# Need some serious advice on a big baler. 4790 or 7434??



## fmfracer44 (Jan 19, 2012)

Okay so I'm lookin to buying my first big baler.i got a guy trying to sell
Me a 4790 for 44k$ with about 40k bales thru it. And there's another guy willin to sell me a agco hesston 7434 for 60k$ and it has bout 25k bales thru it. There both 3x4 cutter balers. What are ur opinions on both and what do u think is the right decision if u were me


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I don't know a lot about the 4790 compared to the 7434. But here are my thoughts. For $16,000 more you get a baler used much less in the 7434. With the 7434 are there the newer features that give it an advantage over the 4790? If there are that adds to the value. But then if you can, find out what kinds of crops have been through both. Say for example if the 7434 has baled a bunch of cornstalks and the 4790 hasn't maybe that would make the 4790 have an advantage as I've heard baling cornstalks are really hard on them. Also how were they stored when not in use and how well were each maintained since they were new? But if the $16,000 premium for the 7434 is the biggest thing to you I'm sure the 4790 will be ok. Do either of them or both of them have an accumulator?


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

40,000 bales is a lot of bales.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I would go with the newer baler, but many times guys say that 30k bales is when the knotters need going over, and maybe a few other things as well, but if you ask any dealer for them, they should be able to point you in the right direction. Most will say that they are worn out around 80 - 90k bales, but they need work around every 30k, and they get less reliable as time goes on, the 40k machine might be alright, if they did the work it needed, the other one is soon going to need some work. Like was mentioned, find out what crops went through both - they are both cutters, so maybe some wet hay? Is that harder one them than dry, I don't know. I wouldn't walk away from the 40k machine just cause of the bales, it might actually be the better machine to run, and might have more life left on the rebuild than the 25k machine.

Rodney


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## fmfracer44 (Jan 19, 2012)

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah I spoke to a mechanic that knows the owners and the balers pretty well himself because he's worked on them before and he said that the 4790 hasn't been run hard and he thinks has been maintained pretty well. And the 7434 I did find out has baled a good amount of corn stalks while the 4790 hasnt


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

Is the 7434 like the 2170?

I just dumped a ton of money into my 4790 this year and I thought it was in pretty good shape. We have done every update and always kept up on maintenance as it was our only machine. Just keep finding poorly designed components and problem areas on the 4790 but the mechanic (who I trust) tells us we are good for another 20k bales now. We rebuilt some things at 20k and have 40k now. Hope to trade on another Krone ASAP

Loot at plunger rollers and bearings, all knitter and twine components, packer shims, pickup bearings and shaft for wear, frame cracks, chains, main knitter/stuffer bushings/shaft, clutches, and brakes. Rebuild all these and you're good.

Or buy a Krone instead


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

haystax said:


> Is the 7434 like the 2170?
> 
> I just dumped a ton of money into my 4790 this year and I thought it was in pretty good shape. We have done every update and always kept up on maintenance as it was our only machine. Just keep finding poorly designed components and problem areas on the 4790 but the mechanic (who I trust) tells us we are good for another 20k bales now. We rebuilt some things at 20k and have 40k now. Hope to trade on another Krone ASAP
> 
> ...


I'm curious as to why you think the Krone is so much better then a Hesston? I'm not going to argue as I never have seen or operated a Krone and just curious. They look good in the videos and I'm curious about the multipack one that can divide the larger baler up into smaller ones.


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## fmfracer44 (Jan 19, 2012)

haystax said:


> Is the 7434 like the 2170?
> I just dumped a ton of money into my 4790 this year and I thought it was in pretty good shape. We have done every update and always kept up on maintenance as it was our only machine. Just keep finding poorly designed components and problem areas on the 4790 but the mechanic (who I trust) tells us we are good for another 20k bales now. We rebuilt some things at 20k and have 40k now. Hope to trade on another Krone ASAP
> Loot at plunger rollers and bearings, all knitter and twine components, packer shims, pickup bearings and shaft for wear, frame cracks, chains, main knitter/stuffer bushings/shaft, clutches, and brakes. Rebuild all these and you're good.
> Or buy a Krone instead


Are the krones really a better baler than the hestons?


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

@Teslan - I'm really impressed with whole machine. Almost everything shows better thought and engineering than the Hesston. Specifically the pickup is cam less and rides on dolly wheels to follow the ground and pick up ALL the hay. Way better than 4790 in lighter hay when you can go fast. VFS system combines the packer/stuffer into one cylindrical drum system that runs much faster and smoother than Hesston. Just makes sense to spin stuff instead of clunky linear motion with clutches and brakes like everyone else. All drivelines and gearboxes are nice. Bale chamber tension is much more robust and WAY better to eject bales due to spring design and separate cylinders vs linkages. Tandem axle is so much better than single (seeing more Hesstons with that now). Lube system is extensive and daily maintenance is basically zero - add twine and grease to luber and you're good to go. Twine routing and tensioners are better than even the Hesston updates.

Granted the newer MF balers have addressed 4790 weaknesses and more bearings instead of stupid brass bushings in critical areas. I guess there is a 2270 out now and supposedly a "new" baler in the works but I think they are playing catch up.

4790 was great in its day and it's been a decent baler and krones of its era weren't much so hard to compare a 15 year old product to a new one but Hesston / MF have kinda rested on their laurels and Krone has made it a point to build a really good product. Comparing new models, the Krone is a much better value for the money

Don't know much about multibale. Might work if you can convince your customers to adapt and 3x3 probably much better but I'm sticking with 3 strings for retail horse hay.


