• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Hubby's spending money again..... new baler!

Help Support Ranchers.net:

S

Shelly

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
1,634
Reaction score
0
Location
Saskatchewan
In 2003 we bought a brand new Vermeer 605 XL. Every year since, we've had trouble with the belts, but we stuck it out relacing them or just putting new ones on. Last year, a new set cost $3800, this year $4300. Well, today the lacing ripped out again, so now we own a new Vermeer 605 M. He just went to town this afternoon and bought it!

Best friend bought a new Vermeer 605 XL last year, he didn't even make it through the first cutting before he had to replace the belts, and they've been relaced this year before we started baling. Wonder how long it'll be before he has trouble again? :???:
 
One of the things you guys may want to try is Gator lacing. I had a Hesston round baler that would blow out lacing two or three times a day. I replaced all the cheap lacing with Gator and dropped to relacing once a season. If I ever go back to a belt baler, I'll be buying endless belts or replacing everything with Gator lacing right off the bat.

As an aside, could you let me know how you guys make out with the baler? My local Vermeer dealer is a satellite dealer, but he flat out refuses to bring in a single baler due to the issues they've had in the past. I'm probably going to buy a Case next go 'round, but the closest dealer is 60 miles away, and I prefer to stay local if possible. Most of the custom guys running Case or NH (same baler, different names) are getting about 5,000 bales between relacings.

Rod
 
My 660 NH has had over 5000 bales through it since I got it. (9000 then 14280 now) and I have broke 2 belts... both were cut not blown lacings.

I paid $16000 so am less than $4 per bale on it... will do over 1000 this year so price per bale will be down again.
 
Boss owned a Vermeer baler a few years ago. He had more hell than a guy needs during haying season. He sold and bought a NH, put more than 5000 bales through it with no problems. He is high on keeping it greased and checked out before he gets on it every day. Vermeer is like a Ford, waste more time and money than the use you get out of it.
 
this is just me bein curious, but if ya'll had soooo much trouble with the other vermeer, why'd ya go buy another one?

Ours is an old Hesston 550 had used belts on it when we got it, have no idea how old they were or how many bales went thru it, we are on our second year of usin it, (granted we dont' put as many bales thru it as ya'll do) but we are still using the same belts. Before we baled the first time with it, Mr Lilly took the belts loose and tightened them with new (I don't know the word for the kind of attachments used, each side has a row of holes and you join them together and put a pin thru the middle)
 
Other than the belt issue with the old Vermeer, he loved the baler. It made good, solid bales, and the monitor is second to none. He never had to look behind him when he was baling, the monitor told him what to do, when to do it, and if there was a problem. Only time he ever looks back is to make sure it hasn't caught fire. (Which it tried to do last week!) :roll: I looked at the new baler, it has the Gator lacing in it, seven narrow belts versus the three wide ones and two narrow ones on the XL. Once he gets it set the way he wants it, it should be (keeping fingers crossed) all right.

When it comes to our haying equipment, we always try to keep the machinery fairly new, two or three years at the most is how long we keep our haybine and baler. We put up a pile of hay every year between us and the best friend. Machinery breaking down at the wrong times just doesn't cut it for us.
 
Years ago we had a 605C Vermeer. My husband said a halo should come with it, because if you could deal with it you were guaranteed sainthood. :lol: :wink: Hppefully they've improved the design since those days.

Finally one day it just blew up. He drove in to the yard with the back door so badly out of shape that I thought he'd been hit by a truck on the road! What really happened was metal fatigue. We sold it for parts.

We now have a New Idea 486. It's been a super baler, and we had it for about 10 years before we decided this year would probably do it in. The belts are shot, and it's going to cost about three thousand or more to replace them. We solved that problem by going out and buying an identical baler for $2500. 8) It's been used a fraction of what ours has, and the belts are almost like new. Now we've got lots of parts, and the new baler works like a charm.

Maybe because we only live five miles from the dealer, breakdowns aren't as big of a deal for us. We'll put up with some repairs if it can save us some money over the long run. We can run for parts, fix the break and be back baling in a pretty short time. Baler payments on the other hand ....... :? That bothers us more than the breakdowns. :wink:
 
We have been looking at balers recently.. The boss told me we should think about getting one... He cracks me up, really he does. Our problem is that we are going to do corn stalks mostly and those are heck on balers... I know one local who basically trades his baler in every two years because otherwise the stalks will destroy it in the end... Don't know if it just him, just Deere balers or an actual fact, I would imagine that really coarse material could be rough on balers...
 
