When I dumped the bale I was at the top of a small hill so the bale would roll down to a low area. As the bale rolled it would start to "unwind" the hay. Also, with some effort, I would roll the bale a little further back. I didn't know how many bales I would be making and I didn't want to run out of room.
I had half of a fourth bale made when I noticed the baler's pickup tines were hitting the ground. I had set the pickup low in order not to miss and weeds and seeds. The ground is not completely level and occasional the tines would kick up dirt briefly. But this was different. I stopped and looked and discovered the baler had a flat tire. Seriously?!!!! What more can go wrong?!
I had to dump the bale in order jack up the baler to remove the tire. I tried to wrap the bale with twine but it wouldn't work. The soggy weed hay had blocked the twine from moving through the rollers across the width of the baler. *sigh* I dumped the bale untwined. I'll deal with that mess later.
It took an hour to remove the tire. I was halfway across the field and had to make multiple trips for tools.
A trip for the jack.
A trip for a shovel to dig a hole when the jack wouldn't fit under the baler.
A trip for a board as the ground was still damp and soft and the jack would go into the ground instead of jacking the baler up.
A trip for sockets when the tire irons were not the right size.
A trip for a large socket wrench as the 3/4 socket that fit the bolts was for a small socket wrench and the tire bolts were on very tight.
I was just removing the tire when my neighbor Calvin and his wife stopped over on their ATV. I had the flat in the field near the road. I was about to say I got it handled when I noticed several of the baler's pickup belts were off. (Earlier when I asked what more can go wrong... yes, more can go wrong.) If you remember from last year with the slippery oat/barley/pea hay, one pickup belt jumped the metal divider disc over to the next belt. Now I had a middle pickup belt halfway over to the next belt and positioned on the divider disc. The end pickup belt and the belt next to it each migrated toward each other and were identically positioned with the divider disc in the middle of the two belts.
Last year I needed a second person to help me pry the belts back into place. Calvin offered to help me. The single belt out of place was relatively easy to get back into place. The two belts over each other were difficult. As they were on top of each other and over the divider disc there was no slack and no play.
We pried and pried and had little movement. Occasionally I would briefly run the PTO to run the pickup which spins the belts. That sometimes would help in moving part of the belt.
The mosquitoes were eating us alive but just when it got dark we got the belts separated and back to their correct spots. It only took us an hour and a half. We had to be careful as you can see in the previous photo how the jack was holding the baler up at an angle.
The sad saga continues....
No comments:
Post a Comment