Round balers and fire

Billy Shafer · Aug 12, 2015

Just asking a question. What is it with round balers and fires.We have had four in this county burn this year. Don't recall having a problem with
square balers when I was a kid.

Tx Jim · Aug 12, 2015

(reply to post at 11:08:41 08/12/15)

Rd balers have numerous ball brgs that operate very close to the hay in the bale being made. All brg has to do is get too hot from friction and then one has a fire. All brands/colors are subject to buning. I've had he misfortune of having one burn. 2 important options on a rd baler are a water fire extinguisher & comp insurance.

jon f mn · Aug 12, 2015

High speed and and dry grass makes for a fire hazard. It could be a belt rubbing or a bearing out, but with the speed those turn a lot of heat is created right next to the dry grass. On a square baler there are no high speed parts where the hay is. Jeff had a fire in his round baler this summer coincidentally, had a bearing go out in a roller and started the belt on fire. Luckily there was no hay in it at the time and the damage was limited to a single belt.

Lazy WP · Aug 12, 2015

If you have never had a round baler on fire your time is coming. I burned a year old Heston up in 96, a year later in the same field I had smoke rolling out of the Case IH that replaced it. Never lit, but made for a nervous land owner. Both times it was the same bearing. The Case had maybe 5000 bales, and the Heston probably had 20,000

JMS/.MN · Aug 12, 2015

Early design balers had more bearings close to the hay, so when they heated up, up went the baler. With longer roll shafts, some bearings can be mounted outside of the bale chamber, but there still are issues with bearings, dust, heat.

old · Aug 12, 2015

I have been lucky over the years and never had one on fire. I did one time have a upper bearing on my NH850 start to let off some smoke but I saw it and stopped and dumped the bale out before it could cause a problem. I know of a guy that had a bearing going but had hay down and weather coming in so he would bale one bale and then dump a bucket of water on the hot bearing and then do another bale.

Texasmark1 · Aug 12, 2015

I had my first fire in 35 years this year. Thankfully I had just dumped the bale and with no tension on the belts, the roller that lost a bearing and overheated caught the chaff grass....the little short stuff that lingers in the baler on fire. I just accidentally looked in my outside rearview mirror and the "dust" looked awfuly smokey. Took a better look and it was smoke. Put her in high gear and headed around the corner of the fence and to the shop where I had a hose and put it out before anything got burned but some chaff. I was just lucky I was about 20 yards from water when it happened even though I keep water onboard when baling.

That's the first time I lost a rounder roller and had 2 go bad this year. Kinda chaps me as I check them before I go out and keep my stuff well lubed, keep my stuff in a good state of repair and keep it out of the weather.

Never had a square fire. Course lots of differences in the parts of the balers that can cause that kind of a problem.

notjustair · Aug 12, 2015

The worst thing I ever did was back the round baler in the pond when it caught fire. It was repairable. I'm still using that stupid thing. Now I know - pull the pin and put it in road gear.

jon f mn · Aug 12, 2015

That reminds me of something from when I was a kid. My brother had bought a new ford pickup, a 76 f250. It was about a year old and it caught fire. It was an electrical fire, so he smashed the battery to get the cable off. That enabled him to put out the fire, but the insurance wouldn't cover replacing the battery because he busted that himself. He always said after that that if something ever started on fire again he would throw a pail of gas on it before he reported it.

buickanddeere · Aug 12, 2015

It's why a 2-1/2 gallon class A pressurized water extinguisher with a cup of dish soap added beats any Class ABC dry chem or CO2 extinguisher.

MN Scott · Aug 12, 2015

Buy yourself one of the infrared laser pointer temp guns and once or twice a day shut the baler down and walk around it and check the bearing temps. A bearing that is failing will start to run a temp before it completely goes out and causes a fire. I also use my temp gun on my combine and other machines with high load bearings. Have caught many bearings that were failing that way. Cheap insurance.

jeffcat · Aug 12, 2015

The only trouble with water extinguishers is they are pretty heavy but do work. The water drops the temperature in a hurry but how about a CO2 type. I have plenty of the big ABC type. Got them from work when they went out of code.

hrRoss · Aug 12, 2015

i rented a round baler 20 yrs ago, bearingtarted a fire, put it out with a jug of kool-aid, bout 10 miles from home

Texasmark1 · Aug 13, 2015

JD manual says dump the bale and point the tractor up wind getting it disconnected if you can..........Ha that's a mouth full on the disconnect part. Well I had already dumped the bale.

Texasmark1 · Aug 13, 2015

Different types of extinguishers for different types of fires. Like you don't use soapy water when you are foaming down a runway.

Traditional Farmer · Aug 13, 2015

Your 850 is like my 4 851 balers nothing on it will burn except for the hydraulic hoses one of the good things about chain balers.

buickanddeere · Aug 13, 2015

(quoted from post at 08:01:42 08/13/15) Different types of extinguishers for different types of fires. Like you don't use soapy water when you are foaming down a runway.

What do you think high expansion foam is made from ?

old · Aug 13, 2015

You left out one other thing that will burn and that is the twine LOL

RodinNS · Aug 13, 2015

Actually... it's much the same principle. Foam products do have differing agents, particularly when you get into High expansion foam... but at it's core it's all a soap that breaks the surface tension of the water. Dumping a cup into a pressurized water can will give it a lot more mileage... and water is generally better on that type of fire than a dry chem. Basically the soap/foam adheres to the burning material and prevents re-ignition after it's extinguished.

Rod

Texasmark1 · Aug 13, 2015

Biodegradable synthetic soap bubbles!

Round balers and fire

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