# New Holland 489 roller adjustment



## glinka (May 22, 2011)

I bought a used NH 489 haybine. Having a hard time figuring if the roller tension is enough. The book says it's shipped with 8 turns of pressure. How do you know where it is now? The rollers are apart, not touching, and don't seem to be crushing like I think they should. I am new to using a haybine.


----------



## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

On my 499 haybine, there are shims that you remove to set the actual spacing between the rollers and the crank in the back just sets the tension on the torsion bar that tries to keep the rollers pressed together as feed comes through. The rollers can move apart as the feed mat moves through, but the torsion bar is what keeps them pressing hard on the feed to condition it. I run mine at 15 turns in average alfalfa if I want to bale the hay and 6-8 turns if I want to chop it for haylage. The rollers should be about 3/32" apart IIRC (don't have my manual in front of me) and you remove or add shims to get that gap. The shims are at the ends of the rollers, bolted to the carriage that the lower roller is attached to. If you take a 2x4 and stick it in the rollers and roll it through by hand (I used a crescent wrench on the drive end of one of the rollers) it will open the gap between the rollers and let you add or remove shims. You'll see the shim pack there once you get the rollers opened up. Just make sure you have the tension all the way loose (zero turns) before trying to put the 2x4 in there. If you can't find it, I can snap some pics of my 499 and show you what I mean. The crank for adjusting the tension is on the rear right side of the unit on my 499.


----------



## glinka (May 22, 2011)

How do you know how much pressure is on the rollers? Does "zero turns" mean I back it off until it just feels free? Rollers look to be 1/8" apart now.


----------



## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

Zero turns would be when the lever is backed completely off and it won't turn anymore in the counter clockwise direction. Each turn in the clockwise direction is counted as a turn. From the factory, yours had eight turns in the clockwise direction from zero.


----------