My old baler, a NH688, had the endless belts on it and I didn't have any problems with the belts. I put over 9000 bales on it and it was still a good baler when I traded. My new baler NHbr780 has the laced belts and I haven't had any problems with the belts at all. The baler has run perfect since new and I haven't even had to replace a pickup tooth in it yet and it has over 4000 bales on it.
Baleing cornstalks is very hard on balers. I baled 250 bales one year and replaced every tooth in the pickup by the time I was finished.
 
New Hollands seem to be the Baler of choice around here, with 4-5 cuttings a year the norm...

I'd show my Vermeer Dealer this thread so he could pass it on to the company. maybe they would improve of they knew their reputation on a few things...

Gator Belts Rock...i know this from my time in food processing. One company I went to had laced blting on a waste belt. When it went down, it shut the whole plant down. I talked them into gator Belting and it cured the problem,

PPRM
 
This neighbor has been known to put up 2000 stalk bales a year along with 1000 or so hay bales+ a little custom work on the side. He is rough on balers... From what he told me with stalks a lot will depend on the ground you are baling. Realing rough and uneven ground eats up the pickup teeth a lot faster than smoother ground, only makes sense... I think we would be better served by fencing off the stalk ground and grazing the cows out there along with putting 100 acres or so into a hay crop but I get overrulled because it is easier to take the stalks off :roll:
 
Why don't y'all just buy a john deere and have it over with :D

seriously- our last baler was a 435 and we had almost 0 problems with it running quite a few bales through her every year both hay and straw and our current baler is a 467 on its third or 4th season now with no problems what so ever.

Dan.
 
Do you know what a new John Deere round baler costs up here??? Over $50,000!!!!!

Actually got a call yesterday from Vermeer, there was a change-up on the belts and the problems they were causing a year or two ago, the dealer never let us know. :x Too late now, though, the paperwork has been done for the new baler. Which, by what husband has been telling me, he likes even more than the last.
 
50k for a baler? Yowza...I priced some NH's, Deere 567's and a Vermeer last year and the deere was the cheapest of the bunch, although I found out later that a different NH dealer would have been a better choice... It is getting to the point around here that if it isn't much equipment that isn't green in color.. Perhaps to be expected when you live in the shadow of the cooperation... But their dealer network just blows away all the other guys in this neck of the woods.
 
IL Rancher said:
50k for a baler? Yowza...I priced some NH's, Deere 567's and a Vermeer last year and the deere was the cheapest of the bunch
Click to expand...

Interesting. Deere is far and away the most expensive in this area, although $50K is more than I've ever seen. I'm not sure about Vermeer, but Case and NH have some great deals on right now. $29,000 for a brand spanking new Case with belt separators, upgraded tires and the upgraded remote. NH is also $29,000 for a BR780, but they didn't have the good monitor included.

Its helped to bring down the price of used equipment significantly. I'm actually waiting to hear from the bank on a loan for a like-new NH 664 that dropped almost $5000 last week.

Rod
 
I was stunned too Rod. I thought when I walked out of the NH dealer that it would have the best price and it was 1500 more than the Deere. I didn't spend any time at the case dealer however and maybe they would have been a better price... I just have heard not so good things about the dealer.. Tehy are also the Agco dealer in the area. Our Deere dealers really push each other, I have 3 within 15 minutes of here and probably 15 wthin an hours drive. In that same area I can think of 3 NH dearers and 2 Case and 1 IH and one Vermeer.. It just is strange around here...

29k was about what the Deere was here with netwrap I think (I would have to find the price sheet). The NH was around 31000 if I remember correctly (I need to go shopping again soon becasue my mind is shot). Deere is just so dominate in this area it is not even funny. I mean, it is strange to see anything but green in a field these days. Probably 85% of equipment is green around here. If deere makes it, people buy it, the stock brokers even hate seeing the people stop in because all they want to do is by deere stock.
 
Well, I know the Deere was over $50,000 because we looked at buying one last year. The price chased us away awful fast. We had an RBX 561, but hubby didn't particularily care for it, or the BR 780 for that matter, since they're basically the same baler.

Green machinery is pretty popular around here, especially the combines, but that green paint is way overpriced IMHO.
 
We bought a new M last year with the big flotation tires. It uses net wrap or twine. It's a real heavy-duty baler. I think you will really like yours, Shelly. Mr. FH really like the monitor. Never have to look back.

Ours was around $30,000 last year. I hope it is the last one we have
to buy.

We have been notified about the upgrades on the belts. We're done
baling for this year, so they can have it any time.
 
FH, if you don't mind me asking, what were the upgrades? As soon as you said you had been notified, I got to wondering if our M is a 2005 model. If it is, I'm thinking we'll be needing the upgrades on it, too. We REALLY don't want to have to deal with the belts on this one tearing all the time, too!
 

Latest posts

Top