Vicon 1520 or 1511 Balers

[bshaw2]

Does anyone have any comments about the Vicon balers? These ones, and the PMI balers seem to be in my price range. These are pricing around the $6500 to $9000 range and for myself where I would bale about 200 bales of hay and straw a year would be just about right.

Comments please (and thank you)

[cowman]

I'm not sure about the model numbers but a lot of the Vicon balers were made by New Idea. They were a soft core baler and fairly low tech. With a crop saver bar they would bale dust! Very dependable and run forever. I had a 484 New Idea and it was a great little baler. Pack it down for aways after the monitor beeps and it made a really solid bale. I baled about 1200 bales a year for ten years and never put anything on it but pickup teeth. Because it was a soft core you could bale hay/straw tough and it never spoiled.

[dfarms11]

I have the 1511e pmi, it works great. The only problem I've had is with the actuator on the tying arms. I had to replace the gears in it. other than that it basically works trouble free. A word of note when baling straw. It will bale any type of straw, however if dry, sometimes I have problems getting the bale out of the baler. I think that is a setting problem though since it has just become a problem the past 2 years. We normally would bale around 1000 bales a year with little problem. For the price range you cant really complain.

[TJM]

If you are putting up only 200 bales a year, would you not be farther ahead to have it custom done? It would depend on the availability of a reliable outfit and the price per bale. It shouldn't cost more than 6 - 7 $ a bale ( figures from what we charge ); the bales should be of better quality and you could concentrate on getting the crop cut on time and hauled of the field right behind the baler. At the cost of parts today, fuel and who knows what else can happen, $1200 - $1400 sounds like a good business deal. Just my thoughts. Good luck with your decision.