# 1839 Ferguson/Hesston



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Well, its took me three years to decide but I am just about to squeeze the trigger off on 1839 Ferguson/Hesston inline. I am not close to any baler dealer other than Deere, but I have decided on the inline. I just feel that it would be right for me and it should last me a long time. My second choice was NH. Should have the baler by the end of the month as it is coming out of South GA. Kind of excited about it. You know your as common as dirt when you start getting pumped over Ag iron.









Regards, Mike


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## Waterway64 (Dec 2, 2011)

Congratulations!! It should treat you well. Mel


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Your not a real farmer if you don't get excited about new equipment. We bought a new Massey 2150 baler last fall which I just used a little bit to make sure it was in working order. I'm anxious to use it this year alot!


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## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

Congrats...glad to see you get to enjoy a nice new piece of eq...pics...I need to get down and visit


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## SixesnSevens (Jun 19, 2011)

Excellent choice -- good for you! Did you get the hydraulic tensioner?

I bought new last year and it came with a couple of lengths of sisal twine running through the knotters and needles, I suppose from testing at the factory. I was lazy and just tied off my new twine on these lengths. First round it missed several bales -- my heart sank. Eventually discovered that some of the old twine was stuck in the knotters. Got that cleaned out and it has been superb ever since.

Best wishes!


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

SWEEEEET! May i now call you my BTF? BIG TIME FRIEND? post some pics when you get that babe in the field!


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

SixesnSevens said:


> Excellent choice -- good for you! Did you get the hydraulic tensioner?
> 
> Best wishes!


Sure did...and hydraulic pick-up.

Regards, Mike


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I would like to know why it won't be here till the end of the month? They shipping it out of Georgia by mule train?







Congrats Mike. Enjoy


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> I would like to know why it won't be here till the end of the month? They shipping it out of Georgia by mule train?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Im gonna putter down and get it with my 'ol John Deere ;0). LOL, the dealer has a run down in that country in a couple of weeks, besides, my grass wont be ready to cut for at least 3 weeks.

Regards, Mike


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Congrats Mike! New iron is always nice to have.


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## Hand&Hand Farms (Feb 5, 2011)

You will love it. We have the smaller 1835 and I have never been around anything that will out bale it, would like to see what the heavy duty ones can do. After you get use to it you will forget to look back.


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## OhioHay (Jun 4, 2008)

Congrats! We bought an 1839 over the winter and can't wait to get it in the field either. Been running inlines since 2001 and love them.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Congratulations!
I realized this past summer that I was not getting any younger. I decided to do what you have done and made the leap.
When I no longer get excited about a new piece of Ag machinery it is time for me to quit.
Again, Congratulations.


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## jd-tom (Jun 15, 2010)

I was in your shoes at this time last year with the exact same model baler. Hydraulic tension, night lighting package, wagon hitch, hydraulic windrow pickup - I got just about every option you can get on this baler. I even added an option that isn't even available from Agco/Massey - I "robbed" the Multi-Luber off of the JD 338 that I had before this baler, painted it black, and installed it on the my 1839. Lubricating the entire knotter now takes about 10 seconds! I pull a Kuhns 10-pack accumulator behind it and I absolutely love it. Enjoy!


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

I bought one back in June and at the time I thought it was great, it works great in light to medium windrows. We are baling 2 fields right now that are a little on the heavier side and the baler has to crawl now or it will break shear bolts like crazy. In June we put 845 bales through it with a 12-15% moisture reading (tester is mounted in the baler) and the medium windrow that had vetch in it gave us no issues running at 4.4mph (couldn't go any faster due to the ground). Now here in August, the one field looks like it has vetch in it and the other is just plain grass hay but we have to travel at 2mph or slower in the grass hay and keep the tension below 90 or it will jam and break the shear bolts. The moisture in the rows and in the baler is at 12%. We are working with our dealer to see if something came out of alignment. I like how it tracks behind the tractor and how it handles the light windrows, but we bought this one for taking on heavier fields when needed. We are hoping it's just an adjustment that went out and not a defect in the baler itself.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Something would have to be amiss.....I baled some of the largest windrows of Timothy I have ever baled....at 3 mph....but I found that the baler likes a wide windrow 48" or wider. What kind of forage are you baling and what is your location?

