"Hay Monster" Built Out Of 2-Ton Truck, Combine

"Hay Monster" Built Out Of 2-Ton Truck, Combine BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 22-3-44 "As our hay hauling business grew over two years, we found we could no longer keep up using flatbed trailers and trucks so we built this self-propelled bale wagon that will haul up to 300 bales per hour," says 18-year-old Nathan Schnake who, along with three friends and his dad, Roger, used various truck and combine parts to put together what they call a "hay monster". The design incorporates ideas from several commercial self-propelled rigs the innovators looked at. They started with a 1972 Ford 2-ton truck that had been used as a fertilizer spreader. They stripped the truck down to its frame and discarded its blown engine. The 14-ft. truck bed was lengthened by 12 ft. with channel iron. They purchased a 330-cu. in. V-8 Ford truck engine from a salvage yard and mounted it in the center underneath the truck bed. An International 403 combine that the Schnakes owned provided a cab and rotating cleaning screen for the machine. The cab and controls mount on the left side of the hauler "There was a lot of trial and error in matching the combine controls to the truck engine," Schnake notes. "Because of the location of the engine, the truck's 5-spd. transmission is real close to the rear of the wagon and has only a 16-in. driveshaft. So the biggest challenge was getting the gear shifter to work properly. We used a complex linkage from the cab to transmission to solve the problem." The 2-ton truck radiator, which mounts on the right side of the wagon, is fitted with the rotating screen off the combine to keep straw and trash from building up on it. The men built a 3-ft. wide by 10-ft. long bale chute and conveyor out of scrap metal and mounted it in the center of the bed. A single #80 roller chain, with spikes welded on to grab bales, runs up the center of the chute, which is equipped with castor wheels off a cultivator on each side. The chute and conveyor feed bales to two #60 roller chains running in tracks the length of the bed. Height of the chute is controlled hydraulically. It raises up vertically for transport. The conveyor chains are also hydraulic driven. All three conveyor chains turn on sprockets taken off the IH combine. Top speed of the rig is 40 mph down the road and maximum capacity is 300 small square bales. One or two people stand on back to stack bales. "However, we've found that 200 bales is ideal for maximum efficiency since we don't have to stack bales so high," Schnake says. "We handled 43,000 bales with it last season and put 350 hours on it with no problems." Partners in Schnake's bale hauling business are Rick Moenkhoff and brothers Jarrod and Jeremy Meyer. Out-of-pocket expense was about $3,500. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Nathan Schnake, Rt. 1, Box 142B, Stotts City, Mo. 65756 (ph 417 285-3231 or 6931).

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