New Idea round bailers

MH49

Member
I am looking at round balers for my small hay operation and I have in my head that a New Idea (484 etc) because of their low profile and the fact that they build a bale that is wider than it is tall would work pretty good on my hilly ground. I have read a lot where they are an ok baler as far as making a bale but am I thinking right about operation on the hills? This ground has been baled for years with a New Holland but you have to be very careful in some areas because of the hills. Thank you in advance for the thoughts.
 
Are you baling rolls for your use only? If so, as 484 would work ok for you. You termed your operation small, that's good because the NI balers are not much on capacity, but they are inexpensive and that's good. If you are baling rolls for resale, the NI may not be the way to go.
 
Most New Idea balers, including the 484, are of the fixed chamber design. This means that the bale tumbles loosely until the chamber is full then the compression happens from the outside as more hay is fed in. The resulting bales are typically not as dense as with a variable chamber, especially in the center, and this can be either an advantage or disadvantage depending on your preference. The bale size is not adjustable and if you finish the field with a partially-filled chamber you can't tie off a solid "midget" like with variable-chamber balers. Not saying one style is better than the other but just something to be aware of (and you may already know) if you're considering a New Idea.
 
I had a 484 for about ten years and it's a good starter baler. The baler does take some HP to run it right. I found about 80 hp was what it really needed to finish a good hard bale. As far as hills- you need to turn the baler up hill to eject the bale so it won't roll down. Oh yeah- the hay HAS to be dry to bale with a 484 or it won't eject the bale right. And, they take about 2 1/2 minutes to tie a bale right. But, that's OK if you have the time....
 
I had the Case IH version of it, and I would agree with the others - it's a starter baler. It's a soft core baler, so you don't get a lot of hay per bale - it seemed I was backing up more than I was going forward. The soft core bales don't stack or travel very well either.
Pete
 
Two and a half minutes to put the twine on? Not arguing with you,but good Lord,I can put out close to a bale a minute with my Gehl in good going,and it doesn't have net wrap either. It's all computerized with a dual twine arm.
Geez,I don't hardly think I could sit there for two and a half minutes just putting the twine on.
 
What other tractors did you try to run it with? A fellow in my neighborhood wore out two 484's doing custom work with a 3010 John Deere. They made a decent bale.He baled lots of corn stalks for us before we bought a baler. I agree with the dry hay part as they tried to do hi moisture bales and had to get the loader and a bale spear to get the first couple out. No more of that.LOL Tom
 
Damn thing had an electric twine arm. The actuator had to travel in, wait for the twine to start, and to get enough twine to really hold the bale together right. Then, to eject the bale.... I bought a 644 NH and it took about 45 seconds start to finish and ejected. My new 439 is ready to kick out in about 20 seconds.....
 
Most of the time I used a 4030 or a 4430. If you wanted a tight bale, you had to wait for the door to lift, and that could take some hay if you were doing it right. Toward the end of the bale, it could make the 4030 grunt some, so most of the time I used the 4430. I could also use the 2520, which would run the baler, but you couldn't stuff it like the bigger tractors. If you use a larger tractor on that baler, you could really make a nice hard shelled bale. Oh, by the way, that was also with the slow down gear on the drive. The sprocket tore up and all I could get was a smaller drive gear, that sped the baler up and you could run around 1800 rpm.
 
We have a 484 that does an "okay" job. The bales are pretty soft in our case. Starting a bale is really good. I can attest to them needing 70-80 hp. With everything on the baler adjusted per the manual, when the bale was full or near full, It has bogged or even stalled the 706 I use on it. As far as picking up a windrow it is the best I've seen at not leaving any hay on the ground. The electric tie unit went out on us just after we bought the baler(at auction. Converting it to hydraulic was the less costly option. The electric tie unit should have a variable speed adjustment on the twine arms.
 
My cousin bought a new idea. That winter he ran out of hay and bought some from me. I have a claas 46rc. He couldn't believe how tight those bales were compared to his, and I don't think that they're overly tight by any means.
 

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