Re: Live Power on M

Posted by Andy Martin on December 21, 2005 at 05:40:58 from (64.219.39.195):

In Reply to: Live Power on M posted by Kernelburner on December 21, 2005 at 04:14:53:

I'm thinking you don't need live power.

I have an M with an M&W live power setup but use a straight M on both a JD 348 square baler and Vermeer 504 Super G round baler.

I pull a NH 479 9 ft Haybine and used to use a 495 (12 ft) very successfully. The old M will pull the Haybine through 8 ft haygrazer. We usually mow in 4th, wide open.

The 348 will take a lot of hay, and make tight bales (wire tie) and the M never get's overloaded. We make 3 tons to the acre in bermuda grass in one cutting. That's bales about every 50 ft with a 9 ft cut. It is hard to negotiate a pickup between them.

If you watch what you are doing, baling in 3rd gear, when you start to get the baler loaded, gently but quickly move the shift lever to neutral and right on in to 2nd between strokes of the baler not using the clutch. My dad told me how to do this, but wasn't around to show me. It is not hard, and I never grind gears. When you get used to the equipment, you can shift back to 3rd in a flash by hitting the clutch just after the baler goes overcenter and get the shift done before the baler gets loaded up on the next stroke. I do this at full speed.

We almost never bale in 4th gear because the ground is usually too rough on the baler. When we are baling in 4th, throttled back because of light hay, it's pretty easy to get the tractor in neutral to pick up any heavy spots, then clutch and get back in 3rd or 4th to keep baling. It's just not worth $2,000 to me to never have to stop in the field. You'll pay a $2,000 premium for live PTO. We can square bale a field with our old iron about as fast as the guys with $40,000 in modern lightweight aluminum and sheet metal tractors.

The only shortcoming of baling with the M's is that we could use a few more gears sometimes, but the cost, and higher maintenance, of more modern equipment does not offset the little advantage in speed, at least for me.

If you get an MTA, or a 400 (I have both but don't use them much) you get more gears, and live PTO, and if you do a lot of work you are fixing the PTO clutches and TA, spending money.

The only time I replace the clutch in an M is after I hire a kid to run one. It only takes a couple of hours to swap it out after you get proficient. That's why I don't like the Super M as much, you have to split the tractor to pull the pressure plate, and an M clutch will last just fine (with modern clutch facings) behind an engine with a Super M kit.

Have fun but remember to work safely enough your widow dosen't have to sell your equipment before you are done with it. Mowers, balers, PTO's, rolling tractors and highway traffic will kill you when you least expect it.

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