# Grass wrapping on rolls



## HWooldridge (Oct 13, 2010)

This is my first post here - looks like a nice site. I have about 10 acres of coastal bermuda that I bale and sell to the horse people and I do a little custom baling on the side - about 50-60 acres a year; all in square bales. I have a 1970's vintage NH haybine (I am at work right now and can't recall the model but it is a 7 foot cut). We have had a wet year and I'm now on my third cut but am rushing because we may get a frost in the next couple of weeks.

A lot of my customers have KR bluestem growing in their pastures for cow hay and I'm having a real problem with the stems wrapping around the rollers. In some cases, I'll go a few feet and the stems start to wrap so I have to stop to either pull it out by hand or let the machine run under power long enough to sling the grass off. This problem only occurs with long stemmy grass so a good field of coastal won't give me any trouble.

Last night, I was cutting my neighbor's field and couldn't make any headway so I came back home to look over the machine and saw that my rolls were set about an inch apart. I've read on this forum that the rolls should be much closer (almost touching) so my question is whether y'all think that closing the gap will reduce the wrapping problem or is there something else I should do? I pulled the machine apart last night and closed the gap but now think I went too far and probably need to make sure the rolls are not touching.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

You probably cannot get the rolls too tight together. I have a NH 478 and I run my rolls as tight as I can get the crank to turn by hand. If that does not solve your problem, check the reel tension belt on the right hand side (like if your in tractor seat) behind the shield and put more tension on the reel belt by tightening the tension bolt. If the reel turns a little slow due to slop in the belt, that will also cause the rollers to wrap. Regards, Mike


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## HWooldridge (Oct 13, 2010)

Thanks for the reponse. I set the rollers tonight to about .100 before going over to my neighbor's field and it helped a great deal but did not completely solve the wrapping problem. (BTW, this machine is a NH 467 - I looked after I got home from work). There is quite a bit of slop in the whole drive so I will go ahead and tighten the rollers a bit more.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Don't have any cuts or rough spots in the rollers do you? I'm forty now, been mowing hay since I was 7 or 8, can't honestly recall ever having hay wrap around the conditioning rolls before.

Course we have raised pretty much only alfalfa/orchard grass all of those years with some stands of sudax when we still had the dairy cows.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

HWooldridge said:


> Thanks for the reponse. I set the rollers tonight to about .100 before going over to my neighbor's field and it helped a great deal but did not completely solve the wrapping problem. (BTW, this machine is a NH 467 - I looked after I got home from work). There is quite a bit of slop in the whole drive so I will go ahead and tighten the rollers a bit more.


Be sure and check the belt tension as it is critical. I had rollers wrapping several years ago and tried everything and could not solve this problem. Called New Holland and we went over several things including the reel belt tension. When I checked the belt there was alot of play and just by tightening the tension bolt my problem was solved. The reel always needs to turn about 10% faster than your ground speed according to NH. If I get into wet or damp grass my haybine will still wrap the rollers. You also can have problems by going too slow. I mow with a JD 2355 that is a basic 4 speed with a high/low range. I mow in good standing dry hay in fourth gear. If the hay is lodging or real thick at the ground I mow in third gear. Regards, Mike


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## HWooldridge (Oct 13, 2010)

Thanks for the tip on the belt tension. The idler is about 1/3 of the distance to the end but could be tighter.

I have a JD 2020 and was mowing in 4th last night but the wrapping I encountered near the end was happening at any speed. I tried fast, slow, etc. but still had problems. It was nearly dark and in some of the thickest grass on the pasture so maybe this happened was the dampness brought on by the evening. The humidity is down right now so I'm using every ounce of daylight in advance of cold weather.

I also read on another forum that the torsion arm bearings on this model haybine can start to stick so the rolls flex open but don't return to the set position. I plan to look at that over the weekend before I cut again.


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## HWooldridge (Oct 13, 2010)

I retimed the rolls yesterday (they were way off) and sped up the reel by removing two spacers in the driven pulley. I was then able to cut about 4 acres in 5th gear with no clogs - life is great when the equipment works...

One thing I did notice was that the lower torsion bars are about frozen. The one on the left would not move at all - the one on the right only by tapping back and forth with a sledge. This looks like the area where the nylon bushings are located so I reckon I'll pull those apart during the off season.

Thanks for the suggestions.


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