I like mine. It is different than most AG equipment though. There is a pretty good learning curve with it but once you understand it and are comfortable with it, good to go. As far as productivity the same or a little faster than rolling 4X6 bales. Much better than an accumulator or a bale wagon.

 

What do you use to move the bales? can you use spears like you do for a large square?

 

Not exactly like large squares. It is best to pick them from the bottom. My spear has four prongs but have pick them with a single with two stabilizers. Not the best but it worked. I have used pallet forks too. I have also picked them between the bottom bale and the middle bale. The bottom will bag down and you have to slow down but can be done.

 

the package is great
the machine - we had 2 - 2000 model machines gave continual problems, computers, hydraulic manifold, hoses, bolts breaking, etc. If you are not an excellent mechanic - don't go there! we ran a lot of hay thru them.
spears will not work - only pallet forks
if you want more info, ask.

 

I have heard horror stories from the first ones, but everyone I talk to that has a newer one loves them, so hopefully they have their problems worked out by now.

 

I think a grabber is the best way to move this type of hay package.
Much less damage.

 

First of all, this is just my opinion!!!!!!

The window of opportunity to bale hay is short. We all know that. Why would you want to tie another piece of equipment to a baler to fight? What happens when a wet spot in a windrow ends up in the middle of a bundle? What happens when the steel band cuts the string on the outside bale? How are you going to load a flatbed truck with bundles that measure only 38 inches? Why would you want to buy a product from a d**khead?

We built a bundling system for ourselves several years ago for small squares. Neil Teitz wrote a short article in Hay and Forage about it. The day the article ran, my phone rang and it was Owen Brown, owner of GFC, the company that builds the band-it. The conversation was not pleasant because Owen told me that I was infringing on his patent and threatened legal action, without ever seeing a picture or any information about my machine. He said he would be in Colorado a few weeks after our conversation and he was going to come see my machine so he could decide what kind of legal action he would take. Needless to say, the chickens**t didn't have the balls to pull into my driveway. He was like I said before a d**khead.

I personally know of 4 machines in a 100 mile radius of my home that only kind of ran for 1 year and then they were sold or still sitting. I heard that GFC was terrible about dealing with the issues.

I have never owned or ran a bale-bandit so this is just my opinion of the process and the package. You need to take what I say with a grain of salt and make your own decision based on what other band-it owners say. I GUARANTEE that you could find several slightly used machines.

Tim Hall

 

got a brochure in the mail today from Marcrest advertising a Bale Baron. Heard talk of them before, but have never seen one. uses more or less a big square baler to repackage the bales with string instead of the bands - brochure is nice, machine looks good - and it isn't blue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The new machines may be good, but the Bale-Bandits we had were never reliable enough to be used in the hay field - after 4 years of struggle, we put them in the barn behind a stationary baler and used them that way. No more hay rained on due to poor workmanship on the bandit.

 

We looked at the Bale Baron. It is a very nice machine and its what I want. THe manufacturer is also in a lawsuit with GFC and cannot market the machine here. We have been very tempted to find us a "friend" in canada to get around it. I love the idea of using hesston knotter, which I use every day, twine i use everyday, simple turn table that won't catch strings and idiot electronics that even I can probably troubleshoot. The more I talk to people the more I find out the machine isn't the problem, its the guy behind it.

 

Wow
I have never seen the Bale Baron before. Looks alot better than the bandit. One thing is for sure, Hesston Knotters work in the hay field.

 

Hopefully this lawsuit gets settled soon so he has time to make the hundreds of orders he is going to get!

 

A buddy of mine had an '01 bale bandit, so many problems. We bought alot of his straw to send to our track customers, the bands broke the strings on almost every endbale. When every we brought the trailers back, we would have to rebale a ton of bales. It may work better if you use a wire baler, but horse people hate wire bales. Also the bands are a pain in the ass to get rid of, I don't know how many times I almost got wacked in the eye by a band whipping around. Anyway, he sold the machine cause he got sick of all the breakdowns, $1,000 software updates, and lack up service from GFC.

The bale baron seems way the hell better. Can't beat those hesston knotters. Do you know what they a charging for those things?

 

Checked out the bale baron. I agree it looks pretty good. I had been figuring on taking the bands off and putting knotters on instead when the bands started to become unreliable, if it can be done. It would be a big winter project but hopefully have time to figure it out before needing to do it. When they are able to sell in the states it will definitely be bad for the bandit. Are they using a single or double knot?

 

Bale Baron can sell everywhere but the state of Ill.
Short of having a steel chisel richochet into my eye last year, the only major injury we have had on our farm - 13 employees - was when one cut a band on a bundle of hay and the band flipped like they are bad to do and sliced his forearm open - trip to the doctor and about a dozen stiches.

 

the hydraulics suck on the Bale Bandit, but the die that crimps the band is not going to wear out any time soon - we had maybe over 300-400,000 bales thru one of our machines adn the die itself was still good - the fetcher that positions the strapping had to be rebuilt several times and was designed poorly. Additionally the top banding box was constantly full of hydraulic oil due to new leaks. Just way to many chinese hydraulic parts. solenoids looked like my son worked on them with a file. snap rings inside the manifold were constantly shearing. snap ring grooves are not deep enough and cheap steel.

