Haybine Update

We pulled out the Hesston 1110 haybine tonight for a look-see and a very brief trial run. Greased up everything, made no real adjustments and mowed some orchard grass mix in a spot about as big as a basket ball court times two.

The machine is fairly noisy. I'm not so sure the rollers are not cranked down and touching each other. There is also some slap in the sickle - which the manual goes into great detail in troubleshooting/adjusting.

Never ran a haybine before. This one is 7 ft cut and when put out of transport into cutting position, makes for a WIDE combo with the tractor. The spot I was mowing is more of a trimming job, but I had to be careful how I pulled the haybine. My sickle mower is definitely more nimble! Just about every haybine I've looked at - except mine, has the right most cover/shield banged up. I can see how that can happen. I'd like a 9ft haybine and that extra 2 ft will be nice in the field, but not so nice getting around our buildings. Also need to get use to the left side heal/cutting edge of the mower. On my sickle mower, it's right at the edge of the rear wheel, this moco sets the cutter bar out a little further.

The Hesston cut very cleanly. It is set on about a 2-1/2 or 3 inch cut, I'll reset it to max cutting height, which I believe is 5 inches. I'll also pick up a complete spare knife. The haybine has a compartment for a spare knife to be stored, but it was empty.....

The hay cut was definitely conditioned. Really interesting for everyone to see the stems crimped and leaves bruised. The Hesston rubber/steel roller combo did a very good job of crimping/conditioning the hay IMHO.

So we've got several weeks, maybe a month or more before we get into the timothy, but got a great start tonight vetting this Hesston 1110.

No pics - but once we get into the serious hay making, pics and videos to come.

Bill

You shouldn't even be able to hear it run. My 1120 was as quiet at 20 years old as it was new. All I could hear was the sound of the hay going through it. Check the pitman ball and those 4 little bearings in the half sway arm that runs the knives. Another thing is that big nut on the back of the bell crank,right in behind the belts that drive the knives. If those tapered bearings are the slightest bit loose they'll hammer.
Check the timing on the rolls too. The point of the triangular steel bars on the steel roll should be centered in the rubber roll. They shouldn't be touching the rubber roll though. There's a #50 roller chain that runs one roll off the other. You might have to jump it one notch on the sprocket to get the timing right. Check it with the chain tight.

"You shouldn't even be able to hear it run."

Wow - that will be the goal - thanks!

I've watched these haybines on youtube and some of them are louder it seems than the tractor, just like some old square balers - they're just noisy with all the moving parts.

Got the manual - one of the best written manuals I've ever had for a piece of equipment. It speaks in great detail to sickle hammering, half sway bar noise and how to tighten/quiten and roller timing. The only thing missing is the gap distance between the rollers. I've got the number for a New Holland somewhere, but I'd suspect it's less than 1/8 inch.

I think I've got a good foundation mower conditioner - just needing a little adjustment. After running we went around and felt all the various bearings/U-joints we could get our hands on to see if anything was running hot - knock on wood, all good on that front.

Thanks for the info.

Bill

I cut enough hay using my fathers Ford haybine to know that noise was part of the deal. That was not a quiet machine. Make sure the chains are well oiled, the machine well greased etc.

Update to the Update......

Had about 20 minutes with the haybine today and the left side rubber roller was dead hard against the steel roller - hard enough to have wore grooves into the plastic the shape of the steel roller lobe point on that side. Reset it (jack screw on each side of the rollers) equal to the one on the right and they are now separated. The jack screw on the left side was missing a lock nut, so the rollers were free to move on their own - and apparently did, for the worse!

Also, the rollers are out of time enough to hit as they go into the mesh. Relieving the roller contact has made it worse. Tomorrow, I'll time the rollers and see what I've got.

Initial tinkering with the half swaybar sickle drive appears to be OK, but will vet that too before working the machine hard.

Bill

I'm paying close attention to what all you find, I bought an 1120 last year but only used it on about 20 acres and it was noisy but did a great job, sounded like it was coming from the cutter bar drive. will get it out to go through this weekend or next week.

Don't know if you have a manual, but the CaseIH 8330 is/was the same machine. Most had a type of roller called ticor - which was cookie cutter cutouts of tire sidewall or belting material or something similar, but the traditional Hesston rubber on steel rollers were available too. You can go to the CaseIH website and download a PDF of the owners manual with a credit card. Though it says CaseIH, it is a Hesston machine. I've mentioned several times, this particular mower conditioner manual by Hesston/CaseIH is without a doubt one of the most well written ones I've ever came across. It goes into great detail regarding sickle drive noise, setting the roll clearance and timing, etc. It is just a very well done manual and IMHO, well worth every penny of the price. I down load these manuals to my tablet and take them to the barn to work on equipment. If grease is involved, I print those pages of the manual.

