KNOTTERS UP! Fixing the knotter problem on my Oliver 720 small square baler 

That’s a great story thanks for sharing this.

The Oliver manual is the same way. There are pictures of of bad knots so you can compare and adjust the right part.

Testify brother! I'll feel better about this one when it's working at capacity.

@@ThatOliverGuyChris The real problem was that the baler would run and work great at 540 PTO speed. As soon as you were leaving the driver would pull the throttle open way past PTO speed. It was always hard to explain to them if they ran it at a rated PTO speed they would make more bales per day. Busted bales take time to feed them thru again when the baler could have been moving making good bales. If one were custom baling running bales thru again did push up the bale count at the baler but not at the barn.

@@bigun447 dad always had me run a couple notches below full throttle. The knotters don't like overspeed. Even our gehl rep said the round balers did a better job around 450 rpm.

Thanks! Getting some much needed rain, so no field work today.

Yes intelligent they were and to think they didn't have computers 😂

They're hard to beat, but horse people like squares, and that basically comes down to horses are wasteful eaters.

That's my method, if it ain't broke, don't mess with it.

I never handled a wire bale, but I can see it is something you don't do without gloves.

I fixed both IH and NH balers. On an IH baler, if the knotter failed once every 100 bales, that was normal. On the NH baler, if it missed one knot out of 1,000, it was time to repair it.

A friend gave me some new Holland knotter parts to see if they would work. The keyway was 180 degrees out from the Oliver, so a guy would have to do both sides, but I think the complete assembly could work.

Glad it was helpful!

I've had broken hay dog springs before. They will definitely cause a problem.

A knotter is like a woman. Don't try to adjust them unless you know how they work. 😂

I think they're both based on the deering knotter, so the solutions should be the same. Hopefully 😂

No knots at all, and they don't fall apart. Go figure. LOL

Measuring the spring would be the best method, because like you said, it's about the spring tension, not the size. I sell a lot of square bales to horse gals. They don't like bales that weigh more than they do. 😂 That makes me think of a story. It was around the time I graduated, so I was young and strong. There had been a drought in the south, and farmers here in Michigan were donating hay and the railroad had donated space on some railcars. We donated, and as a young buck I was in the hotbox stacking in those railcars. The day the local news showed up was the day the most farmers showed up. One guy backed his enclosed semi to the railcar , got out and spent all his time in front of the camera. That was the nastiest hay I had ever seen. They had obviously been rained on multiple times. It took 2 men to drag each bale onto the railcar. He should have been ashamed of his "donation", those things were just giant compost bricks.

That's why knotters will make you pull your hair out. There are so many things that can go wrong, and the all result with a bad knot.

That would be cool to see in action!

@@ThatOliverGuyChris this is a video of it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Yu49uPqJVqk.html

They are a good machine with lots of capacity.

I guess knot strength is something I hadn't paid much attention to. We always sold quality twine, and I had a better part of a pallet left, but that ran out last year. Lesson learned!

I look forward to seeing it make hay on your channel, Bandit.

Thanks!

I used it last week to scout fields.

Thanks! I do have a couple of slo mo videos of the knotters in action. I need to hide one on the underside where the magic happens.

Best explanation I have.

@@ThatOliverGuyChris 😆🤣

Must be you have a thrower! I know how that goes.

Seems like the supply chain issues of the last couple years would have taught these companies something about sourcing stuff from the other side of the planet.

It can be so many things. I had a broken spring on a hay dog and that would keep it from knotting. I keep an eye on those springs now.

I would check the tension on my billhook and see if anything is war because it might not be holding the twine tight enough

Thanks!

I've often considered re-baling some of the rounds into squares in the off season. Do you have an automated way to feed the round bale into the square baler?

Simpsons round bale feeder tables..... Powered off tractor hydraulics.......With some gear changes a needle valve flow control and some sort of retarder to keep the pickup from snatching hay from the last chain table.... it feeds the baler pretty consistant..... Two men can convert and load 39. 21count Bale Baron bundles in about 4 hours. from about 42 4xx5 rounds

@@farmingforfunandprofit940 do you have a video on that. I swear I've seen that on RU-vid.

Sure Do,,,,,,,,Not very informative because it is my Son's business and he doesn't allow much in the "shop Window........

Interesting. That must be the knotter that gets the complaints on here. Thanks for sharing!

It's twu, it's twu. Oh my it's Twu,!

@@ThatOliverGuyChris I hope we never see one of those jump out on film 🤣🤣🤣

@@rosstheoliverman 😂😂😂 excuse me while I whip this out

You meant wabbit, wight?

@@corydriver7634 wasckly wabbit, that is.

Oliver sold the baler line to Hesston and the 720 became the 4500, so parts are identical. The more I think about it, I bet the knife arm having such a big gap was probably the problem as much as anything. It's just touching now.

I knew they are one way, but I can never remember which. I figured I'm 50% right if the go back and forth. That's a better success rate than wife my gives me. 😂

Should be the same

I'd say that's right. We pastured most of the cattle back then, and once we got a round baler we only square baled straw for hogs. Then we built a MOF hog barn, so no straw and it sat a few years until my sister went horse crazy, then it went back to work. I bet that worn billhook was original.

@@ThatOliverGuyChris Interesting, I don't think you would find a baler around me with numbers like that through it from that vintage. I always found their feeding system interesting but never was around one, and I only ever seen one in person at a sale around here. Did they build a pickup with closer teeth spacing like NH's super sweep for them as an option?

@@tpfromcentralpa1692 the 720 was that version. They made a 710 that had a narrower pickup with the tines spaced farther, and if I remember correctly it had one less row on the pickup.

About 54 hp from the factory.

Are we watching the same video? The right side was the worn billhook, and the side that got replaced.

Point your TV at the mirror and then watch the video. It should make sense then.