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

We are out in Western Washington, Thurston County area. The field that is causing them to bale the slowest is a Orchard/Timothy/Local grass field that has spots with vetch in it. The field that they were able to hit 2mph was a field of Orchard/Timothy grass. The windrows went from a light to medium to heavy. When I was doing hay back in June I found out that the baler didn't like 36 or narrower rows, so we had to widen the rows to keep the augers from jamming up with small broken leaves. I baled a medium field in June that was Orchard/Rye and had heavy vetch in it, the row was 24 inches tall by 36-54 inches wide. We ran that field at over 4.4mph and the baler had no issues in it. That's why I am leaning towards something being out of adjustment now.

regards

Tim

Edit: I uploaded some pictures to my gallery to show the hay and the windrow sizes for reference.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Tim, that is a puzzler....is the vetch dry?? inlines do not like green(uncured) hay.

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

The vetch was a pale green in June. I am not there right now, my brother flew in to run the equipment for me and he said the hay is a pale green and the pictures he sent me, it looks that way or almost yellow. What puzzles me is the second field, that is all grass hay and it still had a problem running it. He would let it sit until around noon and the moisture readers were reading 12% (the hay from last year still reads 12% in our storage shelter from the same testers).

Regards,

Tim


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

lebahnt said:


> Mike,
> 
> The vetch was a pale green in June. I am not there right now, my brother flew in to run the equipment for me and he said the hay is a pale green and the pictures he sent me, it looks that way or almost yellow. What puzzles me is the second field, that is all grass hay and it still had a problem running it. He would let it sit until around noon and the moisture readers were reading 12% (the hay from last year still reads 12% in our storage shelter from the same testers).
> 
> ...


Tim, just came in from baling 2nd orchard grass and it had a few heavy spots of foxtail that the seed had not formed yet. The foxtail was a bit green in places and registered as high as 25% moisture in a spot or two just briefly......I purposely baled at 4.3 mph to see if anything happened....it never sheared a bolt......baled 18 acres in 2 1/2 hours. Something has to be amiss with your baler to shear bolts. When the fellas cleaned out the hay and re-installed the sheared bolt did they say anything about the hay being green in the chamber?? Was the flywheel bolt the one that sheared?

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

lebahnt said:


> Mike,
> 
> We are out in Western Washington, Thurston County area. The field that is causing them to bale the slowest is a Orchard/Timothy/Local grass field that has spots with vetch in it. The field that they were able to hit 2mph was a field of Orchard/Timothy grass. The windrows went from a light to medium to heavy. When I was doing hay back in June I found out that the baler didn't like 36 or narrower rows, so we had to widen the rows to keep the augers from jamming up with small broken leaves. I baled a medium field in June that was Orchard/Rye and had heavy vetch in it, the row was 24 inches tall by 36-54 inches wide. We ran that field at over 4.4mph and the baler had no issues in it. That's why I am leaning towards something being out of adjustment now.
> 
> ...


Tryed to blow up your pics by clicking on them and they would not enlarge.....it is hard for me to tell much by the small pics but everything appeared to be fine with the windrows.

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

Thanks for the info, that's the speed I was hoping that they should have been getting. On Field 2 he was baling at 2.2, moisture readings in the baler were at 12-14% and when he went up a gear it broke a shear bolt. I was on the phone with him when it happened and he said the hay was the pale green, no "freshly cut colored" green in that section he was baling. As far as I know, it was the flywheel shear bolt (he said he would hear the clutch start slipping and then the bolt would break), I will have to send him a message and verify that it was the flywheel shear bolt though. They are finally done with the 2 fields (55 acres total), took them 4 days to get it baled (approx 3200 bales). The humidity was in the 70-90's so that probably wasn't helping. They will be baling some 3rd cut Orchard/Timothy this week, I will find out how the baler does then. When I baled the 2nd cut back in June off this field, I was hitting 4.4 to 5 mph, so if they have to run slow because of breaking shear bolts then we will definitely know that something is amiss. The pics that I posted are from his cell phone, he was sending me pics while he was raking the hay so I could see what the windrows looked like. I will be talking to our dealer about the coming up this week when they start baling so he can be there to see what the baler does that way if there is something wrong, we can get it fixed.

Regards
Tim


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

To be breaking shear bolts in that stuff, if the moisture in the stems is as low as the tester is saying, the knifes must be too far apart I'd think. At that low of moisture even really dull knifes won't really slow you down, just make thinks a bit shaggy.

I've not run an inline but the MF224 we used to run was very sensitive to moisture as the plunger was a bit sloppy on the tracks so clearance on the knife was loose. In the evening it would go from baling fine to breaking a bolt. Once that first shear bolt broke there wasn't any point in replacing it as the next one would break too.

