Bale Loader Rolls Off Back Of Pickup

Bale loader rolls off back of pickup HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 14-6-16 "I was tired of handling round bales with a tractor in the cold of winter so I built this pickup bale mover that lets me load and unload big bales without getting out of the truck. It's the best piece of equipment I've ever built," says R.W. Cupps, Santa Anna, Tex. His ingenious bale mover uses a firstof-its-kind rolling mechanism to maneuver bales in and out of the pickup bed. "I mounted an 11 gpm hydraulic pump in place of the air conditioning compressor, driving it with the fan belt. The fluid reservoir also mounts under the hood. A control rod runs from the pump through the firewall to the dash. "Two 2 by 6-in. lengths of channel iron run the length of the pickup bed with cross members to brace them. The bale rack slides into these channels. A 3-in. dia. steel roller mounts across the back of the pickup just above the bumper. A single hydraulic cylinder attaches to the 4-prong hay rack, anchored to the front cross member at the front of the pickup box. It pushes the hay fork out the back of the pickup to load a bale, then pulls it back in. When the bale is in the pickup the forks point straight up, holding the bale vertically over the rear axle. "The advantage of using the roller assembly is that the bale rack is held in place by just one bolt on the hydraulic cylinder. This makes the rack easy to remove to haul other cargo. If you need to remove the channel iron track, just six bolts hold it in place. "One big benefit of this pickup bale handler is speed. I've got a field about a mile from my hay storage area. It takes just 9 min. to load a bale, haul it to the stack, unload it and return to the field for another bale." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, R.W. Cupps, HCR 78, Santa Anna, Tex. 76878 (ph 915 348-3025).

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