# Fabricating New Holland pickup reels



## Gearclash

I decided to make my own pick up reels for my New Holland round balers after last fall's debacle of weak overpriced New Holland pick up parts failing. Center axle, discs and tine bars all built from scratch. Tine bars and axle are heavier than original.


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## somedevildawg

Sometimes ya just have to do it yourself, especially now with our "globally sourced" items that the bean counters ordered.....


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## PaMike

Whats NH getting for that weldment? You have some time and money into that one! Hopefully you get it all welded up without the pipes warping too much


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## Gearclash

PaMike said:


> Whats NH getting for that weldment? You have some time and money into that one! Hopefully you get it all welded up without the pipes warping too much


Center axle and spiders are 6-900 dollars depending whether its a one piece welded unit or assembled clamp together. Tine bars are around 300ea for the long bars (x5) or 200ea for short bars (x10). So to replace the reel is around 2500, and you've still got inferior parts. The long bars are a royal pain if they break because every blasted stripper band has to come out to replace one. I also found out how awesome New Holland's weld quality control is. All 6 of the 5 bar oem spiders in my balers broke the weld that holds the disc to the clamp hub because the welds were too small. I'm thinking this whole project will cost around 2000 to replace the reels on 3 balers. One was wore out, one was suspect, one still has the 4 bar reel and needs a 5 bar. Oh, I don't like hex shafts and bearings either. Basically hex shaft/bearing interfaces are doomed to fail because they can never be the tight fit that prevents wear. And hex bearings can crack the inner ring at the point of the hex.


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## carcajou

Gearclash said:


> Center axle and spiders are 6-900 dollars depending whether its a one piece welded unit or assembled clamp together. Tine bars are around 300ea for the long bars (x5) or 200ea for short bars (x10). So to replace the reel is around 2500, and you've still got inferior parts. The long bars are a royal pain if they break because every blasted stripper band has to come out to replace one. I also found out how awesome New Holland's weld quality control is. All 6 of the 5 bar oem spiders in my balers broke the weld that holds the disc to the clamp hub because the welds were too small. I'm thinking this whole project will cost around 2000 to replace the reels on 3 balers. One was wore out, one was suspect, one still has the 4 bar reel and needs a 5 bar. Oh, I don't like hex shafts and bearings either. Basically hex shaft/bearing interfaces are doomed to fail because they can never be the tight fit that prevents wear. And hex bearings can crack the inner ring at the point of the hex.


 I see NH has not improved them. After twisting a couple pickups when we run NH 660's, we pulled them apart and found NH only welded one side of every piece of steel. After welding both sides we never had many issues.

Nice project, hope it works well


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## Gearclash

carcajou said:


> I see NH has not improved them. After twisting a couple pickups when we run NH 660's, we pulled them apart and found NH only welded one side of every piece of steel. After welding both sides we never had many issues.
> 
> Nice project, hope it works well


The top of the line pick up for the current series of New Holland round balers is a beast. 2" tube for the center, 4 discs, and solid shaft tine bars. I'm using 1.9" pipe for the center, and 3/4" schedule 80 pipe for tine bars instead of the schedule 40 that NH used.


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## swmnhay

Gearclash said:


> The top of the line pick up for the current series of New Holland round balers is a beast. 2" tube for the center, 4 discs, and solid shaft tine bars. I'm using 1.9" pipe for the center, and 3/4" schedule 80 pipe for tine bars instead of the schedule 40 that NH used.


When Vermeer went to heavier teeth they found a weak spot in the bolts that are on the drive end of the tine bar so they had a update of putting in a larger grade 8 bolt to replace the grade 5 bolt it came with in the first M's that came out.Might be something you want to do on yours.

I realy like the netwrap in the background


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## r82230

swmnhay said:


> I realy like the netwrap in the background


Perhaps a discount on his next shipment for product placement (e.g.. advertising) is in order. 

Larry


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## Gearclash

Finished product.


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## swmnhay

Sweet!


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## farmersamm

Nice! I get tired of hearing that there's no good fabricators on farms. More one off, and repair work is done in this biz than just about any other.


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## PaMike

Gearclash,

The 7060 I am working on right now has two bent tine bars and only the 4 bar setup. Do you think its "mandatory to move up to the 5 bar setup?


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## stack em up

PaMike said:


> Gearclash,
> The 7060 I am working on right now has two bent tine bars and only the 4 bar setup. Do you think its "mandatory to move up to the 5 bar setup?


For cornstalks it is. Can't see a reason honestly why 4 bar really is an option. Maybe I'm just stupid.


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## PaMike

Gearclash, You have a good fix for stripped out threads on the baler band mounting holes? I am pulling all the bands to fix a bent tine bar. Several of the bands have stripped mounting threads. It shouldnt be this hard, but I am having a heck of a time getting the bolts out. Even prying up on the band while spinning the bolt wont back the bolt out. Kinda hate to torch them...


