The Gear box is out of the 515 3 string balers.  Pretty massive gearbox.  Far as the drivelines, I do remember if a person didnot have the drawbar set in the correct position and had the carrier tilted too far forward or backward the PTO shaft would screw up pretty quick.

He has been around Balers 30 plus years, from mechanic to JD Dealership owner and never had a gearbox breakdown. PTO's is just not having the right height/fore-aft setting  right.

He sells the balers thru Liberty Ag. (Quincy-Ellensburg) and they are confident enough they are handling any warrentee work etc.  (The guy is 70 yoa, and tired of customers not setting the machines correctly and can't figure out why the machine doesn't work right. He also builds the double conditioners for the John Deere SP Swathers.)

The bale chambers are 1/2 inch solid bent steel.  No welds, no angle iron welded, etc. He does build his own axles. 1/2 in thick box steel.

He's build and sold 3 pull type 3 string balers this year so far.

Designed and build 12 self propelled balers.  The S.P balers are sold as far away as California and Wyoming. 

Other interesting things,, I found out. There are over 350 Freeman balers in the Kittitas Valley. Valley is 30 miles by 40 some miles, including 3 towns. ( Krap load of Freeman balers per square mile !!)

S.P baler he builds weighs 15,000 pounds give or take. Comes with bale stroke counter and built in moisture tester.  Puts out a 120 pound 3 string bale every 18 strokes and runs at 100 strokes per minute.  The SP baler will bale from zero to 10 mph in field gear, Readout for speed by 1/10's  (full hydraulic power train out of JD Swather from engine to final drives.)  Main frame is entirely made out of 1/2 in steel. Sub frame carries entire weight of engine, cab, drive train, critical joints are not straight welded but cut with jet cutters in mortize/tendon joints then the joints are welded together. Plungers are built the same way mortize/tendon lap cut then welded together. All "replacable" or "wear" parts are straight off the J.D. N.H. or Freeman parts shelves.

Only 2 guys work on putting the baler together, Himself or his welder who works for him. He personally does all the electrical and hydraulics. The Welder puts EVERY WELD on the balers, no one else!   The "running gear" of the baler is completely independent of the 'baler' part and perfectly capable of being driven around with out any "baler" part on it. ALL the baler parts are "welded or bolted onto the subframe chasisy.  So, no part of the "baler" is needed for structural intregity of the entire SP Baler. The rear wheel assembly is off the biggest corn/been planter that has the hydraulic lift assist. that lift assist assembly is the rear boogy wheel. The design of the boogy wheel behind the baler takes all the "rocking motion" of the plunger out of the baler so the ride is a smooth as a tractor. The SP Baler drives EXACTLY LIKE any SP Swather and can chase blown windrows very easily. The Cab does sit right above-behind the pickup.  

Every baler is put together TWICE. First time is for correctness, then entire baler is taken apart into ALL it's sup pieces and taken to Yakima and all frame an metal parts are powder coated,  THEN Painted. Then entire swather is put together a second time and hydraulics, electrical, etc.. is installed.

Every baler has a detailed check list taped to the baler and marked off as each step is completed. There has not been one frame crack, weld crack, or such type breakdown on any of the balers.  The knotter assembly can be seen from the driver's seat.

The self-propelled baler is $150.000.   One local farmer has 3 of them, the newest one is 3 years old none of the 3 have broke down, other than normal wear parts. He grows over 1000 acres of timothy. This is all ditched fields with ditches about 36 inches apart, so it is NOT SMOOTH GROUND.

Either bored to tears by now or not ?  But I did talk to the guy for over 2 hours and forgot some of what he said. At first he refused to let me take any pictures to share on this forum but after 2 hours he relented and told me to stop by with my camera on the 7-8 as the S.P baler has to be field ready by the 10th. Local farmer bought the SP baler. Put down $75,000 and will pay the remaing $75,000 on the 10th.

Oh,, Jay,, the last pull type  "hay tools" baler built is in Mattawa.  Can't remember the name of the guy who bought it but call Liberty Ag. and they can tell you the guy's name. There are 3 pull type "hay tools" balers in the columbia basin currently. He is building another pull type to be completed in July.

I will get pictures soon as I can.