Multiple Bale Mover?

[RDFF]

Wondering what y'all have or have seen available in a 3 pt. multiple round bale mover. Post pics if you can too. I've seen lots of 2 wides, and some 3 wides... those get too wide to use on the road though. Any really "innovative" designs would be great to see. I found one post that said that he had an "AJ 3 bale with hydraulic wings"... but haven't found a website for that one in my searches so far.

 

[dcarp]

Wondering what y'all have or have seen available in a 3 pt. multiple round bale mover. Post pics if you can too. I've seen lots of 2 wides, and some 3 wides... those get too wide to use on the road though. Any really "innovative" designs would be great to see. I found one post that said that he had an "AJ 3 bale with hydraulic wings"... but haven't found a website for that one in my searches so far.

Why not just buy a 3 pt trailer hitch and then buy any trailer you want?

 

[RDFF]

Because that means having to hook up and unhook anytime you want to use it. I'm thinking about a kind of special situation, where I want to be able to carry 3 on the rear to go to the field to feed them, WITHOUT using a trailer..., meaning the entire rig is "self-contained, self-propelled, and storable in the space of just the tractor" when without the bales.

I get that you could use a gooseneckwith a 3 pt. mounted ball hitch (I have two GN flatbeds). But you'd need to use a loader tractor to load and unload the trailer. And even if using a side dump bale hauler (which would speed the unload process), it would require a loader to load first (and you'd need a tractor hooked onto it to keep it stable and in place while loading), then hook on, haul to the field, dump, then go feed the bales. And then unhook when done to store the tractor in the shed, or have an ungodly amount of shed space available.
What I'm really looking for is a 3 pt. unit that can "load itself", and unload itself, with just the tractor it's attached to, and with each bale loading and unloading INDIVIDUALLY, one at a time.

But I'm eager to see what others have seen or are aware of in ANY kind of multiple bale 3 pt. carrier, just to get an idea of what's available out there. That's why I'm asking for those "innovative" designs. Thanks @dcarp for the question though!!!

 

[ClinchValley86]

Ive seen a video (could have been european) of a 3 ptbale spear x3. Was hydraulic. You could raise and lower the 2 or 3 bales independently. Been a long while since I've seen it though and I dont recall the brand. Might have e had a Mc prefix on the brand.

Got a friend with a double or triple, none hydraulic. They all unload together. It gets used a lot when moving hay off the field.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I carry two on the loader and have a double spear for the rear, so I can carry 4 if needed.

Anything more than 2 would be too wide to get down the road and into places. So you would need some sort of hydraulic arrangement to get the 3rd bale up in the air. And for me feeding at -30 in a blizzard I like the KISS method. Adding some hydraulics, and hinges to a simple bale spear setup sounds like too much to go wrong to me.

Get on YouTube there's plenty of videos from across the pond of guys putting 3 to 8 bales on the rear of a tractor.

 

[RDFF]

I carry two on the loader and have a double spear for the rear, so I can carry 4 if needed.

Anything more than 2 would be too wide to get down the road and into places. So you would need some sort of hydraulic arrangement to get the 3rd bale up in the air. And for me feeding at -30 in a blizzard I like the KISS method. Adding some hydraulics, and hinges to a simple bale spear setup sounds like too much to go wrong to me.

Get on YouTube there's plenty of videos from across the pond of guys putting 3 to 8 bales on the rear of a tractor.

12 at a time!!!! Not exactly what I'm thinking I'd want, but definitely "innovative"! Can't imagine how they ever think that this tractor is gonna hold up. And he's putting all of that weight on single wheels! I guess though that I put 14 bales on my smaller flatbed with just 4 light truck tires underneath it, so..... I could be happy with 4/trip on just the tractor though. I've seen the spears with 3 across, but like I said, that'd be too wide to realistically go down the road... and when I'm feeding, I need to be able to go down the road. They all unload at the same time too, which isn't my goal. But I'm wanting to see ANYTHING innovative like this!!

 

[RDFF]

Could be a pretty simple deal to have a hydraulic arm that would come down in the center, catch a first one and lift it up, and load two more alongside of each other.

