Then it was time to park the MoCo. Where I wanted to park it in the NE pasture had some taller grass and weeds the cows didn't eat down. I thought I would use my lawn mower to mow that grass down. On my way there I mowed around the baler and the rake and stock trailer. When I got to where I planned to park the MoCo my lawn mower quit running. What?! I tried and tried to get the lawn mower started but it wouldn't run. I eventually quit and got my hand scythe and used that to cut the grass down. What a pain.
Unhooking the MoCo from the tractor took a little time but I got it done. I decided not to rake my hayfield's windrows. The windrows are dry enough and with rain in the forecast by Thursday I wanted to start baling the hay tonight. The MoCo runs on 1000 PTO speed. The baler runs on 540 PTO speed. When Kyle showed me how to run the tractor and the MoCo he also showed me how to switch between 540 and 1000. One unclips the PTO shaft, pull it out, reverse it and reclip the shaft into place. Unclipping when well. Pulling it out and reversing it went well. Reclipping it did not go easy. Over and over I tried. Eventually I got the clip in place. But... when I pulled the PTO shaft it came back out and the clip came off. Over and over I tried. Eventually I thought it maybe works this way. I then tested running the PTO. No turning and then I got a warning sign and a code. What the code meant... who knows. Over and over I tried. A code. Finally the PTO would run. The display was odd, but ok, maybe this is how the 540 PTO looks, which is different than how the 1000 PTO display looked.
I went to hook up the baler. The baler's driveshaft is very heavy and it was hard to align it with the tractor's PTO to get it in place. When I pulled on the driveshaft to see if it was in place the PTO clip came off and the PTO came out of the tractor. What?
Over and over I tried. I finally got the driveshaft on the PTO. I didn't pull to test it. I ran the PTO. Nothing. It wouldn't turn and eventually I saw the code again. I looked in the tractor manual. No mention of a code. How to switch the PTO shaft, unclip and clip it, was quickly explained. It appeared I was doing everything right.
I kept trying and failing. It was going to be dark soon. Finally after a break I decided I would call Kyle in the morning to see if he could explain or show how to switch the PTO shaft. Before leaving I pulled on the PTO shaft one more time. This time it stayed in the tractor. What? I ran the PTO. It ran and the display looked good. I hooked up the baler and ran the PTO. The PTO turned the baler. Why the PTO now worked after several hours of me trying to make it work is a mystery.
It was now too late to bale any hay. First thing in the morning I will try.
It looks like I should have enough netwrap, but who knows if that is the case. The last time I ran out of netwrap I found the tube holding the netwrap is larger than I expected and there was less netwrap than I thought. I don't want to run out of netwrap after hours when the John Deere place is closed. This afternoon I bought another roll of netwrap. $297 for a roll. I also saw the John Deere place is expanding. They are building 5 more repair places. They currently have three repair places.
Since I was uptown I also bought some more diesel. This time I thought I would remove the tool box before trying to pour the diesel into the tractor. I then discovered that to remove the tool box it was easy. Instead of unbolting the box, all I had to do was remove a pin. No tool box - much easier to pour diesel into the tank. Then it was easy to put the tool box back on the tractor. At least something went right today.
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