A baler including a flywheel driven by a PTO of a tractor, an input shaft which connects to the PTO, an output shaft which connects to the flywheel, an intermediate gear mounted for rotation between the input shaft and the output shaft, the intermediate gear being parallel to the input shaft and adapted to drive the output shaft, wherein the input shaft includes a displaceable geared collar adapted to engage the intermediate gear with either a first lower gear ratio or a second higher gear ratio. This allows the tractor PTO a lower ratio (speed) range to start the flywheel and then accelerate the flywheel to an intermediate speed before shifting and accelerating to the final desired operating speed.