started running the tractor/baler (borrowed baler) last year and wants to get into making more hay. We are on hills and have irregular fields so I like the idea of an inline (easier for him). I've also read that the 4550 is really slow as far as capacity. Not sure that matters much now as he goes pretty slow but in a few years I'd like to move pretty quick as his 2 younger brothers get bigger too. Any comments would be helpful. Thanks.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

td, please edit your profile and include your general location....i.e. state or more specific.

I do not think the 4550 is slow at all....If I recall it has a stroke speed of somewhere around 90 per minute....might be "some" high on the baler....of course condition is the major factor.

Regards, Mike


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

IMHO any inline baler is a good baler! As I recall, the 4550 is around 90ish strokes per minute. I believe it to be the smallest capacity of the Hesston inlines and it's current variation is the MF1836 - which has more shielding. The MF 1835 probably would be very close and is 92 strokes per minute. Can't speak to price for a used one, but for the $$$'s you're considering, you should be able to get a very good condition baler inline or JD or NH.

Good luck,
Bill


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## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

Tdjj how old is the baler, how many bales have gone through it, was it always under cover, did it bale with acid, what condition is it in.

All these factors will bear on the price. Let us know more about it. 4550 is a good baler and inlines are less prone to breakdowns.


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## bjr (Jan 24, 2013)

I paid $6000 for mine(Hesston 4550) last year, so, $6500 doesn't seem to far out of line. I like mine so far. You're doin' good if you found one locally. I had import mine clear from TX and I live in WA. I think they're good balers. I'm hoping to find a way to hydraulic lift the pick up header though as I'm wearing out jumping up and down to raise and lower the header to move between the small fields that I do. bjr


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## MFSuper90 (Jun 26, 2015)

I paid 18k for my 2014 mf1839. It's newer and 2 sizes bigger but at 92 strokes per minute and an inline design they eat hay compared to any offset Baler. I can chew through 500 bales per hour on my nice long feilds. I would say yours could be in the ballpark but with tight feilds that number goes out the window. Besides a Baler is only as fast as the machine or people that are picking up the bales. No sense in bailing 1500 bales in 2 hours and have most of them rained on because you couldn't get them out quick enough. That's also why I run with smaller mowers haha. 6500 is a good price for it. The only thing that you might dislike is the pickup size. It's only like 3.5 feet if I remember right


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

MFSuper90 said:


> The only thing that you might dislike is the pickup size. It's only like 3.5 feet if I remember right


The smaller series pickups are 54.5"(4.5') wide and the larger series are 70" wide.

Regards, Mike


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## tdjjjs (Nov 16, 2009)

Update. We went and looked at it last week. They had been using it to bale up straw mostly as they chopped feed for their dairy. No acid. They said they bought it about 8 years ago and the previous owners used it so little that there was still paint in the bale chute! I looked it over with my extremely untrained eye and could see very little wrong. He had replaced all the pickup teeth. They replaced one knotter and had the other rebuilt. Auger did not look worn at all. New chains in the last year or so. They went back to an offset JD (348 I think). He thought they could go faster in straw (bigger pickup I assume??) with the JD offset. Long story short, bought it for $6000. I'm planning on pulling it home on Saturday. Got lucky that this one was only about 1 hour from home. 13 year old son is excited for the snow to melt and put some bales thru it. I might be more excited than him.


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