I don't know anything really about the New Holland 472/488 type haybines - but think VERY highly of them. If I had the disposable cash, I'd buy a new one as with the horsepower I have to work with, I think a discbine is to much demand. Having said that, as I get to know this Hesston, I am struck with the utter simplicity of it. The only gearbox is one connected from the PTO shaft of the tractor. A slip clutch is in front of it and the gear box's purpose IMHO is to do two things. 1. Offer a 90 degree shaft on which a sprocket is attached. That sprocket drives a chain which powers the reel and rollers. 2. A shaft continues straight out the back of the gearbox on which a double belt pulley is attached. That pulley/belt drive - drives a simple half sway bar mechanism to drive the sickle back and forth. No funky parts, a simple gearbox and simple bearings for all of the parts downstream of it. I which they still made this design - as again if I had the $$$$'s, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new one.

A little off this post topic, but the only difference that stands out to me regarding the Hesston 1110/20 and New Holland 472/488 type machines that might make a difference (?) is the roller design. On one hand, IMHO, it is unquestionable that the Hession design rubber roller is more durable. Being a used junk equipment kind of guy, I've looked at a ton of haybines and seen plenty of delaminated New Holland rubber rollers - never a Hesston. To be fair, while I've seen some NH haybines with missing rubber on the rolls, it is also clear to me that those same rollers can and do last 30+ years without a problem. Just hope you are not the 1 or 2 owners that get a delaminating roll.

The other difference is in crimping/crushing action. The Hesston rollers, steel are somewhat pointed along the lobe and the rubber mating roller is somewhat flatter in the peaks/valley of the lobes. IMHO, they appear to me not to crush as much as crimp. IMHO, the New Holland rubber on rubber rollers both crimp and if set tight enough can crush. That might be an advantage - however, from what I can glean, it is difficult to crush a stem. Crimping is easy. Super C rollers offer crushing action on the entire stem, but require much pressure to do so. Simply crimping the stem every inch or so ike the Hesston rollers do looks like a good idea with grass hay and I gather alfalfa stems too - while leaving the leafs unharmed/crushed? The small piece of hay I cut with my Hesston 1110 the other night, in looking at it, probably every stem had been broken along it's length every 1-1/2ish inch. It's interesting that the way these haybines cut, Hesston or NH, the hay is fed into the rollers perpendicular to them (for the most part) and the entire stem length gets crimped. Don't know who the guy/gal that dreamed up this idea, but pretty smart person IMHO. The grass leaves from my small hay cutting were somewhat bruised - but as I mentioned in an earlier post, on the right side of my Hesston, the steel roller lobe was dead on the rubber one. I think if they were gapped right and timed correctly, the only conditioning (kind of) that would happen would be stem breaking and leaves unharmed. Most everything I've read is the stems are the guilty piece of the plant for holding excessive moisture (vs leaves) that create dust and mold if not properly cured. The fix to that problem is crushing or crimping the stem and the leaves (kind of sort of) take care of themselves as they dry easy enough on their own, even without conditioning. In that sense, if the Hesston rollers only have the inherent ability to crimp a stem and not harm the leaves, perhaps it's an ideal set-up. I think also - if you set the gap on a New Holland set of rubber rollers properly, you might get two crimps vs one with the Hesston - due to their intermeshing geometry being more square into square lobes/peaks/valleys. Take all of that verbiage with a grain of salt.

All I know is - I can't say I've ever heard anyone complain about the Hesston rubber on steel roller for conditioning hay and same for New Holland rubber rolls.

long post - lots of rambling. I hope to post pics tomorrow.

Also - before I forget, there are some great PDFs on the AGCO parts website of parts breakdowns for the Hession 1110 and 1120 machines. They go along way to help visualize what you're trying to repair.

Bill

Make sure the two bolts that hold the knife head to the drive are good and tight, they are like a lug bolt with tapered nut, if they get loose it can egg shape the holes and then it won't stay tight. We used to tell customers to get them tight and then go some more.

Another update:

Spent a goodly part of the day working on the Hesston 1110 haybine and here what was accomplished:

Worked on the roll timing. Tried to jump a link to advance the bottom roller, but just didn't have enough slack. Next step was tighten up the drive and roller chains as they should be in the first place and the per the manual adjust the bottom roller/sprocket via slots for roller rotation independent of the chain. To do this, it was a simple job of unloosening 4 small bolts/nuts. In the pic, you will see a white sprocket with a white keyed hub against it. The sprocket is not keyed and is free to move a few degrees via slots with respect to the hub. The slots are not visible as they are on the back side of the sprocket, but the parts diagram shows them clearly.

