Agricultural harvesting machines and methods of operation thereof are disclosed herein. A harvesting machine includes a main frame (200), a drive mechanism (124), a plunger (220, 1120, 1720), and a linkage system. The drive mechanism (124) is coupled to the main frame (200) and has at least one crank arm (218, 218', 1118, 1118', 1718, 1718') that is rotatable about a crank arm axis (CA, CA', CA"). The plunger (220, 1120, 1720) is movable along a longitudinal axis (LA) in a compression chamber (226) between a de-stroked position (450) and a stroked position (652) that is located rearward of the de-stroked position (450) along the longitudinal axis (LA). The linkage system couples the plunger (220, 1120, 1720) to the main frame (200).