 

[RDFF]

Tilt Spear Advantage

Notch Adjustable Bale Spear

Hexa Quad Bale Mover

6 way bale transport fork

A Bar J Bale Spear ...I think this must be the one referred to earlier as an AJ with hydraulic wings. Probably comes the closest to kind of what I'm thinking...

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Probably not a concern for you but here a rear bale on any sort of spear usually doesn't make it into the field far because it gets pulled off by the snow, unless you had some sort of forklift mast.

I rarely use my rear spear because the bales usually get inadvertently unloaded about 10 feet past the gate.

 

[Silver]

 

[Silver]

 

[RDFF]

Probably not a concern for you but here a rear bale on any sort of spear usually doesn't make it into the field far because it gets pulled off by the snow, unless you had some sort of forklift mast.

I rarely use my rear spear because the bales usually get inadvertently unloaded about 10 feet past the gate.

Yup, it's important that they can lift 'em well above the ground for clearance for sure. If the 3 pt. unit gets too fancy... you run out of remotes to run a loader. I use 3 just for the loader operations already. Electric over hydraulic splitters can get you there though, or modifying right at the input to the valves and adding more... Thanks for the input... keep 'em coming!

 

[mwj]

Sounds like a very complex way to accomplish something. That generally means you are spending a lot of money for very little return.

 

[504RP]

Sounds like a very complex way to accomplish something. That generally means you are spending a lot of money for very little return.

That would kind of depend on the size of your operation. The size of operation in the video Silver posted would be more economical than moving a couple bales at a time.

 

[RDFF]

That would kind of depend on the size of your operation. The size of operation in the video Silver posted would be more economical than moving a couple bales at a time.

@504RP is right. It would also depend on what your overall goal is. Do you want to just be using it to "bundle" bales for transport in the field? Or do you want to be transporting down the road? It makes a difference in what is a "practical design". Like Chevy... my goal is to have a self-contained, self-propelled bale FEEDING unit (I unroll my bales across the pasture to feed them), that also carries with it as that compact, self-contained, self-propelled unit a reasonable amount of bales (reasonable "capacity" of a tractor) to "recharge" the unroller as each bale runs out. Obviously, this means feeding out on pasture, in winter, in Minnesota, for me. And that sometimes means in deep snow. And of course, if you're only feeding 25 head, you won't need any "recharge bales" at all, so adding complexity would be foolish... but if you're feeding something like 300 head, you're gonna need more like 6 bales/day. If you can only carry one or two bales per trip, that's alot of trips back to the bale yard. The more times that you don't have your next bale right there with you, the more times you'll have to dead-head back to the bale yard... =wasted time. So I'm looking for practical, innovative designs for carrying extra bales along on my feeding tractor, per trip, WITHIN REASON.

I want to look at LOTS of ideas, even those that don't seem to have merit... and try then to pick individual concepts from any and all that could potentially make for a better transport unit. Chevy's point, for example, about "3 pt. forks often not lifting high enough to keep the bales from being dragged off in his deep snow" is a very valid point. I've had that happen too... but there are ways to design around this issue...

 

[Silver]

I use the Tubeline bale unroller. It self loads so carries one on the tub and one on the forks. Then I have the option to carry one or two with the loader. In extremely deep snow I suppose the trailer rig could be an issue in deep snow. I try to manage my feed ground such that we creep outwards into the deeper snow each day but feed the majority on yesterdays packed ground. I have enough shop space to pull it in every night so never unhook.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Alot also depends on your definition of deep snow. Here today's packed snow is likely to have 3' of fresh snow on it tomorrow. Last winter we had over 20 feet of snowfall with much of the winter having over 50" on the ground.

If you want to feed out on pasture here you can't be dragging things behind you unless they are well above the snowline.

I demoed a hustler chainless last winter and made it 100 yards into the field before that anchor stopped me dead.

 

[RDFF]

Alot also depends on your definition of deep snow. Here today's packed snow is likely to have 3' of fresh snow on it tomorrow. Last winter we had over 20 feet of snowfall with much of the winter having over 50" on the ground.

