Yep from the early 80's... back when round balers were pretty new technology, as far as being widely adopted anyway. It's actually a Gehl baler, model 1400 IIRC, rebadged as a Ford. Ford did a lot of that back in the old days-- bought equipment manufactured by other companies and repainted them in Ford blue and white and assigned their own number to it... This is a 552 baler, but it's almost identical to the Gehl 1400 model baler, the chief differences I've seen being *some* of the Gehl balers of this time had a center mounted gearbox with a long shaft and sprocket over to the side similar to how Deere balers do it, and some of the Gehl balers back then didn't have stripper bands in the pickup head... which was a really stupid idea IMHO... The Ford has stripper bands in the header which is much better... Later! OL J R :)
@@lukestrawwalker We had a New Holland round baler, new from our Ford-New Holland dealer. A decent bit of kit for its time, but replaced later with a Claas Rollant.
@@johnthomas7038 how you like that Claas?? We have a Ford 640 combine which is a Claas "Senator" model we bought new in about 73 or 74... Extremely good combine for its time. Can't beat German engineering. The one funny thing I see on the Claas round balers is they roll the bale backwards in the chamber, which seems strange but I guess it works and they have some reason for it... Interested in your opinion
@@lukestrawwalker The Class Rollant was a great baler and even the Ford 4100 was comfortable with it for making straw bales, though we used a bigger tractor for silage bales. Apart from a short stint with New Holland, we have had Claas combines for over 30 years. It would take an incredible deal to move us away from Claas combines now.
@@johnthomas7038 oh yeah I hear ya... That old Claas combined of ours was top of the line in the early 70's... WAY better machine than Deere, IH, or other combines of that era... Dad has bought an old rotted out Case combine for nearly nothing when they got into grain farming and doing custom work; the previous owner combined grain sorghum with it that had been defoliated with sodium chlorate, which is next of kin to salt... That combine was Swiss cheese. After a couple years he and grandpa decided to buy a new combine, and it came down to a Gleaner or the Ford. They got a deal on the Ford. Ford was taking advantage of a loophole in the import laws of the time, importing 99% complete Claas combines from Germany, without the engine, as "parts" and thus duty free or much less tax on em. Then they put a Ford four cylinder diesel or 300 inline six industrial gas engine in them and painted them blue and white and put Ford stickers on em and sold them as the 620, 630, or like ours, the biggest 640 combine. With an 18 foot grain table on the front it was a BIG combine for that time! Tons of capacity, clean sample, very little loss... Dad and Grandpa bought it because they had a deal to harvest a BTO's grain every year; they went to church with the guy and felt they could trust him. He never cut his own grain because he was the type that didn't like to get sweaty or dirty, and combining grain in S TX in 100 degree heat with no cab and AC, or the primitive sweatbox cabs on combines back then wasn't gonna work for him... He bought a "Big 12" auger cart he could run from the air conditioned tractor cab on his big Deere tractor. Anyway the deal didn't last halfway thru the first season-- some jack hole up the road had WAY over contacted his grain crop and was facing huge losses having to buy out the unfilled contract so he offered to buy the bigshots crop at market rate and combine it for free, so the BTO stabbed us in the back and told us to get lost. Dad and Grandpa were gonna lose the combine to the bank so they started pounding the pavement for custom jobs, b and got lucky. Another big shot took advantage of the huge rally in grain markets back before that idiot Carter and his Soviet grain embargo collapsed the prices of grain for a decade just a couple years or so later and precipitated the farm crisis of the 80's... He rented a bunch of river bottom ground and planted several thousand acres of grain sorghum... Thing was, we had a very wet, very hot June that year, and the morning glory vines came on like gangbusters... Sewed the whole crop up in a carpet of vines, making it nearly unharvestable... He put the word out he'd pay top dollar to any custom cutters who's be willing to combine it, and they could have as much work as they wanted. Dad and Grandpa drove the combine 20 miles over to the field where they were starting that morning and started cutting. Everybody and their dog was there, new to somewhat new combine of every type were