SP Bale Unroller Built From Old Car

SP Bale Unroller Built From Old Car HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 20-1-34 "It works great for transporting and feeding high-moisture round silage bales inside my dairy barn," says Pierre Lafrance, Sarsfield, Ontario, about the self-propelled bale unroller he made out of a 1981 Chevrolet Chevette car. The unroller has a hinged turntable that pivots 90 degrees forward or backward and has a threaded steel spear in the middle. The operator stands on a steel platform on one side of the machine. To operate the unroller, Lafrance tilts the turntable backward to spear a bale. He then tilts the turntable for-ward to raise the bale off the ground and drives into his tie-stall barn where he rotates the bale to feed it out. If the bale is frozen or hard to unroll, a hydraulically-operated, side-mount arm is used to peel hay off the bale as it rotates. After he's done unrolling hay into the feed alley, he uses a fork to push the loose hay in front of the cows. "I think the same idea would work with any car or even a pickup. A 4-WD model would be ideal because it could go almost anywhere. A front wheel drive car would probably work better than my rear wheel drive model." He stripped the car down, keeping only the front suspension, steering gear, engine, automatic transmission, and rear end. He built a newer, shorter frame out of 2-in. sq. tubing, and then removed the driveshaft, direct-coupling the differential to the trans-mission. The turntable with threaded spear mounts on a hinge at the back of the frame. It's powered by a hydraulic motor that's driven by a hydraulic pump belt-driven off the engine. He repositioned the steering system and mounted a U-joint on the steering shaft in order to bring it up vertically to the car's steering wheel. He also made up new shifter linkages, a brake pedal, and a gas pedal. A 3-lever valve next to the steering wheel is used to operate the hydraulics. There are three hydraulic cylinders - one to tilt the turntable, one to rotate it, and one to operate the side-mounted arm. "The car's 4-cyl. gas engine has plenty of power and the automatic transmission lets me drive slowly," says Lafrance. "My 4 by 4-ft. silage bales weigh about 1,000 lbs., although I've also used it with 4 by 5 dry hay bales." Lafrance used 1/8-in. sheet metal to make the turntable and welded a 1/2-in. dia. steel rod around it for reinforcement and so that the edges wouldn't be so sharp. He used a 2-in. dia. steel shaft to make the spear and welded steel bracing onto the turntable. The spear is supported by two pillow block bearings. To make the spear's "thread" he bent 1/4-in. dia. steel rod around the spear and spot welded it on. The turntable's hinge is formed by a steel pin that goes through two pieces of flat steel and a square steel bar. He used 2-in. sq. steel to make the side arm's frame. The hinge is formed by a round steel shaft that rotates inside a 2-in. dia. steel pipe. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Pierre Lafrance, 2553 Dunning Rd., Sarsfield, Ontario, Canada K0A 3E0 (ph 613 833-3259).

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