# Baler for a1948 Farmall Cub help!



## Kimmiesue (Apr 26, 2020)

Will a New Holland 270 square baler hook up to the PTO on our Cub? Is this baler too big? 
We get 200 bales off our small farm when the Amish baler it. We don't need and can't afford anything fancy. Thanks!


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

Sir, I have a 48 cub, it has 10-12 PTO HP, ain't no way it's going to pull a square baler of any kind.


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

Not to mention a cub PTO runs backwards to a regular PTO. My dad told me about his family back in the 50's pulling a NH sq. baler with a cub. The baler had a Wisconsin power unit. He said every stroke of the plunger would wiggle the back end of the cub.


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

Yup you need a baler with a engine on it with your cub. Then your ground better be table top flat.


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## Kimmiesue (Apr 26, 2020)

Thank you! We figured as much. Now to find one with an engine..


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

Can always fabricate an engine mount and put a belt around the flywheel and presto! Probably around a 13hp should do it...


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## Kimmiesue (Apr 26, 2020)

Thanks guys???? I'm a lady farmer so bear with my odd questions ????


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Kimmiesue said:


> Thanks guys I'm a lady farmer so bear with my odd questions


There is no 'odd' questions on HT, but there can be some odd answers. 

BTW, welcome to HT and there are some gals that are informative here, too. Great mix of knowledgeable folks for that matter. 

As far as tractor, I remember using a Super C, on a JD14t, only in a pinch, level fields. The Farmall H, was the usual tractor. Once we got a Ford 3000, (with live power), the JD14t, got replace with a JD24t. I don't ever remember putting the Super C in front of that baler. The C was delegated to cultivating corn, raking hay, pulling wagons and running the hay conditioner.

Larry


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I strongly encourage you not to pursue trying to use a Cub with a baler, I won't even consider using a tractor twice the size. If you don't die from a rollover or being lurched out of the seat, the drawbar will likely be damaged. Not to forget the cast of the axle housing can crack and things just ripple from there, it's really an all around bad idea.

A Cub is only good for cultivating a garden. It has a hard enough time cutting grass over 5 inches with a 60'' belly mower underneath.


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## SwingOak (May 19, 2014)

I have a 1965 IH Cub Lo-Boy and for what it is, it's a surprisingly capable tractor. But, not for baling hay. I use mine for dragging horse pastures, pulling a NH 256 rake (which I only use on the edges after tedding), and for moving hay wagons around. It's very good for moving hay wagons, filled or empty, because it's small and will spin around in a pretty small circle if you use the rear brakes to help steer.

By that I mean it's a surprisingly capable tractor little with filled tires, I would not be able to budge a full hay rack if they weren't filled tires.

The PTO is non-standard anyway, and if you got it to work with a baler at all, my guess is you'd destroy your cub pretty quickly.

You really need a bigger tractor. The rule I was always told is you'll need at least 35 PTO horsepower to make hay, and at that you'll be limited by what equipment you can actually run with that.

We used to run an IH baler with a IH Model H when I was a kid (Both baler and tractor were already old equipment in the 1970's). I suppose if you paired an IH Model H or M with a New Holland s68 or JD 24T manual baler (no thrower), that would probably be a decent working combination that would get you by.


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## rankrank1 (Mar 30, 2009)

Well you might cut some hay with a Farmall cub if you have the little sickle bar that specifically was made for a cub? You might even be able to rake some hay with the little cub with a ground driven antique hay rake as those old rakes require very little hp to pull. I would not try to bale with a cub even with an engine driven baler on even the flatest of ground though.

If you had a Farmall A or better yet a Farmall Super A (which both look somewhat similar to a cub but are slightly bigger) then you might have some slim hopes of barely scrimping by with careful implement selections but as others have pointed out a Farmal Cub has very little power and the PTO is not standard and spins the wrong direction and wrong speed for anything other than cub specific implements which are really garden tractor sized stuff at that.

That all said, unless you plan to fabricate your own engine drive system to a baler then any baler you find with the engine on it is likely going to be 50 years old or more. Do you like to tinker on old iron? Are you handy with refurbing an old worn out baler? Handy with working on an old Wisconsin engines that were fitted to most of those balers back then that are cantankerous to say the least even when they was new. Hiring a dealer tech to work on old junk will get expensive and cost prohibitive pretty fast if you not handy.

Even if you get something to work with your little cub do you have labor to pick up the bales you will have to drop on the ground as you no chance of pulling a wagon behind the little cub while simultaneously pulling a baler either. Not a big deal to drop on the ground as that is how I operate on my piddle patch because I do not own a wagon...but more importantly I can operate alone by dropping on the ground without having to have a person on the wagon to stack bales. It does add to the labor though going around later to pick up bales with a truck and trailer. Sure there is machinery to avoid all this labor but it is all very pricey and out of price range for a small time operation.

Many people think haying is going to be as easy as plopping their butt in a tractor seat and watching the money spit out the back end of the baler but it is not that easy at all. If you determined to go down this road then I would be looking for a more suitable tractor like a Farmall 300 or Farmall 350. Basically a Farmall h sized tractor with more hp and modern goodies like live PTO that an ole h lacks for not a whole lot more money to buy.


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## Edd in KY (Jul 16, 2009)

Realistic minimum to cut, rake, and bale hay is 30 HP, live PTO. Wide front for safety. I have a NH270 baler. I have pulled it with a MF35, but it will rock you back and forth.


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## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

Go figure.... I guess here is your solution. Its not a Cub but a B


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