# Claas round balers



## John in IL

Can anyone giving me a product review of Claas round balers. I am looking at a 280 Variant with Rotocut. What are the weak points of these machines, how diffecult is it to get parts and service. The nearest dealer is about 100 miles away from me. How well do they preform, looking to put up some silage bales and dry hay. Anyproblems with the net wrap system? Thanks for any info, These machines just aren't in this area and need to some info.


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## swmnhay

Nieghbor has a 260 ? makes a 4 x 5 bale,it doesn't have the roto cut.Just from what he told me it works good,net wrap works good.But the main chains one on each side are spendy,metric and.$800 each,and I think lasted him under 2000 bales.He told me he was trading it for a Vermeer as soon as he could swing it.


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## aussiehayman

we have a 180, it is a great baler but the net wrap does have issues. ithe weight of the role makes it doifficult to stat when it has a full role and it over runs when the roll is small. we have modified this making it brilliant. here in Australia the JD, case are too weak, the vermeer is old and the claas and welger are the contractors choice.


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## Hay DR

aussiehayman said:


> we have a 180, it is a great baler but the net wrap does have issues. ithe weight of the role makes it doifficult to stat when it has a full role and it over runs when the roll is small. we have modified this making it brilliant. here in Australia the JD, case are too weak, the vermeer is old and the claas and welger are the contractors choice.


In the USA 90% of hay harvested is dry hay. Vermeer owns 50% of Welger. Welger is sold under the Vermeer name here in the USA. Having a chopper or rotocut on a baler here in the USA is rear less than 2%. The chopper demands considerably more HP and slows the baler's ability to take hay. I have been in the field with those rotocut baler and watch the Vermeer balers walk off and bury them in production capacity. The hay crop harvesting practices are different here in the USA than Australia & Europe. Roto-cut balers have a small niche in the USA among dairy producers. They do have their place but are not mainstream in numbers of baler sold in the USA.


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## baler man

John in IL said:


> Can anyone giving me a product review of Claas round balers. I am looking at a 280 Variant with Rotocut. What are the weak points of these machines, how diffecult is it to get parts and service. The nearest dealer is about 100 miles away from me. How well do they preform, looking to put up some silage bales and dry hay. Anyproblems with the net wrap system? Thanks for any info, These machines just aren't in this area and need to some info.


These are very good balers i have worked on many different brands and they have one of the better net wrap systems out it feeds down from the top instead of the back , no net wrap system is fail safe as is twine but they are very good balers they have self oilers for the chains disigned to use 30 weight oil or hydro oil only .


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## monpak

aussiehayman said:


> we have a 180, it is a great baler but the net wrap does have issues. ithe weight of the role makes it doifficult to stat when it has a full role and it over runs when the roll is small. we have modified this making it brilliant. here in Australia the JD, case are too weak, the vermeer is old and the claas and welger are the contractors choice.


I would really like to know what modifications you have made, i have even had the roll come out of the tray.

Apart from that great baler.


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## 8350HiTech

Hay DR said:


> In the USA 90% of hay harvested is dry hay. Vermeer owns 50% of Welger. Welger is sold under the Vermeer name here in the USA.


Someone should tell that to our local welger dealer!

Anyway, a claas is going to be somewhat of an oddball here in the US but, as mentioned already, is very popular in some parts of the world. If the price is right, go for it.


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