My JD 336 is nice and tight, I have to be careful because it will bale wet enough for silage if you want and you wouldn't notice it acting funny.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

The baler was delivered in June of this year from the dealer and I baled 845 bales through it off 3 fields with no issues at 4.4 to 5 mph. The hay was in light to medium windrows, a couple spots were on the heavy side. I had a few heavy spots under trees that the moisture meter pegged at 19% but it never acted up. I sat those bales aside and it was good that I did, a couple had some green slugs in them. After we finished up the 800 bales, I ran some broken bales through it to set the hydraulic tension and demonstrate the operation to the family who would be running it this month. After we were down, I cleaned it out and lubed it for the next use. I am not there so I am not seeing what is going on, I am just getting descriptions from the family on what is happening. From what I have been told, the bales look nice and clean, just like when I baled back in June and from the picture I saw of the bales at a distance, they looked good, now shaggy looks to them.

Been talking with my dealer about the issue and they are basically saying that the hay is too wet, but they also supposedly ran a dozen bales through it to set the bale length to 36 inches and verify the hydraulic tension. Well lets say, the bale length was actually 27 inches and there was no tension on the bales.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

" Well lets say, the bale length was actually 27 inches and there was no tension on the bales."

That would explain your helpers issues with baling hay.

Regards, Mike


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## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

lebahnt - was your baler new. Did you purposely brake bales to run thru it?


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike, no that is how the baler was set up when we got it from the dealer, they had made the statement that they ran a dozen bales through it and had set the length to 36 inches and the tension to 110 to make tight bales. After I had baled a few, I checked the bales and that's what I found, so I adjusted the bale length out to 36 inch bales and put enough tension (about 220-240) to make 50-60 pound tight bales. We cranked out 345 bales that size and weight at 4.4 mph in medium Orchard/Rye and vetch.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Gradyjohn,

The baler was brand new when it was delivered (minus the so called dozen bales ran through it). After we ran 845 bales through it, I broke 5 bales on purpose and fluffed the flakes with a pitch fork into loose hay to run through the baler to show the family how to set and check the bale tension and also how to adjust and check the bale length.


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## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

Thanks, I have been thinking of getting a 1839 and I don't need broken bales. My old worn out JD348 did 1659 and broke 3, but I can't cause the baler. They were my fault of not feeding fast enough or two fast. I have a Holescher Accumulator and you really have to watch the feeding or the trip arm will come back down on the next bale and break a wire.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

* slowzuki*

I uploaded some more pictures, these are all from the second field, the bales look nice and clean. These were ran at a tension of 90 PSI so that the bales were just tight enough to make a solid bale. Any tighter and he would have to slow down or end up breaking shear bolts.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Gradyjohn,

The dealer said it would miss tie the first 2 bales which it did, and after that it only had one broken bale out of 845 that I baled. That one bale was when the tension was not set so I think the string got caught and pulled it off the bale. So that is one thing I will give this baler credit for, it makes nice clean straight bales each time and from what I heard, not a single broken one in over 3200 bales that they did.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Lebahnt, you are correct sir in your evaluation of the 1839 Hesston inline. No baler makes a prettier more correct bale than the Hesston people. I have owned JD, which also makes a nice bale but the baler is not nearly as nimble as the Hesston. NH also makes a good bale.....but Hesston NEVER makes a banana bale and NH is nowhere nearly as nimble as a Hesston. I can never see myself operating a side pull baler again.

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

I looked at all the current balers on the market before making that plunge and from all the reading that I did, the inlines have a good reputation and I like the fact that the baler tracks right behind the tractor. I remember growing up, the old farmer that had I learned about hay from would take out a mail box about once every other year. Going down the road and some clown flying down the road or trying to pass him would cause him to veer off to the side of road and there goes a mailbox and probably 2 hours of fixing the pickup from dents. Yesterday was the first time that I saw the pictures from the field with that 1225 bales, I can't remember the last time I saw such a neat looking field of bales, the old Massey and New Holland balers that I grew up with would have half a dozen banana bales per row.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike, or anyone else on here that has been using the Massey 1800 series balers.

How often do you have to go through and adjust the timing? Until I can get the dealers service guy to come look at the baler for me, they are saying the issue now is probably a timing issue which is causing the shear bolts to break. I think it's odd that after less than 900 bales, we would have to go in adjust the timing that quick on a brand new baler. All the farmers that I know of, never had to adjust the timing unless something happened (I.E. baled a piece of wood, dull knife or bent needle). The dealer we bought the baler from is 2 1/2 hours away (it's the closest Case-IH Dealer to us).

