• Vermeer 605xl Baler Specs

No solution yet, in fact it has gotten so bad that I can't even use it. I have tried the last two evenings and spent more time digging the plugs out of it than baling.

I baled 3 bales in 2 evenings because now it is packing it so tight that it starts twisting the belts. I have checked all of the adjustments on the pickup teeth and rollers, but nothing seems to help. It is literally packing more hay against the front wall of the baler than it is in the bale chamber. My patience is running thin and I am seriously considering trading it. It only has 3,845 on the monitor. I don't know whatelse to check. Could the belts being worn and causing the problem?

Thanks for all of the input, but so far still no luck in solving the mystery. I got a chance to look closer at what the baler was doing and saw that, as the hay is picked up and carried inward toward the drum roller, the belts are catching it and feeding it through what I call the spiral roller and the lower drive roller right above it.

I am theorizing that may be why the hay is packed against the front wall so tight. I actually removed the windguard and tried to push it down from above with my foot, and it was packed so tight that it wouldn't even budge. It is not like it accumulates a little trash as you go along and you have to stop and clean it out ever so often. It is packed tight before you get the first bale rolled. The only thing I have done to the baler lately is change the bearing on the aforementioned drive roller on the right side. Also, we are in a drought in this part of Texas, so most of the hay that I have baled this year has been extra dry with no problems and the reduced RPM's don't have any affect all.

I called two Vermeer service departments today and got nothing except an offer to sell me a $700 kit that he said would compensate for the RPM issue, but I don't see the point. There has got to be a reason why all of a sudden the hay is being pushed out between the two rollers instead of into the bale chamber? The problem continues. I have a 604 and it sounds like your belts are a little loose.

What I would do is pull them off and cut down to the correct length and reinstall with new lace. I have done this once on mine and it needs it again. Hay that is too dry or too wet is a problem in all balers. My neighbor has a New Holland and I have baled with it. Not too bad of a baler but it won't start a bale as easy as my Vermeer. He also has bent the stuffer several times with too tough of hay.

That is a job for a press and two guy's to remove it and install back. I my self would take the Vermeer over the New Holland.

February 19, 1984, Page 001071 The New York Times Archives When the Vermeer Manufacturing Company designed a new hay baler in 1972, it was considered a major breakthrough in agricultural technology. The 'big, round baler,' as it is known in the industry, made bundles of hay more than 10 times larger than those of previous machines, and instead of several operators, one worker could take on an entire field.

Other companies soon developed similar balers. But a new problem accompanied progress. Occasionally, the compression rollers of the balers, which work much like the wringers on an old washing machine in feeding freshly cut hay into the chamber where the bales are packed, became jammed. Most times, farmers cleared the blockage safely, but sometimes a farmer's arm was caught in the rollers and serious injuries and deaths resulted. 11 Deaths and 50 Injuries Vermeer's 'big, round baler' has caused at least 11 deaths and 50 injuries, according to the company.

It has resulted in about 25 lawsuits against the company. According to the Farm and Industrial Equipment Institute, a trade organization, the number of accidents involving the Vermeer machine was high, even in the context of a dangerous occupation. Most of the other companies stopped making this model sooner than Vermeer, and one recalled its machines and added a safety device. About 14 companies make big, round hay balers, according to the Farm and Industrial Equipment Institute, and industry officials said Vermeer, based in Pella, Iowa, makes about half of them.

Company's Record Faulted Vermeer's main competitors do not release their accident records, but engineers have testified in court that Vermeer's safety record is poorer than that of other companies. 'The difference,' said Paul Redfarn, a Kansas City lawyer, 'is that John Deere and these other companies made an effort to make their baler safe right away, but Vermeer said it wasn't their fault.' ' Jerry Peterson's story is typical of those who have been injured by the Vermeer baler. He was baling feed for the livestock on his 560-acre farm near Burke, S.D., two years ago when stalks got caught in the compression rollers.

Peterson got off the tractor and went back to unclog the mouth of the baler, just as he had done often in the four years he had owned it. But when he reached to push the stalks through the rollers, the stalks were pulled so quickly that his right arm also was drawn into the machine. For three hours Mr. Peterson was trapped while the friction created by the rollers slowly burned away the skin and bones of his arm. He did not bleed to death because the heat caused his blood to coagulate.

Finally Jammed Rollers Finally, Mr. Peterson broke a 30-inch tube off the baler, reached around the rollers with his left arm and jammed the gears with the tube. Advertisement His arm was gone to a point just above his elbow, and a few more inches had to be amputated.

