Machine Unloads And Stacks 18 Bales In Three Minutes

Machine Unloads And Stacks 18 Bales In Three Minutes BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 23-6-8 Custom hauling big hay bales is a sideline business for Kevin Brown, Beach, N. Dak., so he needs to be able to do it quickly and without a lot of effort. The welder and repair shop operator put together a bale-hauling system centered around a built-from-scratch goose-necked lowboy trailer and a modified Deere 544 payloader. Brown's 28-ft. long bale hauler has a 9-ft. wide self-unloading bed on it. The bed sits on the axles, between the wheels, so overall width of the trailer is 10 ft. 8 in. It holds 15 5-ft. wide bales and 18 of the smaller 4-ft. round or big square bales. Since he built the trailer in 1992, he's hauled more than 30,000 bales. "Most of the time, I'm hauling less than 5 miles, but sometimes the distance is more than 25 miles," he says. To build the trailer, he started with side rails he made from 1/2-in. thick sheet metal, which he had bent for him in two angles. "The side rails provide the stability for the trailer and also make a track for the push-off bar to run on," he says. Brown used 2 by 6-in. sq. steel tubing for stringers and then put on a floor of 1/8-in. thick sheet steel. He fashioned the gooseneck out of 8 by 4-in. steel I-beam, which he reinforced by welding 1/2-in. flat iron onto it. The push-off unloader is pulled by 5/8-in. steel cable wound on 6-in. drums on both back corners. These are powered by an orbital hydraulic motor which he geared down three times. "I ran cable from both sides of the push-off bar, so I could unload and then, by reversing the motor, move the bar back to the front of the trailer. It takes 3 minutes to unload the trailer and 3 minutes to run the bar back to the front," he says. Loading is a breeze, too, with the modified Deere 544 payloader. "When I built the trailer, I intended to add an arm with a grapple fork so I could load as I pulled it through the field. But I had modified this payloader so it has two independently controlled grapple forks on it. It worked so well and loading is so fast that I gave up on the loading arm," he says. He keeps track of loading time, which varies according to terrain and density of the bales. If the bales are close together, though, he can load it in less than 10 minutes. Brown built the grapple forks from old toolbar shanks. "I straightened them a little, and they work great," he says. With two forks, he can load two bales per trip. "With smaller bales, I can often pick up three at once. That makes loading a lot faster," he tells. "I haul the loader on the trailer to the field and then leave it there until I'm done. It usually requires a trip back to get it, but I figure it saves enough time in loading that I can do that," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kevin Brown, Box 301, Beach, N. Dak. 58621 (fax 701 872-3410).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.