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## Gearclash

If you are not doing cornstalks on a big scale, I wouldn't worry about going to the 5 bar reel. I ran a 4 bar reel baler pretty hard for 2 years and it didn't give up much to a 5 bar reel. Long run, bar longevity should be better with the 5 bar. The bigger issue is the piss poor design that NH hung on to for way too long. The tine bars are nothing more than sch 40 3/4" pipe. That's not enough to take the forces imposed on the bar. The ends will eventually break, both the end of the pipe and the insert end. Going to 5 bars is going to cost a fair bit as you need the 3 center spiders, a new tine bar assy, and the hardware to go with it. If you do decide to do that BE SURE to re weld the spider disc to the hex hub on the new spiders. They aren't welded good from factory.

Regarding the stripper band bolts, you are another victim of NH cost cutting. The original bolts are self threading and that process makes it likely that the bolt strips out upon first removal. I have found that making the first few turns of the bolt BY HAND greatly reduces the tendency to strip out. If they do strip out, the best thing is to grind the head of the bolt off, then remove the band and remove the remains of the bolt from the other side. I would recommend chucking all the original bolts and replacing them with new flange head bolts from boltdepot.com. Usually the mount thread is ok, but on my oldest baler so many of those were stripped out that I drilled them all out and welded a nut on the back side.

Any other questions, ask. I can fix a BR pickup in my sleep.


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## Gearclash

Couple more things, don't be afraid to straighten out the bent tine bars. I found several bent tine bars in my first baler. Bent them straightish again and ran them for more than 20,000 bales. Also, I like to jack the baler up and set the tires on something like 6x6 blocks, then crank the hitch jack way up. Give more room to work under the baler on stripper bands.


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## PaMike

I happen to know who the guy is that has been doing the design work on the round baler pickup for the last 25+ years. Maybe you should take a trip to Amish country and we can go rough him up a bit...  I have one bent bar and one broken. I just ordered two new ones. The one is bent pretty hard, decided against straightening it. I can't believe they haven't fixed the bolt stripping issue. I had that issue on my 650 from back in 1991!! The one problem is the bolt threads are that heavily coated in paint that they turn out hard. If they didn't have so much paint on them they might come out ok....

Oh, and whats with the end bands using metric bolts while all the center ones use english? I just realized that while looking at the parts breakdown. Pretty handy for the guy like me that threw all the bolts into one bucket. Now I gotta find the metrics from the english....What a pain..


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## Gearclash

The difference in the regular stripper bolts and those end cap thing bolts is obvious. It's not even worth throwing them in a separate container. I would emphasize not to reuse any regular stripper band bolt that shows any kind of damage on the threads.


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## PaMike

Gearclash said:


> The difference in the regular stripper bolts and those end cap thing bolts is obvious. It's not even worth throwing them in a separate container. I would emphasize not to reuse any regular stripper band bolt that shows any kind of damage on the threads.


Good, what will make my sorting easier. I really didn't even think about it, or give it a thought until I saw it in the parts diagram.


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## endrow

Gearclash said:


> The difference in the regular stripper bolts and those end cap thing bolts is obvious. It's not even worth throwing them in a separate container. I would emphasize not to reuse any regular stripper band bolt that shows any kind of damage on the threads.


 I just put all new pickup teeth on my br 7060. Came to that realization as well on the bolts. I had to make a second trip to messics and get a lot of bolts I ran into the same thing I just didn't trust the ones that turned out hard they didn't look right. I believe if I had to do it over again I would use all new bolts from one end of the pickup to the other


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## PaMike

Gearclash, got another pickup question for you.

I bought this baler with pickup issues, and I tore it all down. When I removed the bands one of the lower band mounts was broken off and still attached to the band. When I looked at welding the mount back on the pickup I became aware that the center spider of the reel is in a direct line with the mount, and would knock it off/bend it down if I welded the mount back on. It appears the center spider needs to slide on the shaft and run between the lower band mounts??? However all the tine bar holes match up with the bearings/cotter pins, so I am a bit perplexed. The only thing I can think of is the center spider needs slide over on the shaft, then the bearings on the center spider would get mounted on the opposite side of the spider....??? I assume someone had this reel out, and didn't get it assembled back together correctly. I looked at the parts diagram but it doesn't show clearly enough on what side of the spiders the bearings go on...

Any input?

ok, the more I look at this the more I need to go out to the shop again and look at this. If the center spider were to hit the mount, then all the tine bars would also hit the lower mounts...

I think I am looking at something wrong...


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## Gearclash

Hmm, spiders shouldn't be hitting the band mounts, no matter where the spider is. Hard to imagine it's possible but I wonder if the pickup frame is bent. If I remember right, there is only one side of the spider that the tine bar bearing can be on. Gotta to go look at a baler once. How wide is this pickup? Is it the same 2.07 meter as the 5x6 Xtra sweep?


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## PaMike

Its a 1.8m single cam pickup off a 7060...I will look at it later tonight...something seams odd, thats for sure..Maybe I thought my self into a corner again..


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## Gearclash

Ok, I have the double cam 2.07. Still should be about the same though. The end spiders have the hub faced toward the center. The center spider has the hub to the right of the machine, tine bar bearing is to the left of the spider with the cotter hole to the left. Center spider is on the center of the center band.


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## PaMike

I went out tonight and looked it over again. It isnt hitting the mount but is VERY close. I took some measurements of the center shaft, and it is straight. No bends anywhere. I guess everything is as its supposed to be...


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