'It's hard to imagine how fast those rollers are going,' Mr. Peterson said in a recent interview, 'until you are actually caught in them.' ' Agricultural engineers, called upon for testimony by lawyers representing many of the farmers who have sued Vermeer, say that because the rollers move faster than a person can react, a guard in front of the entry to the rollers is necessary. They say such a guard would not hamper the machine's performance. Company Says Baler Is Safe Vermeer representatives say the baler is safe and the injuries occur when the user is careless. That is also the judgment of engineers from Failure Analysis Associates of Palo Alto, Calif., which examines farm equipment and other machinery to determine their potential to malfunction. Vermeer and the engineers also say guards would slow the baling process and farmers would remove them to make their machines more productive.

'Hand-feeding these rollers is obviously not a safe thing to do,' said Ivan Brand, Vermeer's product safety director. Roger McCarthy, president of Failure Analysis, said, 'Saying something is unsafe because someone has done something careless with it is ridiculous.' Redfarn, a lawyer representing Duane Moran, who lost his left forearm in an accident with a Vermeer baler in 1979, disagrees. 'They're Not Being Told' 'These aren't careless people,' Mr. Redfarn said. 'Most of these guys have been around farm machinery all their lives. They feel they have an understanding of the machinery, and they have reason to.

The problem is that they're not being told. They have no way of knowing there's no reaction time, that it'll pull their hands in with the hay before they can let go.' ' The models with the compression rollers were made by Vermeer from 1972 until 1979, when a new one was designed. According to Mr. Brand, the new model, known as the open throat because it uses only one roller to churn materials into a larger opening, was designed for efficiency and not because the old model was unsafe.

Brand said there had been no reported deaths or injuries with Vermeer's open-throat baler. According to Failure Analysis, there were 1,276 farm fatalities in 1979, and 36 of those were hay-baling accidents, though there is no breakdown by company. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said there were 12.7 incidents of injury per 100 full-time agricultural workers in 1982, as against 7.6 for the total work force.

The bureau does not have separate statistics for baling accidents. The National Safety Council estimates there were 1,000 farm work deaths in 1982. Warning Stickers Sent Out. Advertisement Mr. Brand said Vermeer heard of the first accident with its baler in 1974 and sent out warning stickers to all owners of record in 1977, safety manuals in 1978 and another sticker in 1981. But most of those injured say they did not get the warning, or got it after an accident. Operator's manuals accompanying the balers listed general safety guidelines but did not address the hazards of the compression rollers.

Many of the balers were sold to 'farmer dealers,' who then sold them to other farmers, making communication of the hazard more difficult. John Deere's compression roller baler had a somewhat higher accident rate than Vermeer's in 1975, when it was first marketed.

But in 1976, as accidents mounted, John Deere recalled its balers and installed guards. Its accident rate then dropped from about one in 400 balers to about one in 9,000, according to Martin Robinett, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs against Vermeer. Wiley Poole, a retired professor of engineering at Louisiana State University, was asked to examine the Vermeer baler by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company of Boston, Vermeer's insurance company at the time, so he could testify for Liberty at a trial in which Vermeer was being sued by John Broussard of Lafayette, La. Poole told Liberty he thought a guard should be placed in front of the rollers. In subsequent trials, plaintiffs asked Mr. Poole to testify on their behalf. After the trial, in which Mr.

Broussard received $150,000 in an out-of- court settlement, Mr. Poole built a guard. He placed it on a Vermeer baler and said it worked well. Brand said Vermeer also tested the guard and found that it increased clogging and would therefore cause more injuries. Most Settled Out of Court About 20 of the 25 cases brought to trial were settled out of court.

Vermeer 605xl Baler Specs

The largest settlement was awarded Nov. 2 to Harlan Hanson, of Ryder, N.D., who lost both his arms and part of his left shoulder Sept. Hanson received $416,000 and will get more money each year of his life.

Peterson received $50,000 in his settlement. 'I thought I could get more,' he said. 'But times are bad, and I needed the money.' ' Three cases have been decided by a jury, two in favor of Vermeer and one in favor of the plaintiff, Ron Keller, of Karlsruhe, N.D., who lost his left arm and part of his left shoulder in an accident. Keller was awarded $800,000. All three of these cases are being appealed. Several others are pending.

Five different companies have insured Vermeer since 1972, with Vermeer changing companies to seek lower premiums. 'We just couldn't stay at a premium they could accept,' said Richard Zolty, of Maurice Saval Insurance Company, a subsidiary of American Universal Insurance Company, which insured Vermeer from 1975 to 1979. 'We're still paying losses from that policy, and we'll probably be paying for a long time.'