Today I baled my barley hay, oat hay and pea crop. I figured I could get it all baled today. Easily. Then I thought it would take me until dark. Then... I got only less than half the field baled.
I didn't start baling until 12:30 pm. First Wyatt planned on coming over in the morning with my rebuilt carburetor but he didn't show. Then it took a little time to re-hook up my baler to my tractor. The color coding the hydraulic hoses and quick-connects worked great. But in the day since I parked the baler in order to use my rake, the bale hitch sank a few inches lower to the ground and I had to readjust the height before hooking it to the tractor. Also the PTO hookup to the tractor was a major pain as usual.
Initially the baling went fine. The crop was dry after the recent rain. Actually a little too dry. It was so dry it was brittle as it would break into smaller pieces easily. And slippery as these are grain crops. So I had to drive at a lower speed that usual else some of the crop was ground into chaff and ended up getting in the way of making a bale. Most of my bales looked fine. Some didn't. I also had to twine the bales more than usual as the hay pieces tended to be smaller than when baling grass and alfalfa.
Then a little after 4 pm I heard a loud squeal. It sounded like metal on metal. I stopped the PTO. After a short investigation I found one of the baler's smaller belts was twisted. How it got twisted is a mystery as it doesn't seem possible it could happen. And why did rubber sound like metal on metal?
 |
| One view. |
 |
| Another view that shows the belt twisted on both sides of a roller. |
I had about a 2/3 size bale in the baler and I had to dump the bale without a chance of wrapping twine around it first as I didn't want to chance the twisted belt breaking. Then I had to figure out how to release tension on the belts so I could work on this belt. I have a manual and that explained how it could be done.
The twist was in the front of the baler so I could reach it. But it was impossible to flip the belt back to the correct position. The manual told me how to take a belt apart. The belt ends have small hooks and a wire runs through the hooks to hold the belt ends together. Kind of a like a zipper but with a wire instead of a zipper handle to hold the two sides together.
I unhooked the belt and then I was able to pull part of the belt out of a couple of the baler's rollers, twist the belt back into normal shape, thread the belt back through the rollers, hold the ends together and reinsert the wire through the 'hooks'.
Success. And I was able to continue baling.
 |
| Here is the bale I had to dump when the belt twisted. |
After I successfully made a bale from a windrow I turned my attention to the dumped bale. I tried to unroll the bale but I found the hay to be short and slippery. The hay was shorter than normal due to having gone through the baler once where the dry brittle crop broke even shorter. I half unrolled the bale and the rest was just clumps of hay.
The mess made it difficult to feed back into the baler. I had to make many passes and spread the hay out even more so it would feed back into the baler. I got it all back in the baler, but even with 'good' hay from the windrows at the beginning and at the end, the end bale looked sad.
After moving my irrigation pipes I baled some more. The fourth bale was a problem. The setting sun made it hard to see the baler in certain areas of the hayfield, especially though dusty windows. I thought the bale was about full but the "STOP" sign wouldn't quite finish. As the sign rides on the bale at the end to the point where all the letters are seen above the marker, sometimes the hay will flake off under the sign's bottom as the bale rotates and a small amount of hay comes into the baler. And I couldn't see due to the sun. When I did see the full "STOP" word the bale may have been a little larger than normal. I don't know. There was a fair amount of hay flaked off and in the baler outside of the belted bale itself.
Something seemed off. I was able to twine the bale. But when I tried to release the bale from the baler it wouldn't come out. I checked and found the left wide end belt under the baler when all the other belts were - and should have been - on top of the bale. The belt was holding the bale in the baler. Then I saw the belt was twisted.
Not again!!!
No metal on metal sound this time. I pulled and wiggled and pulled and finally I got the belt out from under the bale and to the side. Then I could dump the bale out of the baler.
Then I had to fix the belt.
 |
| One of three spots where the belt was twisted. |
Again I had to unhook the belt as it was impossible to twist it back to normal. This time the hooked ends were inside the baler. The method to release the belt tension was to open the baler and then put two metal stops in; one against a roller and one against the hydraulic arm. Still, considering how my luck had been bad lately, I didn't want to go inside the baler to unhook the belt. But I did have to. So I called Donna to be a watchout in case stops failed and the baler closed when I was in there.
This belt was much wider and the hooks and wire weren't in the best shape. The wire was bent which made getting it out harder. And the wire was broke into two pieces. When I put the belt back together I used a 'new' wire from my tool shed 'treasure' pile.
Because the belt was twisted in three spots I had to pretty much take belt entirely off to untwist, then rethread the belt back through all the rollers and metal cage. I had to use a ladder in back, crawl inside the baler, and balance on top in the front. But I got it. And I got the belt re-hooked. All before it got dark. Releasing the baler's stops was a problem as the hydraulic stop moved to a spot where it was difficult to release the stop. A hammer fixed that, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.
I was able to make one bale before dark and the baler seems to be working again.
This was the bale made the second time the belt twisted. A very sloppy bale but I believe it will hold together long enough for me to store it and then feed to the cattle this Winter. The right side of the bale is where the twisted belt was located.
So... I am not sure of the complete count, but I believe I made a little over 20 bales today. So I got some things done. But I think I have only baled a little under half the field. Saturday the weather forecast predicts a 20% chance of an isolated rain shower. Let's hope I am able to finish my baling tomorrow as if I don't, it will rain on my remaining hay.
My bad streak of luck has got to end soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment