I will do my best to get some videos of our accumulator if we can get it working this year.
It is the very simple type, solely mechanical and ground driven.
Like this one
In fact, its identical to that one.
Our experience with it is that it is great once you get it working.
The baler pushes the bales out and they fall into the shoot at the front of the sledge. They fall down and get dragged backwards as the tractor moves forward. As they go back towards the back, they trip gates and wires that change the paddles which direct the bales to different lines.
Once there are eight bales queued up, a further baler coming in pulls another wire and you pray the back of the sledge swings open. When it does, the bales slide out and you continue as before.
However, it can be an absolute PITA to get working. It likes a very specific length bale, because otherwise the bales knock the wrong paddles. That causes lots of problems.
However, once you have worked out the right bale length, you are normally good to go until you get to the first block you need to unload.
There is a string which is meant to be pulled on by a bale and pull the tailgate open. However, chances are this string is either too long or too short and the tailgate doesn't open.
Then of course, you don't notice that happen, and another bales falls down. They you get real fun because the bales have no where to go and the baler is still pumping bales out and you get an almighty jam.
However, once you get it all well adjusted, then it is a pleasure to use.... Until you get one banana bale and you get another almighty jam.
Half of the problem with the jams for us before is that the operator couldn't see what was going on in the sledge because he wasn't in a tall enough tractor so you don't see the jams forming.
Hopefully that problem will soon be solved by the arrival on a new John Deere 6200 which has a much higher vantage point.
Transporting the thing is also a pain, because it is very long and has little ground clearance and is fairly wide.
It is very difficult to tow behind the baler on the road, because it has a mind of its own as far as steering is concerned, due to the placement of its wheels, and it makes for a very long rig that don't like pulling out of gateways on to narrow English roads.
It is best to pull it behind an ATV or similar (Land Rover) until you get to the field. Still, you have to go very slowly because it scrapes the ground for most of the way.
I imagine that transport would be a problem with most of the accumulators because of their inherent bulkiness. It just ain't well suited to contracting and long trips.
When actually baling, I almost forget it is there, a) because I can't see it, and b) because it just drags along behind.
It is annoying in small fields because you can't easily reverse, no, in fact it is almost impossible to reverse this thing
You just have to make sure you make wide sweeping turns, sort of starting on one side, going to the middle second pass, then back to the starting side again.
It is a bit easier to move around the field though because there are less bales around the place. You don't have an option where it dumps the bales, an they can sometimes come out in awkward places unless your careful about your route planning.
The damage to the bales is unnoticeable to me, but I think English hay is pretty far different to that from America.
For instance, we ted our hay as much as possible to try and dry it out, ideally three times a day. I understand the hay you grow would have no leaves left on it at this point
Also, most of the hay we cut is just pasture, and is fairly hard wearing. However, I still do not notice and dirt or anything similar on the bales. The distance they are dragged is not very far.
The grab we have is fairly old, but still works fine. It weighs a ton though, so we have had to borrow a bigger load to use it. We can also use it to pick up big square bales, and it will pick three of them up at a time.
The system certainly beats hand picking, especially off big fields. However, for small fields or where there are lots of gates to move through, it just doesn't save much time.
But if your on your own, its the only way to be. And you can stack bales all night, in a nice cab, and be ready to bale again the next day, all without touching a bale (as long as you can get the bloody thing to work in the first place!)
The other thing about the sledge is, we payed ｣120 ($240) for the sledge part and ｣345 ($690) for the (newer) grab.
It is the very simple type, solely mechanical and ground driven.
Like this one
In fact, its identical to that one.
Our experience with it is that it is great once you get it working.
The baler pushes the bales out and they fall into the shoot at the front of the sledge. They fall down and get dragged backwards as the tractor moves forward. As they go back towards the back, they trip gates and wires that change the paddles which direct the bales to different lines.
Once there are eight bales queued up, a further baler coming in pulls another wire and you pray the back of the sledge swings open. When it does, the bales slide out and you continue as before.
However, it can be an absolute PITA to get working. It likes a very specific length bale, because otherwise the bales knock the wrong paddles. That causes lots of problems.
However, once you have worked out the right bale length, you are normally good to go until you get to the first block you need to unload.
There is a string which is meant to be pulled on by a bale and pull the tailgate open. However, chances are this string is either too long or too short and the tailgate doesn't open.
Then of course, you don't notice that happen, and another bales falls down. They you get real fun because the bales have no where to go and the baler is still pumping bales out and you get an almighty jam.
However, once you get it all well adjusted, then it is a pleasure to use.... Until you get one banana bale and you get another almighty jam.
Half of the problem with the jams for us before is that the operator couldn't see what was going on in the sledge because he wasn't in a tall enough tractor so you don't see the jams forming.
Hopefully that problem will soon be solved by the arrival on a new John Deere 6200 which has a much higher vantage point.
Transporting the thing is also a pain, because it is very long and has little ground clearance and is fairly wide.
It is very difficult to tow behind the baler on the road, because it has a mind of its own as far as steering is concerned, due to the placement of its wheels, and it makes for a very long rig that don't like pulling out of gateways on to narrow English roads.
It is best to pull it behind an ATV or similar (Land Rover) until you get to the field. Still, you have to go very slowly because it scrapes the ground for most of the way.
I imagine that transport would be a problem with most of the accumulators because of their inherent bulkiness. It just ain't well suited to contracting and long trips.
When actually baling, I almost forget it is there, a) because I can't see it, and b) because it just drags along behind.
It is annoying in small fields because you can't easily reverse, no, in fact it is almost impossible to reverse this thing
You just have to make sure you make wide sweeping turns, sort of starting on one side, going to the middle second pass, then back to the starting side again.
It is a bit easier to move around the field though because there are less bales around the place. You don't have an option where it dumps the bales, an they can sometimes come out in awkward places unless your careful about your route planning.
The damage to the bales is unnoticeable to me, but I think English hay is pretty far different to that from America.
For instance, we ted our hay as much as possible to try and dry it out, ideally three times a day. I understand the hay you grow would have no leaves left on it at this point
Also, most of the hay we cut is just pasture, and is fairly hard wearing. However, I still do not notice and dirt or anything similar on the bales. The distance they are dragged is not very far.
The grab we have is fairly old, but still works fine. It weighs a ton though, so we have had to borrow a bigger load to use it. We can also use it to pick up big square bales, and it will pick three of them up at a time.
The system certainly beats hand picking, especially off big fields. However, for small fields or where there are lots of gates to move through, it just doesn't save much time.
But if your on your own, its the only way to be. And you can stack bales all night, in a nice cab, and be ready to bale again the next day, all without touching a bale (as long as you can get the bloody thing to work in the first place!)
The other thing about the sledge is, we payed ｣120 ($240) for the sledge part and ｣345 ($690) for the (newer) grab.
