"Jeeptor" Great For Moving Round Bales

Jeeptor Great For Moving Round Bales HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 19-5-2 Delbert Cate's big bale hauler has the comfort of a pickup and the power of a tractor. He built it out of a Jeep pickup fitted with tractor and combine tires. It features a dual-purpose hydraulic lift system he made from scratch. "I use my `Jeeptor' to move 700 5 by 6-ft. bales a year," says the Riceville, Tenn., farmer. "It has a lot of advantages over moving bales with the Deutz tractor and homemade fork lift I used before. For example, there are no starting problems with the gasoline engine in winter. I stay dry and warm in the cab during winter and I can haul bales on the road at up to 30 mph, compared with 13 or 14 mph with the tractor. That's a big plus because I have to haul some bales up to a mile from my place." Cate used a 1978 3/4-ton Jeep 4-WD pickup equipped with a 360 cu. in. V-8 engine and 4-speed transmission. He bought it from a farmer for $700, then stripped the bed off. He replaced the Jeep's rear axle with a heavier one off an old GMC 1 1/2-ton truck. The GMC's axle has a low, 6:6 gear ratio, necessary to keep the big rear combine and front tractor tires in synch. To replace the truck's tires with 14.9 by 26-in. combine tires, Cate made an adapter plate out of an old truck rim to match up the combine rims with the truck's 6-lug rims. Front tires are 18.1 by 16-in. flotation tires off a tractor. Like the combine tires on the rear, they help prevent the rig from tracking up fields during winter, Cate notes. However, to mount the front wheels on the Jeep's axle took some doing, he adds. "It was the hardest part of the project," he says. "I took the regular truck rim out and welded a center into the tractor rim so I'd have the same bolt pattern on the front and rear." Cate installed a lower geared transfer case out of a 1 1/2-ton 4-WD truck behind the Jeep's transmission so it would handle the larger rear end. To lift bales, Cate built a heavy-duty, dual-purpose loader. He made a 3-ft. wide by 4-ft. long A-frame that mounts behind the cab of the Jeep out of 4 by 6-in. and 4 by 4-in tubing. A pivot welds behind the cab to raise and lower a 4-ft. long bale spear, made of 3-in. dia. solid steel pipe, with a hydraulic system that's belt-driven off a pulley on the Jeep's crankshaft. Two hydraulic cylinders raise and lower the spear, which attaches and detaches from the loader with a pin. "When I don't need the spear, I can use it for other jobs with the 38-in. long forks off an old forklift. The forks fold out and lock in place on the end of the loader," Cate says. Front and back fenders Cate fashioned out of aluminum sheeting complete the `Jeeptor.' Altogether, Cate says he has about $1,500 invested in the project. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Delbert Cate, 1434 Co. Rd. 100, Riceville, Tenn. 37370 (ph 615-745-2404).

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