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## krone.1 (Jul 28, 2013)

End user acceptance of the multibale package size has been the biggest drawback. Mechanically, it works really well. A customer came up with the idea.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Interesting. I have a Hesston 2150 3x3 and it's worked great for 2 seasons and I'm nowhere near ready to consider a new baler of any sort, but I like what I read about the Krones. By the time I'm ready to trade the 2150 in probably all baler manufacturers will have something different. Though the Krone Dealer is 50 miles away and I know nothing about them except they didn't want to talk to me about rotary rakes. The multibale seems ok, but the flakes are still going to be the same size as the large bales. That is why some end users are hesitant to buy the 3x3 or larger sizes as they will have to get used to large flakes. Plus the same issues of the end user not having a larger enough tractor or something to move around a large bale.

I actually like that the pickup on my Hesston/MF doesn't follow the ground. It makes going over pivot tracks easier without having to lift up the pickup. I never seem to miss any hay.


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## AaronQ (Feb 25, 2013)

40k and they're wore out, come on guys on a 4790, really?

The neighbor we farm with bought his with 90,000 on it and its pushing 140,000 bales through it, all dry land timothy and alfalfa but still the knotters have only been done at 65k and 110k and it still ticking like a clock.

We dont seem to have much trouble with it and its never once left him or us in the field with hay to bale on account of a break down.

as far as the new krones go i've seen them bale the same hay in the same field as the new MF/hesston built machine (cant remember the model #) and the krone was about 20% slower and didnt make as nice of a bale. not even close to as good and it was the dealer and a krone rep running the thing as a demo!

In my opinion for the original post if your comfortable doing some of the work yourself in the knotters in the near future and the baler hasnt seen to many corn stalk bales i wouldnt hesistate at all about the 4790, 16 grand goes a long way in a little bit of winter maintenance and tune ups compared to a machine that's going to need all of the same repairs and maybe more in 15-20 thousand bales.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

AaronQ said:


> as far as the new krones go i've seen them bale the same hay in the same field as the new MF/hesston built machine (cant remember the model #) and the krone was about 20% slower and didnt make as nice of a bale. not even close to as good and it was the dealer and a krone rep running the thing as a demo!


I'm not defending Krone by any means especially as I have a MF and have no complaints at all, but I don't really take a dealer and a rep operating equipment as the most expert operator. . The sales people around here and reps have long told me the exact opposite on how I should be running my swathers for certain crops. Maybe the reps and dealers are better where you are at actually knowing how a machine operates.


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## AaronQ (Feb 25, 2013)

i figured they would know they both have fairly decent customer bases and the one runs his own haying operation with family. they were pretty knowledgeable i figured.


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## haystax (Jul 24, 2010)

I've seen lots of balers go for 80k with very minimal maintenance until the big one hits. I thought my 4790 was in great shape until the mechanic went through it for a week. Repair bill was $8000 so considering the use that's $0.20 per bale but we did almost that at 20k so maybe $0.40 per bale and that's paying for labor. Just like any machine, they will run a long time if taken care of but that's not to say they are bulletproof. They are a decent baler but there are a lot of areas that just aren't designed well and don't hold up. We added extra grease fittings and lube the snot out of them every day with the air drum pump and still had trouble so I consider that a design flaw.

Buy the 4790, budget $5k for pre-season work and run it for a year. If it gives you fits you can probably get your money back or close on a trade next fall. Are you a custom operator? How many bales per year?


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## fmfracer44 (Jan 19, 2012)

haystax said:


> I've seen lots of balers go for 80k with very minimal maintenance until the big one hits. I thought my 4790 was in great shape until the mechanic went through it for a week. Repair bill was $8000 so considering the use that's $0.20 per bale but we did almost that at 20k so maybe $0.40 per bale and that's paying for labor. Just like any machine, they will run a long time if taken care of but that's not to say they are bulletproof. They are a decent baler but there are a lot of areas that just aren't designed well and don't hold up. We added extra grease fittings and lube the snot out of them every day with the air drum pump and still had trouble so I consider that a design flaw.
> Buy the 4790, budget $5k for pre-season work and run it for a year. If it gives you fits you can probably get your money back or close on a trade next fall. Are you a custom operator? How many bales per year?


Yes im a custom operator but this upcoming season in 2014 will be my first with big bales. We have baled small 15x22 bales for the past 7 years this will be our first year


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## fmfracer44 (Jan 19, 2012)

What are the main weak spots of the 4790??


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

fmfracer44 said:


> Yes im a custom operator but this upcoming season in 2014 will be my first with big bales. We have baled small 15x22 bales for the past 7 years this will be our first year


I'm sure you have thought of it and probably have one, but do you have a tractor that is large enough to handle the large square baler that can stay hooked the the baler all year? Also I learned when we went to large squares that it seemed to take as long to stack all the large bales with a loader and trailer as it did to stack the small bales with our NH SP stacker. I baled the 16x18 size bales.


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## krone.1 (Jul 28, 2013)

Have you considered a lease? There are some pretty aggressive lease options out there now. If there is any question of of it being a long term part of your operation you may want to look at a short term lease on a new machine.


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## krone.1 (Jul 28, 2013)

AaronQ said:


> ....."and it was the dealer and a krone rep running the thing as a demo! "
> 
> Were these the guys that were running the baler??


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## fmfracer44 (Jan 19, 2012)

krone.1 said:


> AaronQ said:
> 
> 
> > ....."and it was the dealer and a krone rep running the thing as a demo! "
> ...


Hahahaha!!'


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## AaronQ (Feb 25, 2013)

krone.1 said:


> AaronQ said:
> 
> 
> > ....."and it was the dealer and a krone rep running the thing as a demo! "
> ...


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