Regards,

Tim


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

They may not have tightened something up or got it a bit off when new.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

lebahnt said:


> Mike, or anyone else on here that has been using the Massey 1800 series balers.
> 
> How often do you have to go through and adjust the timing? Until I can get the dealers service guy to come look at the baler for me, they are saying the issue now is probably a timing issue which is causing the shear bolts to break. I think it's odd that after less than 900 bales, we would have to go in adjust the timing that quick on a brand new baler. All the farmers that I know of, never had to adjust the timing unless something happened (I.E. baled a piece of wood, dull knife or bent needle). The dealer we bought the baler from is 2 1/2 hours away (it's the closest Case-IH Dealer to us).
> 
> ...


Tim, how often does it shear a bolt? You could trip the knotter arm (star wheel arm) and have someone turn the flywheel and watch it go thru the tying process to see if something is out of alignment(striking together and stopping). Maybe your help baled up something solid that got the baler out of time.

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

They have only broken 2 shear bolts in the last 400 bales they did, they went slow with the tension in the 75 psi range. From what I am being told, the only time it breaks the bolts is if they try to feed it above a slow steady speed. I was wondering about a foreign object going through the baler also, so I had them check those bales to see if there was anything in the bales. There said there was nothing in the first few bales they did before the first shear bolt broke. If they break another shear bolt in the 2nd fine blade cutting they are doing today and tomorrow (2 small fields totaling 8 acres) I will have them trip the knotter arm and hand turn the flywheel to see if there is anything hitting or making contact.

Thanks for the suggestions

I am contacting the dealerships service manager to see what we can do to get it checked out. I may have to go to a closer dealership to check it out for me.

Regards,

Tim


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Tim, I run my tensioner around 120 psi....to get a 50 pound bale(approx.).....according to the manual 75 would be really light.

Regards, Mike


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Yeah something isn't right in terms of breaking bolts, have they checked to see if the paint is marked on the plunger blocker? My knotter brake pads had oil or something on them when I first got my baler, going over bumps in the field would knock the needles just far enough out of home position to let the blocker grab the crank and break the shear bolt. It wouldn't do it at low speed rolling it over by hand as the blocker was just kissing it. Not saying thats the problem, just saying the slack may be taken up in a chain or mechanism.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Tim, what rpm is your help baling at?

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

Yeah I read in the manual that it needs to be in the 100-110 range and to get a tight 500 pound bale at 36 inches, we have to crank it up to 240-260. They were baling 2nd cutting in one small field last night and they had to bring it back up to 240, but they said it was still a little loose and light. I told them to run the RPM's at 530 to 540 based upon what the dealer recommended for this baler to keep the flake count where it's supposed to be.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

You can adjust the side resistor doors in a little bit(against bale) and then you do not have to run the tension as high and it will tighten up a looser bale.

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Last night I get a message, they created or hit a wad in the fine 3rd cutting field and caused the baler to start smoking and it has seized or so they said. The PTO shaft is spinning, but the baler isn't turning over and is smoking so I am assuming the slip clutch is trying to keep from breaking anymore bolts. Told them to clean everything out and back spin the flywheel to see if there is something caught in the picking teeth. They said the pickup teeth are trying to move but won't budge. Told them if they can't get it to move after cleaning it out to call the Massey dealer down the road and have them come out and see what finally happened.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

Yeah read that later in the manual and I will probably do that next year. As far as the help doing that, I will leave that adjustment alone until I get back to do it.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Update: So they broke the plunger shear bolt and the service manager supposedly had to tighten up one of the chains, they said it was a little loose.

As far as why we have been having problems, here is what he was telling my family:

They reset the length and tension to get the bale weight that we were trying to get when we started breaking shear bolts. The service manager said that the baler wasn't being fed fast enough that's why we had to use the higher tension to make the bales tight (but this amount of feed is getting the 20 flakes per bale he said that it had to have). When we asked him why the bolts were breaking on the other hay field, he stated that those windrows were too heavy and needed to be thinned out. SO basically according to what he said yesterday and the sales guy who brought him up there, this is the size of windrow this baler has to have:

The windrow has to be 5 feet wide and no more than 9 - 12 inches thick, anything less or more than that and the baler will have problems

So Mike, is this how you make your windrows? Well at least it's working and they finished the last field for the year, they are parking it until I get home to clean it and service it for winter storage.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

lebahnt said:


> Update: So they broke the plunger shear bolt and the service manager supposedly had to tighten up one of the chains, they said it was a little loose.
> 
> As far as why we have been having problems, here is what he was telling my family:
> 
> ...