If you want to feed out on pasture here you can't be dragging things behind you unless they are well above the snowline.

I demoed a hustler chainless last winter and made it 100 yards into the field before that anchor stopped me dead.

Yeah, the Hustler chainless is a decent unit... and the Tubeline is very similar. But they're still limited to "two bales", unless you go to their BaleXpress or Combi Units (also good pieces, IMO). But dragging anything along behind, in deep snow, can become an issue. And you don't get the additional weight on your drive wheels for added traction... so like Chevy says... it becomes a boat anchor. When that happens, you'd rather be making another trip back to the bale yard!

Chainless X5000 8-bale Retriever/Feeder

8 Bale Retriever

Hustler sent me these videos... they've got a few guys down in Nebraska using these. And I'm NOT trying to "poo poo" this rig... it IS a halfway decent machine. But notice how they're demoing it for this video when there's no snow on the ground, or soft, muddy fields. Anything will work when you're operating in a paved parking lot! I'm just trying to analyze it, and see the potential negatives of the design.

Notice that as he backs into his row to load, how the row "creeps backward" some? Can you imagine trying to load a single bale (so not a row of gathered bales), if you already had nearly a trailer full? Just getting lined up would be tough. Consider how much space you'll need in front of your bale rows in your bale yard, just to get "lined up" to recover a load... not everybody has that much space allowed. Imagine how this would go if trying to line up and recover bales from bale rows that are drifted in with snow, in an icy, deep snow covered yard in the approach to the bale rows. Notice how clumsy the rig is, being as long as a semi? Imagine how much space this rig would require to store in the shed each night. Notice the "dualled up tandem wheels"... great for flotation, but what about in deep snow? Or if they DO start to go down in mud? This trailer was originally designed for hauling "gathered" bales off of a firm, dry hay field to storage in the summertime, for the most part. Did you notice that he has to climb up onto the frame of the rig to cut the net off (from each bale, individually, each time he's going to load one into the unroller)? Now think about how that's going to go, when you've just run a mile or two down a slushy road getting to your pasture, when it's below 0... and the frame is iced up. And then think about dragging this rig through 2' of snow, with all those bales that far behind your traction rig. I'm not suggesting that if you've got enough rig up front, that you can't "git r dun"........... but "is there a better way".

Now, consider that, and weigh it against let's say... something that carries 3 or four bales along with you right on the tractor only... like Chevy does for example, or maybe like what Silver posted. Four Round Bale Transporter Maybe there's another design, that can accomplish the task even better...

I don't think it's practical to think of carrying TOO many bales on the tractor alone, it'd have to be within reason. BUT... THAT CONCEPT (doing it all with JUST the tractor only) has some really strong benefits too.

 

[Silver]

There are pros and cons to every which way you go. For me, I would never go back to unrolling bales with a front end loader, and I sure don’t want to go back to a 3 pt. bale unroller. So for me the trailered rig makes the most sense. One of these years we might get one of your 4’ snowfalls overnight and will have to fire up the dozer to open up a trail and a place to feed, but as long as 1 foot of fresh snow overnight is at the high end I think I’ll be fine.
I also find that because it actually gets cold here the snow is easier to move, I can plow my way out to the feed ground with the tractor bucket if necessary. And a few hundred cows do a pretty fair job of making a hard pack to feed on.

 

[RDFF]

There are pros and cons to every which way you go. For me, I would never go back to unrolling bales with a front end loader, and I sure don’t want to go back to a 3 pt. bale unroller. So for me the trailered rig makes the most sense. One of these years we might get one of your 4’ snowfalls overnight and will have to fire up the dozer to open up a trail and a place to feed, but as long as 1 foot of fresh snow overnight is at the high end I think I’ll be fine.
I also find that because it actually gets cold here the snow is easier to move, I can plow my way out to the feed ground with the tractor bucket if necessary. And a few hundred cows do a pretty fair job of making a hard pack to feed on.

Silver, you've obviously used a front end loader to unroll. What kind of a rig was that?