Once I got the nuts/bolts loosened, I backed the nuts out to the end of their respective bolts (so as not to damage the threads with a hammer) and lightly tapped them to free the bolt heads of sticking to the sprocket. I then taped the sprocket to separate it from the hub. At this point, the bottom roller could rotate independently of the top roller. Next, I moved to the right side of the machine with a BIG crescent wrench. The end of the bottom roller shaft has flats machined in the end of it and just above it there is a small window where you can see the rollers meshing. Note the right side has a window too. There is a pic of this.

With the crescent wrench, I was able to move the bottom roll with respect to the top roll. At first, I had to kind of jerk the wrench to get the sprocket and hub on the other side to separate - once at happened, I could turn the bottom roll by hand. I turned the bottom roll clockwise and counter clockwise to find the limits of the rollers interference - lobe to lobe and set the bottom steel roller lobe between top rubber roll lobes while also visually checking everything on both sides. Once I was satisfied the rolls were timed correctly, I gently tightened the 4 nuts/bolts that hold the sprocket and hub fast together such that I didn't move the bottom roller out of time. After that, I firmly tightened the hub/sprocket bolts and was done. See the pics of the rolls out of time and centered/in time.

Also on each side of the machine are two jack screws. These adjust/set the roll spacing. There is a pic of this too.

Fired up the haybine, still plenty of noise, but the rollers ain't making it. Maybe the bearings in the rollers might be noisy - don't know. They are sealed. One thing for sure is the rolls are no longer touching and they are in time.

However, the knife and is hammering a pretty good tune. I'll deal with that over the next few days/weeks.

Also, the skid shoes need attention. One of the "hooks" that holds one of the top sides - the slot in the shoe is pulled out. In the other shoe, the center vertical piece coming off the back side is cracked and so some welding is in order for the shoes. Reason I'm into the shoes and finding this stuff is I'm setting the cut for max height - 5ish inches.

I'll make another post on the shoes and knife refurbs.

For future search purposes - all of the above with respect to the model 1110 is identical if one is working a model 1120 Hesston.

Bill

I could never hear my IH 990 over the sound of the AC blower and the stereo, LOL.

Ha ha - not fair!!!!!!

My Hesston 1120, I bought as a parts machine but used it a few years anyway as it was. Mine was noisey.

However, Most of my noise was in the reel bats. The bats have plastic bushings on each bat. Mine were worn metal to metal. Also they had them them bolted to different holes all around the reel so everything was mis-aligned and binding as it spun on the cam rotator. My reel had been broken in two were previous ownership ran a tree through it which broke the reel and the bats. It was all scabbed back together with welds.

I have since replaced all the metal batts with wood, straightened all the pipes that the tines bolt to by hand using an old plow frame to eyeball straighten, and installed new plastic bushings on the reel.

My machine is pretty darned quiet now. Still needs a couple well worn cam bearing rotators that need replaced. Those bolt to the end of the tine pipes and are what flips the tines as the follow the cam track. I make my hobby pay for itself as I go. In other words I pull zero money from my real job to support the hobby.

Good info. The reel rollers on my Hesston are steel. They roll freely though, suspect that is where some of the noise is coming from too.

There is a bit of a gap on the outer concentric ring that holds the rollers in place. The pic shows this.

I've seen several of these older Hesstons with rollers that look like mine, makes me wonder if they all, including mine lost a plastic ring around
the rollers sometime in the past.

How's your sickle? Smooth and quiet or did you have to make some adjustments there? I'm about to get into that next.

Got some welding repairs going with my skid shoes today.

Thanks!
Bill

My sickle is reasonably quite. Have not had to do anything with it except replace sections. Has a hodge podge of guards on it. (about 5 different kinds).

That pick of the little cam track roller you posted is what I need to replace 2 of. They are like $35 a piece from AGCO.

I didn't get a chance to get mine out yet been busy planting corn, you gave a lot of good information here I couldn't find on caseih site how to order a manual. will try again later.

Looks all about the same as my 1070. Though the way you describe the conditioning roller drive sounds a bit different. Great, simple and robust machines!
I believe the plastic collar or bearing talked about on the reel is actually not at the roller but where the tine bar rotates through the support bars on the reel. A small bend in the tine bar puts pressure on that plastic bushing and wears it out.