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Western Oregon | We were baling low moisture straw and making 85-90lb bales. It is a little hard on the baler. The Freeman is the only baler that would take it.
The older crank arms tend to get loose and go through bearings. It always seemed that you had to rebuild them and watch them pretty close. With the 200 you would have bent bales when changing fields or conditions or materials.
We also abused the 200's by turning up the speed. You can really crank out the bales at 86 strokes per minute end of the scale.
We really didn't have to do much adjusting with the 370. Had to keep good haydogs and springs. It didn't have the extended chamber and it had two 4" cylinders instead of the 4 3" cylinders. It just got tired. It was time for a rebuild. Conn rod was knocking, bullgears were getting sharp, feedarm was just a little loose, and the hydro was getting weak. We were pulling it with a MM G1355 which had a 3spd powershift. When I got the Hesston 3-tie I could just walk away from the Freeman in most conditions. Hesston spins at 92 strokes (I think) the 370 hydro was down to 78.
Baling wheat and grass straw is hard on balers. You can't push the strokes per bale as bale quality will decrease. We always ran 18-20 strokes per bale, we tend to put more strokes per bale, rather than less if possible. The more strokes the nicer the bale. That is the advantage with an engine baler. You can always be in the correct gear and keep the bale length consistent. Especially when you go from a little trail to 4 ton per acre, back to a little trail in one double raked windrow.
All of this is I suppose, a bit academic as hay prices are such that I will not be buying anything this winter...
Baled my alfalfa last night and man that old freeman makes noise!
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Freeman small balers
