Reviews on Gehl 1310 Round Baler Serial number higher than 18500

[captmoo21]

Hello, I am a new member here to the community.  For the past month I have been reading posts concerning round balers, likes and dislikes.  I am trying to purchase my first round baler, I am pretty sure that I want a fixed chamber baler.  They seem to be simpler to operate, the downside is the soft bale.  I plan to make  300 to 400 bales of balage and 100 to 200 bales of dry cow/ heifer hay a year.  My budget is very low, so I am limited to older balers. I have found a gehl 1310 baler that will be in an auction this Saturday. I went and looked at it, the bearings are good, the oilier is working, the rolls look good and the front roller has the slats.  Now there is mixed reviews on this baler and its performance, but I have not seen anyone talk specifically about the bale that it makes.  I have called dealers in Ohio, and Wisconsin that have sold many of these balers. They have told me it makes a very good bale as long as you slow down when the pressure in the chamber nears capacity.  For my low budget ($4000) max., I don't expect a perfect bale, just something that holds shape while handling, and tight enough to make good quality baleage.  Also can these bales be unrolled down though the manger? Any information would be great.

Thanks.

[Pat in CMO]

Back in the early 80's Dad and uncle bought an OMC fixed chamber baler ( Identical to the Gehl If I'm correct). It was an ok baler as far as I remember. I didn't care for handling the soft bales though. Pretty much had to move the bales with a fork under them rather than a spike through the middle. Even though the exterior of the bale was fairly tight the would still sag quite a bit over time. I dlont know how you would acomplish unrolling if you cannot handle the bale through the middle.  Patrick

[Ianbeer]

I definitely would not consider a fixed chamber baler for making balage because the spoilage will be very high and they definitely won't hold their shape making them extremely difficult to handle. Making good balage requires a tight bale to eliminate as much air as possible in them. Gehl make, or at least made, an excellent baler back when I was doing a lot of haying. I owned a 1500 and later an 1850 baler and made tens of thousands of bales with them with very few mechanical problems. The best baler I've seen though for balage was a New Holland that a couple of my friends owned because they were designed for the job and even had a builtin cutter to help pack the hay tighter. You may save a few dollars buying a cheap baler but it won't be cheap if you end up with a lot of spoiled feed come winter time. JMHO of course. 🙂