Bale wagon modifications ? string tie ?

mardi 10 mai 2016

Hi Guys,

I am in Australia, make about 4000 bales and buy in another 4000 bales for the horse farm we have.

I am using a 1036 bale wagon (2 wide). Works really well. Thinking of modifying a little because bales are bit too heavy for staff and interested in people thoughts.

Purchased hay is delivered on flat top truck in 'Grab packs' of 15 bales. (3 x 5 strings down) This suits our operation nicely. We use a forklift and grab to unload and distribute around the farm.

When making our own hay because of the wagon only being 2 wide I made the bales fairly long. Problem . . . heavy to lift. Next year I would like to make them just under 3ft long but still use the 1036 bale wagon.

Has any modified a 2 wide wagon to accommodate 3 bales? Looks pretty straight forward. widen the 2nd and 3rd table slightly and I am done. The tie function is where I run into trouble. I would prefer to tie a string around each pack and just have the hay stacked all the one way. This would suit later when transporting grab packs around the farm. Would like to automate the tie similar to the Kuhn's tie grabber, or use a plastic strapping machine. Has anyone done this? Thoughts?

The bale wagon suits because I am a one man show. My bobcat isn't big enough for a grab. tractor is too small to fit front end loader and grab.

Would like to modify the bale wagon rather than buy, larger bobcat, additional grab, 3 hay trailers, accumulator, and find additional labor.