Tim, I baled some second orchard grass that was thin in spots due to the extreme drought here in mid-summer. Some of my windrows were only about 2-3 feet wide and about 12" tall and shorter.....in other words they were small and thin. I had no problems baling these running between 4-5 mph, tension set at 120 for a 50 pound 36" bale. Something is just not right.

I baled some massive windrows of first cut timothy that was rotory raked with a clean sweep of 11 feet. These windrows were well over 2 feet high and about 4-5 wide....had to run less than 3 mph and there was about 11-13 flakes per bale....baled over 1400 of this size windrow without shearing a bolt. Second cuts will naturally have more flakes per bale due to the small leaf nature.

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Tim, breaking the plunger shear bolt makes me think something is definitely out of line.....Is the ground rocky? Also, see the section in your manual on breaking flywheel shearblots....the first thing that is listed is the PTO clutch torque setting is too high. Also, check all your knives for dullness or damage.

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike,

The second cutting we did in June was about the size you did, but to get the bales tight we had to crank up the tension, didn't catch the door trick in the manual until after we were done. The first cutting you described is what they had to bale last week in creeper gear and the tension set light.

Hopefully the loose chain was the problem we won't know until I get home and break some bales to run a test in October if the weather will cooperate, if not we will have to wait until next year.

Breaking the plunger bolt, I think was an operator error this time, they wadded up some 3rd cutting and then tried to feed it in. They had stopped to let the baler pull it in at least and the wad wasn't that big they said, but I wasn't there to see for myself. I purchased a digital copy of the manual and I have read the shear bolt section numerous times. Supposedly the service manager went over everything and checked it out and nothing but the broken shear bolt and the loose chain (supposedly it was only loose a hair) was wrong with it (well besides the windrow sizes). When I do the winter service on it, I will go through it with a fine tooth comb and check everything to see if I can see something that they didn't.

The have parked it for the year, so when I get home in a couple months, I will look at it.

Thanks for the suggestions, if I find anything when I get home I will post an update.

Regards,

Tim


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## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

Sounds like it could be one of two things or both. 1 Your dealer doesn't know and is feeding you a line. Or 2 You got a lemmon. I would contact Massey direct. If a 1839 is that particular for windrows I will keep my worn out John Deere 348. I operate my own equipment but many don't. It can't take a rocket scientist degree to operate.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Gradyjohn,

I had sent an email to Massey/AGCO about the baler, their response was to contact the local dealers.


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## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

I am afraid you just talked me out of getting a 1839. Support is very important. I don't know what the warranty is but I would make sure it was all corrected before next year. Sounds like you need to tell the dealer either fix it or get ouy another. Texas at least has a lemmon law. John Deere is very good about support. Down here first cut you don't have a big window so you need to get r done asap. Weather in the spring and early summer will not give you alot time to play.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

The dealer I have is a Case dealer about 2 1/2 hours away. The local Massey dealer is a feed store and they don't really look like a tractor dealership, the sell more horse trailers than tractors and balers are few at their store. When they started breaking shear bolts, that was the first place they went, it was on the way to the one hay field (they literally drove right by it each day). When they went in to get the bolts, they didn't have any, they have an 1837 that they have been trying to sell for almost a year now. I need to actually try and call Massey next week and talk to a real person and let them know what is going on. Hopefully it is just a timing issue that wasn't done right at the factory.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Up here, by the the time the ground dries out to get on the fields, the hay is 3-4 feet tall in places, so we get the heavier windrows to do. Our second cutting is usually maybe 18-24 inches tall depending on the weather so it is usually light.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

