I need to automate my bale handling, too

[gf5205]

OK, so now you have bales on a few wagons headed to the barn full of hay. Lets say you have 120 - 150 on a wagon. Now what? Seems to me you now need to unload these wagons before heading back out to the field, eh? More wagons, drive wagons into barn and tilt-to-dump?

Not sure why your baler is giving you inconsistent bale size and weight, but these factors are easy to adjust and involve the raking process, too.

There's a NH1034 stacke for sale on Craigslist around here for $5600. My 1012 takes 64 back to the barn and leaves a pile there while I head back out to get the rest of a 200 bale evening.

Just curious, because the baler/bale size issue will follow you to the accumulators too, I would imagine.

BTW: I use to tow a 4 place snowmobile trailer behind my baler. It easily handled 250 bales with a person helping out. The problem still was that the traler is full and must be unloaded before heading back out in the field.

We sell about 2/3rds of our hay off of the wagons, so they get emptied by the customers, and we can get the wagons under cover easily and quickly if the customers aren't on time or rain threatens. So our biggest problem is getting the hay onto the wagons. The grabber doesn't help get the hay up into the mow - but neither does anthing else. We are thinking about ground level hay storage, but it's not in the budget right now. If weren't selling most of our hay I would have considered Bale Baskets more strongly.

Our bales are inconsistent because our fields are inconsistent. I don't think the Kuhns will have much problem with bales of different length and density - but then again I never used one :-).

Greg

[gf5205]

What is the lead time on ordering a new Kuhn's Accumilator?

The accumulator and grabber were delivered today while I was at work. Three guys in a diesel pickup with a gooseneck, two of whom are Kenny's sons, brought it. My wife ran the loader tractor and got to use the new skid steer QA for the first time to pick up the grabber.

They unloaded the accumulator by having my wife pickup the rear end and they drove out from under it part ways, then she switched to the front end and they drove out the rest of the way. Then they set it up. It was cold, 45 degrees, and raining and they weren't dressed for the weather, so Donna got them rain gear and hats to use while they were working. Donna sent them on their way with cookies. They're planning to drive staight through to Ohio tonight. Donna thought they were nice kids and that they knew what they were doing and were pretty safe doing it. Hopefully the wagons will come soon.
Greg

[gf5205]

The wagons came Friday at about 9 am. They unloaded them and set them up. There wasn't much to do, just stand the backboard of the wagon that had been on top of the load. Donna sent theboys on their way with a second breakfast of bacon and pancakes. They were headed to Kennebunk to set up some equipment for another Maine customer.

In the mean time I have attached the accumulator to the baler, a JD 328. It didn't take much. I had to remove the bale chute, 2 bolts and 4 chains. Then I moved the hitch over. It swivels and was offset so that it wasn't under the chute to make hooking up wagons easier. Now it is centered behind the bale chanber. It is adjustable for length with the hitch fitting inside of a channel and held by a pin. I had to cut an inch off of the end of the hitch that slides into the channel so that I could use the shortest setting. The pin is supposed to be 5 or 6 inches behind the bale chamber. It looks like everything lines up OK. We'll find out in time. Kuhns has added a chain with spring tension from each side of the baler to the accumulator to keep from breaking bales while turning.

I got the hoses made up that go from the 3rd function QDs to the cylinder on the grabber. You have to measeure the length with the loader all the way up and the grabber all the way down because that's the longest distance you'll need. We dropped 15 bales of hay from the mow yesterday and practiced using the grabber. Moved them from ground to wagon, wagon to ground, wagon to wagon just having fun and getting an idea of what it will be like. I'm anxious to see how long it will take to load a wagon.

Next we'll modify our old wagons. We'll make them 9 ft wide and rig a new backboard. The current backboards rely on braces running from the top of the backboard to about 4 feet up the sides of the wagons. The braces will be in the way. I plan to try making the braces attach much closer to the back using the angle of a half bale forward for each row of the 4 rows I plan on. If I use plywood on the sides it should give enough stability for traveling when the wagon is empty.

We'll start cutting with the next good 4 day forecast.
Greg

[gf5205]

I just got a camera so here are some pics of the new equipment and hay wagon mods.
I made the wagon 1' wider, removed the braces that were on the sides and added a slanted back so the hay will stack better.
Greg

[slowzuki]

Looks great!

