Bought my baler.little long

An ad in the paper turned up 10 balers within 30 miles of the house. All about the same price, but different ages/models. Decided to look at 2 20+/- a year or so old ones. A JD 332 and a Welger AP45 (German made). Both were the same price so went today to see both. When I got to where the JD was, the place was kind of raggedy (equipment scattered wherever it could lay and not really maintained). Guy started pointing out used baler parts that he'd throw in w/ the baler before I even saw it. Had to go to a barn about a mile away that had more raggedy equipment and a baler. Not knowing anything about them, I just started looking at general appearance and obvious damage. Started looking and asking ???'s and the guy dropped the price 200 bucks and said he needed to get it out cause he needed the space. Said I'd tell him tomorrow cause I was looking at another machine next and he dropped another 100 and said he'd clean everything up and lube it for me. Told him he should have been doing it for himself the last 10 years.

Went to the other place and you knew when you pulled up that you'd find nice equipment. Everything tidy and in it's place, all dress right dress and nice to look at. Found my little baler setting in the corner ready to go to work. A little dusty but completely gone over and maintained. The 15 years the guy had it, he used it 1 day a year and baled 200-400 bales of straw and was cleaned, lubed, and all straw removed before it was parked for the season. Said he never cleaned his stuff with a water hose, only compressed air and a wet rag. Parts and owners manuals were like new and every compartment had a rag in it to wipe stuff down. Factory installed taillights for pulling on the road was a help also. Really nice people, had a beer and a little lunch with them and got a tour of the place and tasted a little wine (they have vineyards and a small winery). Bought it without haggling. Hope I did OK, but I think so. I'll post some pics when I pick it up in a few weeks.

Dave

Is your haying season still going over there? I just finished the last of my second cutting yesterday.

pretty much done. Some are still balling up /wrapping grass but drying weather is pretty much gone.

Dave

hope you don't regrett it when you start looking for parts. rather had the jd and know i could get parts, plus what he had on hand.

(quoted from post at 16:31:53 10/13/09) hope you don't regrett it when you start looking for parts. rather had the jd and know i could get parts, plus what he had on hand.

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Parts availability is not an issue (price could be another story). I've got the idea that if I start out with something good and maintain it, that it should have a good life and not need many parts. Afraid the JD would have been a bunch of work to get to shape the Welger is. My only thing is to find the books in English but that shouldn't be real hard.


Dave

Dave2, if you need English books, try contacting Welger themselves, they were sold in the UK so they should have English versions of the books somewhere... If you'r lucky, they do like Claas does for they're parts manuals and do English and German on the same page. Good luck, there's nothing wrong with a Welger baler...

I only think of it while I'm at work and, for some reason, the welger site is blocked. Haven't actually looked at the books with it, they could be in both languages already.

Dave