"Retractable Tine" Hay Fork For Big Square Bales

"Retractable Tine" Hay Fork For Big Square Bales BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 32-3-27 Stacking big square bales with a telehandler or front-end loader can be a tricky job, because as you load the bale on top of the stack and back away the bale often comes back, causing the stack to tip over. This new bale fork is equipped with hydraulic-operated, retractable tapered tines, allowing you to retract the tines from the bale before you back away. The bale fork has three tines attached to a moveable steel bar that can be extended or retracted up to 8 in. by a hydraulic cylinder that mounts on a separate bar. The operator loads the bale with the tines in the extended position and has the option of retracting the tines before backing away, greatly reducing the chance that the tines will stick in the bale and tip the stack as the operator backs away. The quick-tach bale fork was built by Solberg Welding, Harmony, Minn., for Wayne Wangsness who farms near Decorah, Iowa. He uses the bale fork on his JCB 530 telehandler. "It works great and lets me stack big square bales without any problems," says Wangsness. "It works better than other bale forks that push the bale off the tines, because with those units you have to be careful to back up at exactly the same speed that the bale is being pushed off." Solberg says he's willing to build the hay fork for others for an estimated price of $2,000. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Wayne Wangsness, 1869 Middle Ossian Rd., Decorah, Iowa 52101 (ph 563 532-9431; waynew@oneota.net or Dennis Solberg, Harmony, Minn. (ph 507 886-4602; solbergw@ mleaf.net; www.solbergwelding.net).

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