The dealership gave me a run down on what they did yesterday, the checked the timing, tensioned the stuffer and knotter chains and then ran a bunch of test bales. They said it is working like clockwork and just needs a certain sized windrow to keep it happy. Gradyjohn, don't let my experience sway you completely, I think Mike's has worked fine, so mine may just be one of those 1-100 or 1-1000 special case balers. I bough tthis for my family, a lot of the work may be done by the wife and I wanted something easy for her to run, we will see how next year goes before I make a final determination on it.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Here is the update for the 2013 hay season. The adjustments made last year seem to have fixed some issues but I found out that if I try to feed hay too fast I get a 3 inch flake and the plunger shear bolt will break. We put up over 4500 bales this year; most were in the 55 pound range. The baler is a smooth baler as long as the windrows are just right. To thin and you make tiny flakes and too big will get you large flakes and broken sheer bolts. We baled over 950 bales in a 6 hour period with one broken bale in that group. Another odd occurrence when pushing too much hay is that one side of the bale twine will be a little longer resulting in an angled bale at the end. Talked to the service guys and they said the twine tension maybe off, I did some adjustments and it looks like that did the trick. The actual problem that was causing the issue wasn't the tension nuts, it was the feed tube feeding to the needles, and it was catching there causing the tension to be higher on that one side when the twine was pulled through the needle for tension tests. The bale length is pretty consistent, but we do get a longer bale once in a while (usually when we hit a heavy spot). Adjusting the side doors is a crucial key to help keep the bales tight without having to use so much tension on the bales, we brought ours in over a 1/4 inch on each side which helps us keep the bale stack nice and cubed. Running at 540 PTO, we can keep the flakes at 1 inch once we get the ground speed to match the windrow thickness. Going too fast or too thick of a windrow and you get the bigger odd shaped flakes. Overall it is a good baler that works pretty well for our needs, only wish that we could do more than 150 bales per hour and still keep the flakes at one inch. It will do 2 inch flakes, but at that point you are rolling the dice on possibly breaking a sheer bolt (broke 3 trying to do 2 inch flakes). Out of 4500 bales, we only had about 6 broken/miss tied bales.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

This sounds terribly disappointing. There is NO way you should have to be making 1" flakes to keep a modern, heavy baler happy. Something is certainly still wrong here.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Most of the people around here actually like the 1 inch flakes so I keep it that way and at that pace, there are no issues with the baler at that pace. I have ran the 2 inch flakes, but the bales tend to be a little rougher looking and you really have to watch the feed, if it starts pushing the heavier rows, it will break that shear bolt shortly. I was turning a corner in a medium-heavy windrow and I thought it was safe at the speed I was going, but it still broke the shear bolt (the turn was around a 33 degree turn). Of the 3 bolts that I have broken this year (all plunger bolts), one was for a broken bale re-bale (thought we had it spread out far enough) and the other 2 were from heavier windrows. When cleaning out the feed, the hay was really packed in it, had to use a hay hook to clean it out. I only heard the slip clutch once when one of the bolts broke, the rest just broke that quick. Before we start next year, going to go through everything again and make sure everything is timed right and that the knives are sharpened.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Never broke a plunger bolt on my 1839.....but I never try to bale 1-2 inch flakes. I try to bale a 3" flake as that is what is recommended. It seems to me that a one inch flake would work the crap out of the baler. I have broken 2 stuffer bolts in 2 years on green slugs.

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I am puzzled by what you mean by too big of a windrow. In grass hay first cutting I bale pretty large windrows of timothy and orchard grass raked with a rotary rake that has a 11 1/2' raking width....and in alfalfa I bale a double windrow or in other words a 23' windrow. I have not experienced the problems with my baler that you have and I am grateful. My side doors are moved in almost 1 inch.

Regards, Mike


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

When I had talked to the service guys on the problems before, they had told me that each bale should have at least 25 flakes for a 36 inch bale (just under an inch and a half in size). I will have to check the manual tonight when I get home and read again the recommendations for the flakes. I have some bales that got a 3 inch flake and those made me really nervous when the wife had baled them (hit a heavy row too fast). Yes, the 1 inch flakes do work the daylights out of the baler, but it actually humms nice at 540 PTO, using a 105 horse cab tractor to run it and it does shake the tractor really good at 540 pto when sitting still, but running down the rows, I don't feel the baler at all.


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## Case-IH Hay Farmer (Apr 30, 2012)

Mike, the windrows are about 18 - 24 inches in height and about 3 feet across. I am using haybob to create these windrows that are nice and fluffy at that size. When running, the rows fit nicely between the wheels of the tractor and the height is about 6 inches above the feed pickup (have the pickup tines about 3 inches off the ground normally due to semi rough ground in spots).


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## BisonMan (Apr 27, 2020)

Vol said:


> You can adjust the side resistor doors in a little bit(against bale) and then you do not have to run the tension as high and it will tighten up a looser bale.
> 
> Regards, Mike


I'm taking a look at a MF 1839 locally here. Are you happy with the baler?

I was just watching this video on MF 1839/1840. The guy seems to love it.
Massey Ferguson MF-1840 + MF-1839 Small Square Baler Walk-Around - YouTube


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