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Front-Mount Kubota Bale Spear
When Robert Thomas bought a Kubota M6800 tractor he wanted to use it to haul round bales out of the field. Instead of spending thousands for a front-mount bale hauler, he built his own that makes use of a commercial 3-pt. bale spear.
"My total cost was about $450 so I saved a lot of money," says Thomas, of Buffa
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Front-Mount Kubota Bale Spear BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 27-6-28 When Robert Thomas bought a Kubota M6800 tractor he wanted to use it to haul round bales out of the field. Instead of spending thousands for a front-mount bale hauler, he built his own that makes use of a commercial 3-pt. bale spear.
"My total cost was about $450 so I saved a lot of money," says Thomas, of Buffalo, Texas. "It has about 24 in. of lift. I use it to haul bales out of the field and to feed our cows. By adding a bale on back of the tractor I can haul two bales at a time."
The bale lift mounts on the tractor's front bumper. Thomas welded 8-in. long steel plates onto both sides of the frame. A pair of stabilizer bars and Cat. I 3-pt. forged lift arms extend forward from the plates. A steel bar bolts on crosswise between the lift arms and supports a 3 by 8-in. hydraulic cylinder. The upper end of the cylinder attaches to a big steel guard that bolts to the bumper. The top end of the bale spear pins onto a steel bracket that splits and goes around both sides of the cylinder and hinges onto both sides of the guard.
Retracting the cylinder raises the bale spear; extending it lowers the spear to ground level.
"It lets me pick up bales on-the-go without even slowing down," says Thomas. "After lowering the bale spear I stab the bale and then retract the cylinder to lift the bale up off the ground. The bracket that's welded on the bumper and supports the cylinder has multiple holes in it, so if I want I can use a different size cylinder.
"Hydraulic hoses run from the cylinder back to the tractor's remote outlets, allowing me to use the existing hydraulic control levers inside the cab."
According to Thomas, the critical part of the design is the area where the cylinder hooks onto the cross bar, between the stabilizer arms. "It has to be rigid in order to evenly support the weight of the bale," notes Thomas.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Thomas, RLT Ranch, 6473 CR 327, Buffalo, Texas 75831 (ph 903 626-4113).
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