I have a new hollland 276 square baler, was working fine, up until a couple years ago. The problem with it is that it is inclined to 'bow' or banana the bales as they are coming out the back of the baler; standing at the back of the baler, the bales bow off to the left hand side. The problem seems to be that there isnt enough hay/straw being picked and thrown over to the left hand side of the chamber to keep the bale in shape, is this correct? I have tried moving the extreme left feeding fork over into the left hand side of the chamber as far as it will go, but it makes no difference. Bales are still inclined to banana. Any advice in regard to what could be wrong?

I currently own two NH 276 balers. I like them better than any other baler I have run. The stokes per minute are higher on this baler than the newer ones. It will out bale a NH316 or JD 336.

In wheat straw loading wagons( stacking not a thrower wagon) behind the baler I have put 275 bales an hour on the wagons for a whole after noon. It was a nice long field and windrows from a 20 foot combine head.

Things for you to do:

1) Check the resticters on both sides of the bale case. I run three sets all of the time.

2) Check the side play on the plunger. I have seen a bad plunger roller cause banana bales.

3) Make nice big windrows. These balers bale better if you keep them full.

4) Like the others have stated. You move the adjustable feeder fingers AWAY from the chamber for more hay on the opposite side.

These things should get you back to having good square bales. If not check how the hay is being raked. Many times one side of the windrow will have most of the hay in it and the other just the ends bent over. Walk across the windrow and see if it seems to compress evenly across the whole width. Had that happen to me when we started to rake with a wheel rake years ago. Had the rake set too narrow and one side had more hay in the windrow than the other. Made getting a good square bale hard even with the round baler.

When my grandfather bought one, the salesman told him with a good windrow and big enough horse he could keep a bale in the air at all times. He proved it with the 786 one day my uncle's in-laws wanted to stack their wagons with rain coming.

55Deere70 is correct. When standing at the back of the baler and looking at the tine bar, move the left hand tines to the right. This enables the left hand tines to take a larger 'bite' of hay and fill the left hand side of the bale.

Make sure your chute wedges are in good shape also.
John

I put an extra feeder fork on my 'old' 283.It was between the left and center.A vast improvement in bale quality.

New Holland manual says to move the left feeder fork away from the chamber to increase the hay in the left side of the bale. Theory is that it will move a larger amount of hay into the chamber with each stroke. Kind of opposite of what you would think.

I had exact same problem and found that it likes to be crowded. Keep the sindrow on the far right so it gets pretty crowded as it goes into the chamber. Bigger windrows are better for the New Holland. I have since bought and fixed a JD 214ws and it makes perfect bales for me no matter what kind of windrow I feed it.