Rebuilt bus makes great bale grabber

Rebuilt bus makes great bale grabber HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 13-1-7 "It works great," says Gerald Wick, Toivola, Minn., who converted an old bus into a bi-directional rig equipped with a "grabber" fork that can lift up to 21 conventional bales at a time. Wick designed the "Wick-Pick", as he calls it, to be compatible with the New Holland automatic bale wagon he uses in his commercial hay production business. Wick rebuilt the bus with dual controls that allow him to drive the bus at 55 mph. Booms, which he welded between the wheels of the frame, have a 20-ft. for-ward and vertical reach, are powered by a 42 gpm hydraulic pump driven by the bus's crankshaft. The booms support a 10 ft. wide by 8-ft. long grabber fork equipped with 60 curved teeth that can handle one tier of 18 or 21 conventional size bales per "bite." "It saves labor and lets me use all the space inside my hay sheds," says Wick. "My automatic bale wagon stacks are sheds are 131,2-ft. high while my sheds are 20 ft. high, leaving 6.1/2 ft. of wasted space under the roof. I use the Wick-Pick' to fill the shed to the rafters. I also use it to load and unload semi trailers. The only hand labor required in my bale handling system is when I restack bales on a semi trailer for tight packing, but I'm working on a system that will eliminate that labor, too." Wick says he got the idea for the "Wick-Pick" from Stan Steffen, Silverton, Ore., who designed a machine to handle 4-ft. square bales (featured in FARM SHOW Vol. 2, No. 3). "The only similarity between the two machines is in their loader arm design and bi-directional capability," says Wick. "The bi-directional design provides great maneuverability, visibility and traction." Power for the "Wick-Pick" is provided by the bus's 345 cu. in. diesel engine, the same one used in the 1972 International Loadstar 6800 bus. Wick removed the body of the bus and shortened the frame to a 9-ft. wheelbase, leaving the hood and dash intact. He made a new cab for the rig and added a second steering wheel to face the rear, installing boom control valves next to it. He also installed an extra accelerator and brake as well for "reversed" driving, as well as a 42 gpm crankshaft-driven hydraulic pump to power the boom. He added ballast to the front bumper to balance the load and also installed a 10-ft. wide hydraulic-controlled angle snowplow in front. The fork's curved teeth bite about 6 in. into each bale. "I can lift 18 bales that are 16 by 18 by 38-in. long, or 21 bales that are 14 by 18 by 32-in. long," notes Wick. "The basket rotates 130? so I can approach a stack `kitty corner' with the machine and still pick up bales at a 90? angle." There are seven hydraulic cylinders on the boom, including two for lifting, two for operating the "knuckles" on the arms, two for tilting the bale fork and one for rotating the fork sideways. Wick, who spent about $16,000 to build the rig, says he'd be willing to custom-build another one. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gerald Wick, Toivola, Minn. 55789 (ph 218 427-2121).

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