We used sisal, first 9000 and due to poor quality twine, moved to 7200 sisal. It was worse. The down time due to broken twine was unacceptable. A couple years ago on a second cut, I bought some plastic 9600/210 knot strength twine to try. I have had ZERO broken bales and only one knot failure - the knot I tied between twine balls. I use a JD 348 baler with a pan kicker so like you, the bales see some shock. The 9600/210 is absolutely amazing. For $30ish, I’d highly recommend you try it. Also, don’t make any proactive adjustments to your baler. Your baler is probably new enough to have sisal/plastic knotters on it, you can adjust as necessary as you bale. On our JD 348 we made no adjustments and still haven’t. You will have to keep your twine knife sharp and expect a little higher wear on your needle eyes. 9600/210 is a very tough twine - I think you’ll like it. Customer preference, that is a consideration, but if you can’t make a square or your loosing time with a rain coming due to sisal twine breakage, you’ve got nothing. We haven’t had any complaints since using plastic twine. Good luck!
I switched to the plastic twine this year. The sisal was catching on one knotter, and I would break about one in ten bales and have to pull the twine out of the knotters. I started running the plastic twine without making any changes to the baler on advice from one of my customers. I went 400 bales before my first broken bale. Rarely when I break one, the broken knot pulls out and the next bale is fine without having to pull twine out of the knotters. The sisal cost about 50 dollars a bale here, the plastic only cost me 25 dollars. Both types produce about 500 haybales per bale of twine.
I just bought my 575 couple months ago, it has the plastic set up in it, but are customers prefer sisal. So I put in a couple 7200 sisal and ran 226 bales threw it and no problems! Hope you have the same luck I did!👍
Every once in a while I find some black plastic twine in my cow yard. In all my 45 years we never had that around, much less square bales, so it has to be from late 60's-early 70's. I've pulled some out of the ground that looks like it came off a square bale yesterday. It's a constant battle to keep up with all the bright colored stuff that I been using the last few years. If you miss one piece while feeding, you will eventually find it either wrapped around an axle, or wound up on the manure spreader.
Last year was the first year I used the poly twine. It works well and is cheaper. My back-up baler still runs sisal- I haven't changed it to poly because I don't use it much. I was in the Poconos most of the week, and it rained some everyday there.
Make sure you have sharp knives, and the switch should be painless other than possibly adjusting bill hook tension, or strip arm adjustment. I've been using plastic twine for years, and have had great luck. But, it tends to wear out twine knives faster. Just make sure you have super sharp knives! Good luck!
Run the 9000 sisal. That's what we run. Same issues with 7200. We also used plastic for about 6 years. I switched back to 9000 sisal this year after talking with a gentleman. Glad I did. Bales actually stay tighter. The plastic was "stretchy" and sagged a bit when handling. I've been perfectly thrilled with the 9000 sisal. Just dont get the 16,000 sisal for round balers lol.
I've used Bridon 20000 for the round baler and works good, probably the top brand for plastic twine. Tried using plastic twine in our NH 311 baler years ago had alot of problems and found out later on something with the twine disc need to be adjusted to use plastic. Can't remember just what it was. Went more to round bales so never really got around to trying plastic in the other baler.
For the plastic, I tightened the twine tensioner. My baler came with sisal, and I wanted to save money on twine. I imagine with the thrower, you use 170lb line test?? That 7200 is thick!!! i use 9000 twine. Antique tractors prices are soft. Not many new young collectors and less extra cash from low commodity prices.
I think you're really going to like the poly twine. Once you're setup for it, you'll never look back. It's also less abrasive on bill hooks and whatnot. Best of luck! Just about everybody I know runs poly on their NH balers, so it shouldn't be too big a deal to make the change.
Pros and cons to both types of twine i guess. Sisal decomposes, plastic is stronger and cheaper like you mentioned. I think I would go with plastic just on cost alone. In my experience working on balers, it seemed like sisal was a little abrasive on hooks and things but maybe not.
I have been using plastic for 25 or more years and wouldn't go back. My John Deere baler needed some adjusting but my new Massey 1837 has run plastic from the get go. I am in SC and we are dry, hot and. Humid
sisal twine is very good for wheat/oat/grain binding when running a old binder but you have to use sisal though because of the trashing machines so it doesn't wrap on any thing.
Switched this year on my 24t jd and haven't missed a bale. I use 9000. Was having so much problems with consistently from bale to bale of sisal some would tie good and the bale would be junk
you will like .170 knot strengths. your bill hook should have a notch in it for plastic.turn the spring loafed nut 3 flats you be fine..if 2nd is thin.. and have string burn.take a spacer out of thrower linage let it down one ..good luck.your manual will help...
the MOST important thing to absolutely make sure of when using plastic twine is sharp twine knives in the knotter --- put new knives in if there is any doubt about how sharp they are and you will cure 95% of knot problems when using plastic (because you can't 'tear' plastic, it MUST be cut) .... if you want heavy bales, look for at least 170 lb. tensile strength plastic.
Pitty they don't make a degradable plastic twine. I'll admit i'm sick of pulling plastic twine out of the muck spreader as I end up having to burn it out with a blow torche 😣
I've got two bundles sitting on the end on my NH275 right now just haven't gotten enough gumption to make the switch yet but it is just so dang much cheaper!
Once u get ur knifes adjusted and u mite have to do some work to the knotters ur gonna love it u can pack a tighter bale raise ur prices cuze ur packing more hay in a bale
I, have a McCormick 45 probably a 1955 and it has Square Baled 1000s of Bales of Hay and recently We bought more 9000 Twine and it is Not baling right now the way it always has. Would Plastic Twine help or what kind of Twine is good for a McCormick 45 Square Baler
I noticed your rolls are 7200, we run 9000 and found it's the right thickness for my super 68, don't know if that'd help with the sisal being to thick because a bale of 16000 sisal twine is to thin and won't tie right
Bowhunter Boggs I guess my comment is worded kinda funny; I’ve never run sisal thru my baler and everyone has told me sisal will not tie correctly in the old balers.
@@johnathonsheehan3773 sisal will not tie correctly in old bailers? That was all we ever had until plastic was invented. We go a thousand bales before we break one.
