Pick a make and model. Full spec sheet, owner videos, and similar tractors on one page.
Find a model →Pit up to four models against each other. Engine, hydraulics, hitch, weight, warranty.
Open comparison →Written guides on choosing tractors, hydraulics, PTO, hitches, and maintenance.
Read articles →This is a first-season recap from a hay-baling novice covering four machines at once: a New Holland BR740 round baler, a Krone AM R280, a Case IH C75 (32 hours in), and a refurbished Super Hayliner 68 square baler. It focuses on troubleshooting real problems, disintegrating twine, a stuck PTO shaft, a malfunctioning auto-wrap density sensor, plus the owner's candid take on preferring hydrostatic over gear transmission for hay work.
A self-described non-expert owner documenting hands-on lessons learned from his own first hay season, not a dealer or professional farmer.
He used old twine already in the twine bucket, and it kept breaking because it was disintegrating, likely due to age and being biodegradable sisal twine.
The shaft had gunk and peeling paint and was hard to slide onto the tractor PTO. It took about an hour of cleaning and greasing, plus a helper to turn the shaft to line up splines.
He is impressed overall and says it stays clean during hay work, but after 32 hours he thinks a hydrostatic transmission would suit hay work better than the geared transmission.
The auto-wrap computer made a beep but did not show bale density on either side bar graph, so the owner had to zigzag and guess bale density instead.
