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Dalton, OH | The Krone baler will plug just like a Hesston, but it will unplug itself. When you plug it, you throttle back or disengage the PTO. The machine winds down and just before it stops it reengages and pulls the plug right through. There is a spring-like mechanism that does all of this. I have never had any trouble with this and it has worked every time I needed it. I never get out of the seat of the tractor. Occasionally, if it doesn't go on the first time, I realease the pressure on the bale chamber and try again.
The gear boxes are excellent. My neighbor who runs a Hesston changes all of his chains every year. I change the oil in the gear boxes every year which is very simple and use 80/90 wieght gear oil. As far as longevity, I have not had any gearbox problems on either baler and both had right at 15,000 bales on them when I traded them. To my knowledge, the only gearbox issue my dealer has ever had with a baler was when a customer ran a wooden fencepost in the baler. It messed up the cutter gear box. The dealer had the parts by the next day for the gear box and the customer was up and running in less than 24 hours after he broke down.
As far as onboard hydraulics, the older series 88's had onboard hydraulics for the chamber. I think they still use this setup on the 890's, but can't say for sure as I haven't checked mine out yet. They use Hesston knotters, just like New Holland does and they work great.
When I baled beside my neighbor's Hesston the Krone had slightly more capacity, but my neighbor has the previous model to the current Hesston series where now they claim a higher capacity. I would suspect they now have just about identical capacity until you plug them and then you would be digging out the Hesston while the Krone was still baling.
Krone should want you to demo that baler from your dealer before you buy it. They are an excellent company to work with and they do a very good job with parts. Their main North American headquarters is in Memphis, Tennissee. Here in Ohio if you have your parts order in by 5 or sometimes even 6 o'clock it will be at your dealer the next morning.
Feel free to email me with any other questions you may have.
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Krone square balers