there... Deeres, IH, Oliver, White, Massey, Gleaner, you name it. Everybody started cutting and within minutes were plugged solid with green slimy morningglory vines, locking their cylinders up tight. They'd back out of the field under the pecan trees and spend the next hour cutting and pulling vines out of the combine thresher, go back to the field, cut another 30-50 yards, and plug again. Didn't matter how slow you drove, those green vines are hell. Dad plugged a time or two, but the Claas/Ford had an advantage... Claas made their threshing cylinder smaller diameter with six rasp bars instead of 8 like Deere and some others, which most had bigger diameters too, making them harder to turn (more power required and stop up easier since they're slower). Claas also had double variable speed heavy cast iron pulleys driving the cylinder, and a long shaft sticking out over the RH tire grill the cylinder, with a heavy cast iron block with holes in it, which when the combine plugged up, you stuck a bar in there and just turned the machine backwards with the iron bar to roll the plug out. The real advantage was, Claas put a lever and quadrant under the seat to adjust the concave clearance on the go. Dad figured out that when he saw a wad of vines go into the feederhouse, or felt the cylinder start to vibrate pounding on a wad, if he reached down and threw the concave lever WIDE OPEN at that moment, the was would almost always just roll on thru the cylinder and concave and be tossed onto the straw walkers, and get tossed out the back of the combine on the ground. A few seconds later he'd pull the lever back up to the third notch which is where you usually set it threshing sorghum and keep right on combining. At that time Deere had a dinky crank by the drivers seat to adjust the concave, you had to crank for about a minute to open it up and close it back again so that trick wouldn't work for them. IH's required you to adjust the concave clearance with wrenches from the ground, as did Gleaner and with their cylinder in the feederhouse and raddle chains you were screwed anyway. Most others were similar to them. Only the Claas could handle the vines. By early afternoon everybody else quit and left. Dad and Grandpa paid for that combine in one year on that job, they were cutting sorghum for weeks and weeks
Yeah, Gehl quit the ag business 15 years ago or so, and since New Holland bought out Ford Tractor Division in the late 90's, they won't provide most parts for non-Ford manufactured stuff (Gehl built this baler). They're on borrowed time
It does okay for its age... Basically first or second generation round baler depending on where you start counting as a "round baler" (Roto-baler or primitive round balers that rolled the bale on the ground LOL) the bales are awful soft compared to modern balers, but 1) it's paid for and 2) I haven't heard any complaints from the cows... LOL Later and thanks for watching! OL J R
The first time that I have seen a Ford branded round baler.
Yep from the early 80's... back when round balers were pretty new technology, as far as being widely adopted anyway. It's actually a Gehl baler, model 1400 IIRC, rebadged as a Ford. Ford did a lot of that back in the old days-- bought equipment manufactured by other companies and repainted them in Ford blue and white and assigned their own number to it... This is a 552 baler, but it's almost identical to the Gehl 1400 model baler, the chief differences I've seen being *some* of the Gehl balers of this time had a center mounted gearbox with a long shaft and sprocket over to the side similar to how Deere balers do it, and some of the Gehl balers back then didn't have stripper bands in the pickup head... which was a really stupid idea IMHO... The Ford has stripper bands in the header which is much better...
Later! OL J R :)
@@lukestrawwalker We had a New Holland round baler, new from our Ford-New Holland dealer. A decent bit of kit for its time, but replaced later with a Claas Rollant.
@@johnthomas7038 how you like that Claas?? We have a Ford 640 combine which is a Claas "Senator" model we bought new in about 73 or 74... Extremely good combine for its time. Can't beat German engineering. The one funny thing I see on the Claas round balers is they roll the bale backwards in the chamber, which seems strange but I guess it works and they have some reason for it... Interested in your opinion
@@lukestrawwalker The Class Rollant was a great baler and even the Ford 4100 was comfortable with it for making straw bales, though we used a bigger tractor for silage bales. Apart from a short stint with New Holland, we have had Claas combines for over 30 years. It would take an incredible deal to move us away from Claas combines now.
