2025 John Deere 338 Small Square Baler

Full-width feeding pickup

The pickup teeth and narrow, flanged strippers extend to the flare on both sides of the pickup. This enables full, usable pickup width for feeding wide windrows.

Closely-spaced pickup teeth gather all of the hay in wide, heavy windrows.

Narrow-channel strippers positioned closely together help preserve leaves and short material to add more quality to the bale.

The pickup is 188-cm (74-in.) wide on flare and offset 25.4 cm (10 in.) to the right of the bale case.

• The full width of the pickup can be utilized without the tractor tires operating on the windrow.

The belt drives used to power the pickup are virtually trouble-free and eliminate the need for slip clutches.

Adjustable hay compressor

The adjustable hay compressor mounts to and floats with the pickup and helps to maintain the same relationship to the pickup teeth at all operating heights.

The hay compressor also controls hay for continuous positive delivery to the auger.

The hay compressor is adjustable to nine positions to maintain positive control of hay in either large and heavy or light and fluffy windrows.

It can easily be removed with two spring pins for access to the auger or feed opening.

Deep-flighted auger feeding

The deep-flighted auger continuously moves hay away from the pickup to the pre-compression chamber:

• Adds to the overall capacity
• Produces higher-quality hay
• Allows minimal crop contact with pickup teeth, which minimizes leaf loss

The free-floating auger raises or lowers to match and maintain control of incoming crop.

Hay turns in the tapered auger housing, which enables the feeder forks to fold each charge as it enters the bale case to produce uniform bales. The crop is pre-compressed for better bale uniformity.

The auger system has few moving parts for less wear and less chance of untimely breakdowns.

• Close to 50-cm (19.7-in.) diameter rotor for high inertia and feeding capacity.
• Hardox® wear plate material (similar to R-Series) to provide a long lifespan and high resistance to foreign objects (Hardox wear plate tines provide 80 percent or more resistance versus traditional S700 grade steel).
• Three tines per turn (instead of two on G-Series RotoFlow HC)
• Tines fully enclosing the tube (instead of spikes on G-Series RotoFlow HC), giving higher tine resistance and longer component lifetime
• 0/13 knives engagement from the display. No need to leave the cab to manage knives.
• 80-mm (3.1-in.) knife spacing when all knives are engaged, a standard cutting length that gives a good compromise between crop quality and power consumption.
• Heavy-duty knives thanks to the double hardening and tempering treatment. Crops are perfectly cut for long, requiring less fuel consumption and sharpening operations.
• Individually spring-loaded knives to avoid component damages when grabbing foreign objects. Compared to a shear bolt or full-set hydraulic system, this technology limits the effort on the knives and/or provides non-stop safety.

MaxiCut HC 25 Premium provides high-quality fine chopped crops

For enhanced forage quality or for special application (poultry bedding, fruits, and vegetables application), MaxiCut HC 25 Premium can be assembled on R-Series Balers.

As with the RotoFlow HC Premium or MaxiCut HC 13 Premium, this fine chop precutter features:

• Close to 50-cm (19.7-in.) diameter rotor for high inertia and feeding capacity.
• Hardox wear plate material (similar to R-Series) to provide a long lifespan and high resistance to foreign objects (Hardox wear plate tines provide 80 percent or more resistance versus traditional S700 grade steel).
• Three tines per turn (instead of two on G-Series RotoFlow HC).
• Tines fully enclosing the tube (instead of spikes on G-Series RotoFlow HC), giving higher tine resistance and longer component lifetime.

The fine-chop precutter function offers additional features such as

Accurate knotters

Knotters driven by shaft and gears provide a positive drive for dependable and accurate functioning.

The timing of knotters and needles is easy:

• Remove one bolt and match the gears
• Timing slot enables easy positioning of the plunger

The tucker finger holds the twine over the billhooks during the tying cycle:

• Eliminates twine finger
• Reduces the chance of twine damage
• Notch controls the twine position over the billhook for improved knotter function
• Ball-joint-style pull links ensure accurate adjustment

The twine knife is made of surgical-quality steel and can be easily unbolted for sharpening or replacement.

The adjustable edge on the wiper arm allows an easy, accurate adjustment to the billhook.

The positive meshing of knotter gears is easily maintained with spring pins and washers on the needle lift shaft.

The large-diameter needle-lift shaft increases strength for reliable operation.

The split-design knotter frame enables easy removal, without disassembly of the entire mechanism.

A coil-type tension spring on the twine holder enables easy adjustment and improved performance.

The twine disk timing is easily accomplished without removing the pinion gear.

Making adjustments is easy when changing from multi-twine billhooks to sisal-twine billhooks.

The billhook cam track is a separate hardened part that can be replaced independently from the knotter frame, which reduces repair costs.

Hydraulic bale tension available

The hydraulic bale tension permits easy adjustment of bale density to meet crop variations and desired bale weight:

• Hydraulic cylinders replace springs that would typically control the density of the bale
• Exerts constant and uniform pressure on each bale
• Easy to use
  • One knob controls the tension applied to the bale
• By increasing the tension, the bale weight also increases

Uniform bales

Hay is uniformly distributed into the bale case, which produces easy-to-handle bales and bales that stack well.

Feeder forks can be adjusted to five positions to match the feeding requirement to the hay conditions.

Forks are spring loaded for protection and are timed independently of knotters.

Quiet, dependable operation

The plunger head runs on three precision roller bearings located in the high-load area:

• Provides quiet operation
• Minimum wear

The compression charge is on the downstroke of the pitman arm to help eliminate slapping of the plunger head. 

The pitman is offset to the right (knife side) where the load is heavier to further minimize wear.

A lubrication fitting on the pitman arm provides easy access for lubrication to the wrist pin.

A safety stop is positioned to stop the plunger head at the crank to eliminate possible damage to the plunger head face.