If you are planning on a couple of thousand bales a year or less AND can find a reliable custom operator, I'd stay away from one altogether.
But to answer your question. It would cost 5 times as much to rebuild a junker compared to buying a good one. You can spend $1500 on the knotters alone if you hire it fixed.
Things to look for: 1) Do you know the seller/can you trust him to be honest with you about how the baler works?
2)Look for sloppiness in the plunger/crankshaft area. Its a matter of degrees, but things should be fairly tight.
3) Knotters--can you see it tie or trust the seller that it will tie? Check the bill hooks for wear--don't get cut--there is a twine knife on each knotter assembly.
4) If stored outside, walk away.
5) Turn it over by hand using the flywheel, and look at the tightness/sloppiness of all moving parts.
6) If a private sale, the tidiness/cleanliness of the seller's place will tell you a lot.
7) Alfalfa/clover ties easily. Grass hay ties ok. It takes a darned good baler to tie oat or wheat straw. Cornstalks bale hard. The Deeres bale stalks better than the NH's.
8) Spend a little more now and avoid spending a lot more later.
9) HIRE IT DONE
I have had a New Holland 270 and 273--both were good until they just became wore out. I have also had 2 JD 336's and they are REALLY good.
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Today's Featured Article - Old Time Threshing - by Anthony West. A lovely harvest evening late September 1947, I was a school boy, like all school boys I loved harvest time. The golden corn ripens well and early, the stoking, stacking,.... the drawing in with the tractors and trailers and a few buck rakes thrown in, and possibly a heavy horse. It would be a great day for the collies and the terrier dogs, rats and mice would be at the bottom of the stacks so the dogs, would have a busy time hunting and killing, all the corn was gathered and ricked in what we c
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