Welger Baler Manual Ap 71
Today (possibly against my better judgement) I bought two Welger AP71 conventional balers. I tried hard to find out about these balers before buying but I could find very little information on the internet, so for the benefit of all and sundry I thought I would post my experiences here. They were advertised as one AP71 baler with another one for spare. Price $NZ3000 ($US2500) for the pair. I called the seller who explained the the spare baler was in good running order and the main baler had a broken needle and a worn gear. The bundle included enough spares to get the main baler going again plus some extras. So I drove for nearly two hours out into the back blocks of the King Country to peruse these two balers.
Spare parts for Welger balers: Rings, Bearings, Needles, Fingers, Shafts, Sleeves, Belts, Seals, Housings, Springs, Sprockets, Washer, Tensioner, Guides,Price. Welger AP71 Spare Parts List, Original Manual (PDF file catalog). Fully Printable (PDF file). eBay! Sep 13, 2018 - Sat, 01 Sep 2018 13:30:00. GMT presa welger ap 71 pdf - If looking for the book. Welger baler manual ap 71 in pdf format, in that case.
The seller was a 60ish farmer who was retiring. The farm was passing to his son and they were no longer making small bales. He spent plenty of time going over the running baler with me, we put 5 bales through it which it rebaled happily. Looking over the general build quality of the AP71 it certainly seemed heavier and better built than my B47 that it will replace.
The pick up is 1600mm wide compared to 1300mm on my B47. The knotters appear to be less complex to service and extremely easy to swap. It appears to be literally 2 bolts holding each knotter assembly in place.
This means it could be practical to carry a spare knotter with you and if one gives trouble in the field, simply swap it out for a good knotter and sort out the dodgy knotter later on. No messing with knotters in the field. This package deal came with at least two spare knotters, so this option will work well for me. My B47 knotter uses twine discs to hold the twine in place.
These discs have to be set just right in order for them to work. Something I wouldn't dare take apart myself. The Welger knotter seems to use a simple curved hook to hold the twine in place. Looks to be much less complicated and hopefully more reliable. Another nice feature on the Welger is that the pick up assembly can be raised and lowered from the tractor seat by pulling on a rope line attached to a ratcheting lever which moves the pick up assembly up and down.
Combined with the pull rope to unlock the drawbar it's now possible to change from transport to field without leaving the tractor seat, same again when you're finished in the field and heading back onto the road. The pickup and be raised or lowered from the tractor seat.
Welger Baler Parts
The tin work is in reasonable condition. There is some minor surface rust and a few spots where rust has eaten through completely. I'll get onto welding new patches into these once hay season is over (our hay season runs November to February). Towed it home behind my 1992 Mitsubishi Triton ute (2.5 litre diesel turbo).
A bit of a slow trip, max speed was 75 km/h so it took about 2.5 hours to get home. Made it ok without any incident. But I still need to make a return trip to collect the second baler. Brought home all the spares on this trip. Quite a collection. Spare drive shafts, chains, gears, knotters, shear bolts.
Also managed to get some manuals as well. Original operators manual in German. Still in good condition. An English manual was included, but it is in poor condition. A winter time task will be to scan the photos from the German manual and rekey in the English text to see if I can create a good quality manual in English.
Something that I haven't been able to find anywhere on the internet. There is also a manual for it's smaller brother the AP61. That's also in German, so I'll do the same thing.
If there happens to be someone reading this forum who can translate German to English and you're willing to help please make contact with me. I've tried a couple of dealers without success. However, through the glories of the inter web I found someone who has translated it for me. I've nearly finished re-typsetting the entire manual, so shortly I should have a reasonable quality english language operators manual for my AP71. I've bought a box lot of various Welger manuals from someone else, so will likely apply the same process to those manuals as well. Took my Welger out baling today for the first time.
It knocked out about 50 bales perfectly. I've didn't track my time, but it 'felt' like I was running at about twice the rate of my B47 and the Welger left a cleaner field due to the wider pickup. Baling was called off due to wind blowing over the windrows. I'll have another go early tomorrow morning when there is no wind. I'll to take a video of it in operation.
If anyone is after a Welger baler manual please get in contact with me, I've got a box full here to sort through.