 

Hey Production Acres, do you rebale from large rounds and then run them through the Bale-Bandit for transportation reasons? How does your rebaling operation work? I have often thought that would be the way to go. Here in Eastern Iowa the weather does not give one very many opportunities to bale good hay. I can always hire a round baler and usually for less than I can own one for and I am spread over 28 miles, I really could be in two places at once. JamesIII

 

We built a homemade unit, it requires 2 people to operate and takes a rd bale about every 10 minutes. We also were able to run big squares thru it. It works good on grass hay, but not on heavy alfalfa hays as you get too much leaf shatter on the bales when you dethacth the hay. The hay must be refluffed out of the dense "peel" it is in comming off the roll as all you do is shear bolts on the square baler otherwise. The entire system is 3 phase electric - even teh square baler is run off a 40 hp electric motor. Additionally, when you have a problem, 3 E-stop switches are located around the machine and pressing any one of them shuts the whole operation down instantly. We ran the bales into a bale bandit - and that was the most of our breakdowns on the whole unit - but we never had to handle another bale of hay after it was packaged. We also hand stacked the bales on pallets and ran the bales up hay elevators into trailers. You could probably also put them thru an accumulator. The entire system is for sale minus the sq baler as we sold the last small sq baler we had 2 weeks ago. WE replaced the entire system with a Steffen System Slicer. The unit will cost you $20,000! This inculdes electric control box, electic motor for baler, prep table for large bales, and unrolling/dethatching unit. I need to find a home for this unit!

 

We have been rebaling with some luck, but I'm shearing the bolts as you say. How were you fluffing the hay?

I may try a use this more in the future, because it allows for a little flexibilty which is helpful.

 

rebaling takes a lot of pressure out of our lives. when we were using rd bales, #1. rd balers are a lot faster and more dependable than most sq bale operations, #2 with net wrap on your bales, they can take a small amount of dew or even a small shower before going to the barn, but try that on 5000 sq bales spread across the field, #3 rebaling allows you to purchase cheaper packages from other farmers and rebale them thus adding a value added commodity to your farm operation.
We use a high rpm flail that takes the sheet of hay comming from the "peel" off the rd bale and dethaches it. Works well and hasn't broken yet. even though we bought some hay out of OK last year that had fist sized rocks in it and several mesquite fenceposts the size of your leg in them. They didn't go through the baler real good. :.)

 

Slighty used bandit on e-bay. He's so proud of it he doesn't even mention it by name. search 2007 john deere 348. 60k, what a bargain.
HaHa

 

There was six for sale on tractor house on fri. Today there's eight, wonder why that could be.

 

I bought a used bale bandit 3 years ago. I'm a small part time hay producer and wasn't making any money selling round bales. I knew there was a market for small sq. in my area but I also did not want to rely on hired help.
The accumulator and hay grab method did not appeal to me either. I needed a way to make approx. 10-15 thousand small sq. a year by myself. The bale bandit seemed the way to go so 3yrs ago I bought one and I have to say I wouldn't still be doing this without one. When everything is going well I can put up 2000 bales and get them picked up and in the shed in a day by myself. Those are the days I love my bale bandit. However, there are days (mostly when I first bought it) I hate it. Most farmers are pretty fair mechanics and the bale bandit is no challange there. Most farmers are not so savy when it comes to electronics and that is where the bale bandit can bite you, it sure has me. Iv'e spent more than a few hours trying to figure out why something don't work then call GFC and 5 minutes later am rolling again. The people at GFC have been great to work with they can walk you through any problem. If I had all this to do over again I would have taken the training course at GFC and saved myself alot of frustration the first 2yrs. Yes, it took me that long before I figured out how to troubleshoot this machine on my own and quite a few phone calls to GFC. If you buy a bale bandit TAKE the course, don't make my mistake it will save you the frustration that I and I suspect others have felt because once I understood the machine it is now so easy. This machine has cost me approx. 500.00 dollars in parts in three yrs that I owned it. Truckers love the package and so do my regular customers. I can load a semi in 30 min. This machine makes me a profit I wouldn't otherwise have.

 

Really funny and innovative bargain.

What does that mean?

 

not sure how he can claim patent infingment

is it because the strapping machines he copied were not pulled behind a hay baler?

 

We looked at the Bale Baron. It is a very nice machine and its what I want. THe manufacturer is also in a lawsuit with GFC and cannot market the machine here. We have been very tempted to find us a "friend" in canada to get around it. I love the idea of using hesston knotter, which I use every day, twine i use everyday, simple turn table that won't catch strings and idiot electronics that even I can probably troubleshoot. The more I talk to people the more I find out the machine isn't the problem, its the guy behind it.

we had a bale baron and it had a seat welded on it and the computers are very very compex way more then the bandit they have a computer box on the baron you could sleep in
the barons bundles fall apart beacuse you cant make the strings go tight enough to compinsate for the hay shrink

we had the bandit and the baron in the same feild and we bought the bandit hands down for more simple and proven we do 750 acers of hay and another 500 of straw evry year for the last ten with bandits and they have never left hay in the feild yet and yes you have to be a operater to run one and be machanically inclined beacuse if you need someone to hold your hand the hole time it is no wonder you get nothing done and the bandit cant cut the bale strings beacuse the strapping is cupped away from the strings if you have any more questions or concerns about the bandit let me know beacuse i will atest to the way they work the prof is in the pudding