[gf5205]

Which of your tractors will pull the baler and accumulator?

That 15-bale accumulator lays bales down in a 5 long by 3 wide pattern and the accumulator picks it up in the 5x3 arrangement. So, assuming 50 lb bales, that's 750 lb of hay and the weight of the grabber, say 500 lb. The center of gravity is about 45" +22.5"=67.5" (5ft -7.5in)from the lifting pins on your FEL, assuming 45" bale length. The ML250 FEL on my 2008 Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto) can lift 2980 lb at the bucket pins. Your FEL probably has similar specs, so I don't think you have a lifting problem. Just carry enough ballast on the 3pt to balance the tractor.

My winter project is to build a hay squeeze/accumulator to handle eight 14"x18"x45" bales (about 50 lb each). I plan to stack two bales high (16 total bales) and lift this 800 lb load of hay with the squeeze to at least 6-ft height (the loader can reach about 10 ft high). I carry a heavy double bottom plow on the 3pt for ballast. I have a few more weeks of work and then I'll post photos.

I missed this post earlier. I'll be using the JD5203 to pull the baler and accumulator. The grabber is mounted on the JD5205. The 521 loader is only rated about 2100 lbs. at the pins, but had no trouble lifting a grab of last years hay, which I realize is lighter because it has continued to dry out. I had an MX6 rotary cutter on the rear and balance and traction were fine. The grabber weighs about 750 lbs. I hope to be able to get by without the counterweight. The tire are filled with Rimguard.
Greg

[gf5205]

Well we finally got a chance to use the new equipment. We woke to a forcast for a 2 1/2 day window on Thursday, so I mowed about 2 1/2 acres before 7. I mowed so little because it was hard to find ground firm enough to mow, I didn't know how fast the hay would dry on top of the wet ground and I didn't know how well things would go.

My wife tedd at 2 on Thursday and I tedd after work at about 7. On Friday I raked at 11 and 2 and we started baling just before 3. The accumulator worked as advertised! It left 370 bales in groups of 15 on the field. I was able to load 180 on each of the new wagons. Each grab was a learning experience. I had to get off the tractor and realign bales a few times. If the ground were dry it would be easier to push the bales around to push the grab together.

All in all the day was very encouraging. My wife says that baling was easier. She could go faster and she didn't have to worry about the crew on the wagon every time she needed to change gears. For my part, picking up the grabs was a chore as opposed to the comraderie on the hay wagon. I really got to know my niece and nephew better through haying. But it is a worthwhile trade off because it means we can keep making small squares for us and our customers without worrying about labor, and in the end it is always easier to
only have to rely on yourselves. We didn't have to guess what time they hay would be ready so that we could have the crew available.

It looks like we may have another window on Wednesday and Thursday, so now that I know the hay will dry on top of muddy fields I'll cut more. I scouted out about 5 acres that should be dry enough even with showers expected for the next few days.
Greg

[slowzuki]

We're getting the same weather. On weds am I bet the showers wouldn't come and mowed 270 bales of mine then Thurs am I mowed about the same for a neighbour. Work interfered so I couldn't get the tedding done at the right time but we baled it up saturday and put it in. A good test run as I haven't had the square baler out this year and the conveyor is an old that hasn't been used in 5 years.

Was a bit annoying to spend and hour or two looking for a belt to get it running while the hay crew sat on two wagons. Someone had tossed out the right belt in the time it sat.

[gf5205]

We're getting the same weather. On weds am I bet the showers wouldn't come and mowed 270 bales of mine then Thurs am I mowed about the same for a neighbour. Work interfered so I couldn't get the tedding done at the right time but we baled it up saturday and put it in. A good test run as I haven't had the square baler out this year and the conveyor is an old that hasn't been used in 5 years.

Was a bit annoying to spend and hour or two looking for a belt to get it running while the hay crew sat on two wagons. Someone had tossed out the right belt in the time it sat.

This weekend the weather was better than predicted, so it was good enough to bale Saturday and Sunday, but I didn't have any hay down because of the forecast of clouds and showers.
Greg

[Mike120]

Greg,

Did you get the On Edge model or the Flat? I'm looking at the Kuhns as a replacement for my old beatup stacker wagon. Because it stacks flat, I've never tried stacking on edge. I'm happy to do it if the grabber works as well as I assume it does. Thanx.