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mexico, mo | The good, the bad. Any experiences ? TIA |
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| I don't know anybody that had one that still has one? I know several people that "had" them. |
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SE MN | the good nothing!! the bad is nothing but troubles!! stay far away ... |
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Ottawa, Ontario | weren't they also about $75K? Never understood how they could justify that one, although i think they list used ones through their website sometimes. |
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Strathcona, mn | Don't own one but a good friend does. Good is it makes a bundle of bales, bad is it takes a lot of engineering know how to make it stay working. My friend is an engineering genius with past history of electrical systems and repair and he seems to get along ok with it. It does take substantial upkeep to make it a semi dependable machine. If you have a market that wants small squares in an easy to transport way it will fetch a premium for the product. |
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Eastern Half of Kansas | If you're dead set on one, look at bale baron, hesston knotter using big square bale twine I think. Can be pulled separate from baler picking bales off ground to bundle. Be careful to the east with humidity there can be problem heating or sweating like a large square bale. I haven't used either just what I've observed and read, I am around hesston knotter though.
Edited by Big Square 4/12/2012 23:27
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Wallis, TX | I have a friend using a Bale Baron, picking up after being dropped from baler(s). It will actually keep up with 2 or 3 small square balers.
The good, can haul lots of hay on a load, (420 on a 32' gooseneck instead of 300) easy to load/unload. May get a premium price, some feed stores will only buy bundled hay.
The bad, like others mentioned, lots of little gremlins live in that thing. It will NOT take even a slightly over sized bale. It will shear the end off and you wind up with a bundle spitting out hay. The bales must be short, we make them 32". The chamber is only 36" so time you account for the 'frizz' on the ends past the twine the bale must be 32" end of twine to end of twine. In grass hay, especially if it is somewhat dry there is no way to make a 32", 50# bale without popping strings. One feed store that loved them last summer going into storage, is having second thoughts now as customers are complaining about the bale weight.
I had a Steffen bale accumulator and couldn't make it pay. I'd say the bundlers are in the same boat, you have to get a premium for you hay to make it work. |
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Central KY | Have a friend that has a bale bandit and he has had very little problem out of it. He really likes it. Only time he had any problems was during initial setup and those were ironed out quickly. Know someone else who has one and few if any problems as well. These are almost 100% straw use whether that makes any difference or not. |
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Lancing, TN | We were one of the unfortunate people that bought two of these Fix Or Repair Daily machines. I used to tell dad they got the paint right - they painted them Ford Blue. And literally, the paint on the machine was excellent. The rest of the machine was literatly a project to be worked on every day. What made it worse, we put all our eggs in one basket. We had two new tractors, new 575 balers, and new bale bandits. Not all the problems were major, they just put you out of service - 1st day using one of them - 1st hour - hydraulic line blew off the crimp - saturday evening and at that time we did not have a crimping machine - as a matter of fact, these machines forced us to buy our own machine as we constantly had hydraulic lines blow- toward teh end, we eventually replaced most of the major chinese lines with gates hoses and that problem was mostly solved. But with a full tool and die shop, we managed to keep one machine going each day with two machines available - got ot know the ups guy very well overnighting new circuit boards, hydraulic solenoids, sending monitors off to be repaired, etc. We finally sold one of the machines and put the other on a stationary baler. It still broke down every day, but as it was under a roof, you weren't fighting the weather to get it going again.
The package is not the best package for small square bales in the industry, but it is very good. The package is easily handled and loaded on trucks |
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bale band-it