@@johnthomas7038 oh yeah I hear ya... That old Claas combined of ours was top of the line in the early 70's... WAY better machine than Deere, IH, or other combines of that era... Dad has bought an old rotted out Case combine for nearly nothing when they got into grain farming and doing custom work; the previous owner combined grain sorghum with it that had been defoliated with sodium chlorate, which is next of kin to salt... That combine was Swiss cheese. After a couple years he and grandpa decided to buy a new combine, and it came down to a Gleaner or the Ford. They got a deal on the Ford. Ford was taking advantage of a loophole in the import laws of the time, importing 99% complete Claas combines from Germany, without the engine, as "parts" and thus duty free or much less tax on em. Then they put a Ford four cylinder diesel or 300 inline six industrial gas engine in them and painted them blue and white and put Ford stickers on em and sold them as the 620, 630, or like ours, the biggest 640 combine. With an 18 foot grain table on the front it was a BIG combine for that time! Tons of capacity, clean sample, very little loss... Dad and Grandpa bought it because they had a deal to harvest a BTO's grain every year; they went to church with the guy and felt they could trust him. He never cut his own grain because he was the type that didn't like to get sweaty or dirty, and combining grain in S TX in 100 degree heat with no cab and AC, or the primitive sweatbox cabs on combines back then wasn't gonna work for him... He bought a "Big 12" auger cart he could run from the air conditioned tractor cab on his big Deere tractor. Anyway the deal didn't last halfway thru the first season-- some jack hole up the road had WAY over contacted his grain crop and was facing huge losses having to buy out the unfilled contract so he offered to buy the bigshots crop at market rate and combine it for free, so the BTO stabbed us in the back and told us to get lost. Dad and Grandpa were gonna lose the combine to the bank so they started pounding the pavement for custom jobs, b and got lucky. Another big shot took advantage of the huge rally in grain markets back before that idiot Carter and his Soviet grain embargo collapsed the prices of grain for a decade just a couple years or so later and precipitated the farm crisis of the 80's... He rented a bunch of river bottom ground and planted several thousand acres of grain sorghum... Thing was, we had a very wet, very hot June that year, and the morning glory vines came on like gangbusters... Sewed the whole crop up in a carpet of vines, making it nearly unharvestable... He put the word out he'd pay top dollar to any custom cutters who's be willing to combine it, and they could have as much work as they wanted. Dad and Grandpa drove the combine 20 miles over to the field where they were starting that morning and started cutting. Everybody and their dog was there, new to somewhat new combine of every type were there... Deeres, IH, Oliver, White, Massey, Gleaner, you name it. Everybody started cutting and within minutes were plugged solid with green slimy morningglory vines, locking their cylinders up tight. They'd back out of the field under the pecan trees and spend the next hour cutting and pulling vines out of the combine thresher, go back to the field, cut another 30-50 yards, and plug again. Didn't matter how slow you drove, those green vines are hell. Dad plugged a time or two, but the Claas/Ford had an advantage... Claas made their threshing cylinder smaller diameter with six rasp bars instead of 8 like Deere and some others, which most had bigger diameters too, making them harder to turn (more power required and stop up easier since they're slower). Claas also had double variable speed heavy cast iron pulleys driving the cylinder, and a long shaft sticking out over the RH tire grill the cylinder, with a heavy cast iron block with holes in it, which when the combine plugged up, you stuck a bar in there and just turned the machine backwards with the iron bar to roll the plug out. The real advantage was, Claas put a lever and quadrant under the seat to adjust the concave clearance on the go. Dad figured out that when he saw a wad of vines go into the feederhouse, or felt the cylinder start to vibrate pounding on a wad, if he reached down and threw the concave lever WIDE OPEN at that moment, the was would almost always just roll on thru the cylinder and concave and be tossed onto the straw walkers, and get tossed out the back of the combine on the ground. A few seconds later he'd pull the lever back up to the third notch which is where you usually set it threshing sorghum and keep right on combining. At that time Deere had a dinky crank by the drivers seat to adjust the concave, you had to crank for about a minute to open it up and close it back again so that trick wouldn't work for them. IH's required you to adjust the concave clearance with wrenches from the ground, as did Gleaner and with their cylinder in the feederhouse and raddle chains you were screwed anyway. Most others were similar to them. Only the Claas could handle the vines. By early afternoon everybody else quit and left. Dad and Grandpa paid for that combine in one year on that job, they were cutting sorghum for weeks and weeks
Are these balers hard to find parts for I found one for sale for $500 in wonder if it's worth it it looks to be in decent shape
Yeah, Gehl quit the ag business 15 years ago or so, and since New Holland bought out Ford Tractor Division in the late 90's, they won't provide most parts for non-Ford manufactured stuff (Gehl built this baler). They're on borrowed time
I like how the baler Tongue is where you can see the hay feeding into the pickup head was that hydraulic tie or electric
It's hydraulic tie... Wish it had a better knife though plastic twine is hard on it...
Later! OL J R
Yeah that's one nice thing about this baler... You HAVE to be able to see good because there is ZERO electronics or monitors...
Later! OL J R
Makes a nice bale
It does okay for its age... Basically first or second generation round baler depending on where you start counting as a "round baler" (Roto-baler or primitive round balers that rolled the bale on the ground LOL) the bales are awful soft compared to modern balers, but 1) it's paid for and 2) I haven't heard any complaints from the cows... LOL
Later and thanks for watching! OL J R