Bay Accumulators and Grapples for small hay bales

[D7E]

Do the people you sell the bales to mind the weird place the inline balers put the string on the bales?

I had to move a couple of bales that had been baled with one and my fingers were sore after just a couple. All the sharp ends dig into your finger nails..

??? I'd never noticed any difference . Only used a IH inline one season but man was i impressed after the deere 346's we had !

 

[ddivinia]

Hmm... That's interesting. Lookin' forward to hearing your report -- pros and/or cons.

AKfish

I'll post what I find out, etc. I hope to find time to go look at it this week.

D.

 

[evanss]

There was an earlier question regarding the Long Grapalator. Anyone used it? Comments? Also, has anyone had any experience with the Rocky Mountain system. It accumulates in front, but does not slide bales on the ground. It lifts and unloads by gravity, without hooks. I need a very simple system and these two seem to fit my needs, but I really need to know more from someone who has actual experience. This has been an interesting discussion. Thank you.

 

[dscottmartin]

I owned a haymaster and now own a hoelscher.
For any one getting in to this 1000 bales is a very big day.
4x2 or eight bale packages and 5x2 10 on edge packages use the same grapple frame extra teeth can be added. 10 bales are 20% faster and it does show up.
Accumulators, grapples, and bale wagons require very tight bales not necessarily heavy just good string tension.
All have pluses and minuses the haymaster can be pulled separate from the baler I usually did it took about half as much time to bunch the bales as bale them.
Dragging grass hay on sod doesn稚 hurt them to bad if you have pretty heavy windrows and don稚 drag them real far sometime if the bale is a little loose and you go a long way the bottom edge bale will slightly curl under. I did alfalfa and I didn稚 like dragging them though I did it for four years.
The hoelscher is better but 300 bales an hour really pushes that machine and the lift arm will strike the next bale and break it. They are sensitive to bale length and must be set and can稚 be changed quickly. You also need a good tractor to bale with hoelschers require 12+ gal/minute hydraulic flow to operate correctly.
New grapple operators could pick up 200 bales an hour (8 bales) on good easy to load wagons. Trailer length really matters 8 bale 6.25 ft/ stack (it does take slightly more than 6ft). 13, 20,26,32,38 work best I have a 26, 32.5 and 40 foot wagons. 16 ft trailers really slow you down you have to split the stacks.
When really rolling I can pick up nearly 500/hr with my 6330 and its third hydraulic function and gear shifter on the loader joy stick. That痴 with someone doing a good job pulling my wagons if I知 by myself I push to do 300/hr
I had 30 ac of alfalfa now I知 sewing 40 and thinking of going to a steffen 1550 for 18 bale /grip
Bale wagons require 16ft vertical clearance to dump and must be driven to the barn each time to dump they don稚 use full height in the barn once dumped. On neighbor of mine bought a grapple to move a layer of the stack to top off his barn.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

The one I have picked out is this.

http://www.kuhnsmfg.com

One sweet accumilator!:thumbsup:

 

[AKfish]

My neighbor's got a 10 bale Hoelsher with both a 5-bale and 10-bale grapples.

He uses a Bobcat on the 5 bale grapple. Easier to load car hauler trailers and other odds and ends that folk's show up with at the field on hay days!

Very reliable and efficient operation. However, the price tag on the Steffen and Hoelsher accumulators are not for the "faint of heart" nor anyone without pretty deep pockets!

AKfish