Shop-Built Bale Unroller Sturdier Than Commercial

Shop-Built Bale Unroller Sturdier Than Commercial BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 22-6-13 "I've used it for several years to feed 1,600 to 1,800 5 by 6-ft. round bales a year and it's held up much better than the commercial 3-pt. model I patterned it after," says Roger Swanson who built a heavy-duty bale unroller to fit his front end loader. The Salmon, Idaho, farmer started by building a mounting bracket out of 3/8-in. thick, 6-in. angle iron that quick-taches to the Model 200 Ezee-On front end loader he uses on his Deere 2940. He made a 4 1/2-ft. long main spear out of 2 3/8-in. dia. cold rolled steel and three smaller, 1 1/2-ft. long spears out of 1 1/2-in. dia. cold rolled steel. The main spear mounts at the center of a 1/2-ft. dia. rotating plate made out of 3/8-in. thick plate, while the three smaller spears weld at equidistant spacings near the edge of the plate. The main spear does not rotate when unrolling a bale. A sprocket welded to the back of the plate is chain driven off a small hydraulic orbit motor. It turns the three small spears to unroll the bale. A cushion valve installed in the hydraulic line between the orbit motor and tractor prevents the possibility of damaging the motor as bales are unrolled. The apparatus turns very slowly, Swanson notes. "You can spin part of a bale off along fence mangers or you can spin a whole bale off into big bale feeders," he says. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Roger Swanson, Rt. 1, Box 45, Salmon, Idaho 83467 (ph 208 756-2406).

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