Delmhorst FX-2000 and the 1986 Baler Sensor John Deere 567

After spending what felt like a ridiculous amount of time trying to determine why the moisture sensor that came with my recently purchased Delmhorst FX-2000 moisture monitor wouldn't work, we finally have it installed and the baler maintenance for the year is completed.  I received the extension kit but even that needed to be modified to make it work.  Since I couldn't find any information about installing the Delmhorst moisture sensor into a John Deere large round baler about how to make it actually work, we created a video of the installation to help anyone else who may try it. 

Why Put Off Until Tomorrow - Or Next Winter

I don't think it's any secret that I'm not big on spending money.  Whenever I can I try to do what is needed and what is efficient but no more than that, which is why it's a good thing that I married Sharon or I might be living in a plywood house about now.  Maintenance is one of those things that I have to force myself to do all the way.  By all the way I mean, do them when needed, even if they'll probably hold or work for most or all of the next season.  During this winter's maintenance I felt like I was nickle and diming myself into poverty.  The baler was out of spec here and there because parts were stretched, bent, or just not working.  The tractor was missing little things here and there and needed every filter and fluid changed.  No part was outrageously expensive, although many of the parts were expensive for what little material they are, but everyday seemed like I needed to run for another part.  That's tough for me.  Can't I live with the baler gate bouncing open a little from stretched latches?  Or will a bad bearing really impact the twine wrap if the front metering spool doesn't turn without a lot of pressure on it?  How about that small leak in the tractor radiator?  Can't I just keep the radiator topped off before each use?  In the end I have to say no I can't live with those small problems.  Each one of them could lead to downtime or poor quality and I have to put everything right.  A great example was the tractor radiator.  We had just finished flushing and putting fresh coolant into the radiator and after bringing the tractor up to temp my brother said hey, look there's steam coming up from under the hood.  I looked up under there and sure enough there was a wet spot on the radiator.  We agreed that a hole that small shouldn't be a problem.  I could get that fixed at the end of next year.  But that night I thought no I really need to get that fixed.  Why would I wait til I have a major issue or until next year.  Long story short, I asked the guy how repaired it if it was a big leak.  "Oh yeah, the hotter it got the worse the leak would have been" he told me.  I'll really have to keep that in mind the next time I'm tempted to let it go until the next maintenance cycle.

This years winter equipment maintenance that we do in my brother Tim's shop seems to be taking forever.  We started with our John Deere 567 round baler.  A couple seasons ago I noticed that the slip clutch was locked tight and wasn't slipping when it should have.  The slip clutch protects the baler from breaking parts when the baler encounters a jam.  I noticed that when I encountered a jam the belts would jam but the baler kept going.  Not good!  During last winter's equipment maintenance we freed the slip clutch but then again we had a performance issue during this 2010 season where the clutch slipped too much and toward the end of the hay season I was spending too much time unblocking jams in the baler.  Long story short, we ended up taking the slip clutch apart and sure enough, the slip clutch parts were bad.  Once this was fixed we continued going through the baler in serious detail and anything that we found out of spec was correct.  It seems like we are at Deere every weekday picking up some small part here and some sub part there.  Sharon is talking about running the numbers on the hay again to see how much profit is left after all of this "preventative" maintenance.  I also decided this year to replace my Farmex moisture tester with a Delmhorst moisture tester, and to integrate it into my JD 567 round baler.  Easier said than done it would seem.  I'm not sure if I'm the first one to do this, or the first one that Delmhorst tech support has encountered.  After posting lots of pictures and information onto farm chat forums and coming up with a goose-egg, I resorted to calling someone who uses the same moisture tester in a chem applicator on the JD 567.  They knew what I needed and soon after Delmhorst tech support called and let me know that they also saw what my problem was and contacted me with their solution.  So now I wait for the part that is guaranteed to solve my problem to arrive by UPS.  While waiting we moved the 567 out and pulled the JD 4440 tractor in for its winter maintenance.  That is still in process and I think I found a leak in the radiator.  I'll be going up to Tim's shop with George to pull the front hood off to take a closer look this morning.  There are a few more items on the list for the 4440 but the radiator maybe an unexpected issue that leads to other things.  Better now than in the field while I'm baling is what its all about.