home made bale trailer

[Renze]

Look what i did yesterday: i put the trailer through the ultimate test

We had 23 square bales from 1.3 hectare, it was a quite heavy 2nd cut.
I could do 11 and 12 bales in 2 times, but i wanted to compare my theoretical calculations to everyday farm practice: I took all 20 bales i could load, and then returned for the remaining 3... not very logical, but the trailer held, thats all i wanted to know.

The tires would allmost crack, but the frame didnt budge

I guess this is 300 to 350 kg per bale, so 6 or 7 ton load.

Because of the short wheelbase and high CoG, the trailer was very wavy on the road: Lateral movement was non-existent, just as i expected, and the reason why i wanted to go tandem instead of turntable steered. The heavy tongue load makes it track very well. It was just the wavy bounce of the tractors rear axle that was unexpected: But if i stick to loading 2 layers of bales on this trailer, instead of 3, the CoG will be 2 feet lower and the ride much better.

 

[Grrrr]

Look what i did yesterday: i put the trailer through the ultimate test

We had 23 square bales from 1.3 hectare, it was a quite heavy 2nd cut.
I could do 11 and 12 bales in 2 times, but i wanted to compare my theoretical calculations to everyday farm practice: I took all 20 bales i could load, and then returned for the remaining 3... not very logical, but the trailer held, thats all i wanted to know.

The tires would allmost crack, but the frame didnt budge

I guess this is 300 to 350 kg per bale, so 6 or 7 ton load.

Because of the short wheelbase and high CoG, the trailer was very wavy on the road: Lateral movement was non-existent, just as i expected, and the reason why i wanted to go tandem instead of turntable steered. The heavy tongue load makes it track very well. It was just the wavy bounce of the tractors rear axle that was unexpected: But if i stick to loading 2 layers of bales on this trailer, instead of 3, the CoG will be 2 feet lower and the ride much better.

Very nice job

The tires look like they are about to split in that last photos with all those bales lol.

How did you place those bales that are going across the bed instead of longways? Like the one second from back on the bottom layer? Can the loader reach in that far or do you have to slide it along with another bale? Or do you just slide it around with the loader?

 

[Renze]

Hi Jake,

Funny, perhaps i should shout a little louder, when the words have to go to an american webserver and then come back over the ocean to be read in Devon, England...

I can just put the bale there from behind. the rearmost 2 bales are hanging over the rear of the trailer about 30 cm ( a foot) which means that the reach of the loader to place that bale, isnt as big as it seems.

I work at a trailer builder, and after bankruptcy and takeover by a new owner, they want to clean out the yard and throw away some old stock frames.
I think i'll buy them for, something like scrap price+a crate of beer, and make some more bale trailers...
I need at least another one to go behind this one, if we buy the full 1st cut of my oldest brother's father in law. That man is a calf grower, he just uses the land to spread his calf slurry on and sell all the forage. (calf slurry is a lot of water and little nutrients, so arable farmers dont want it, you'll pay for trucking just water)

This 1st cut we buy, is usually about 4 trailer loads. I can borrow 2 trailers to go behind the 5245, and use my own trailer behind the 3011, this light tractor will ride and brake more stable, and it wont tear up the sods when pulling away with 2 trailers on grassland, with the added tongue weight of this tandem trailer.

 

[Grrrr]

Hi Jake,

Funny, perhaps i should shout a little louder, when the words have to go to an american webserver and then come back over the ocean to be read in Devon, England...

I can just put the bale there from behind. the rearmost 2 bales are hanging over the rear of the trailer about 30 cm ( a foot) which means that the reach of the loader to place that bale, isnt as big as it seems.

I work at a trailer builder, and after bankruptcy and takeover by a new owner, they want to clean out the yard and throw away some old stock frames.
I think i'll buy them for, something like scrap price+a crate of beer, and make some more bale trailers...
I need at least another one to go behind this one, if we buy the full 1st cut of my oldest brother's father in law. That man is a calf grower, he just uses the land to spread his calf slurry on and sell all the forage. (calf slurry is a lot of water and little nutrients, so arable farmers dont want it, you'll pay for trucking just water)

This 1st cut we buy, is usually about 4 trailer loads. I can borrow 2 trailers to go behind the 5245, and use my own trailer behind the 3011, this light tractor will ride and brake more stable, and it wont tear up the sods when pulling away with 2 trailers on grassland, with the added tongue weight of this tandem trailer.

Your loader must have a longer reach then I thought

I say keep building them, I don't know what they are worth in Holland, but in the UK you could get ｣3000 for one of them new.

I know what you mean about the tongue weights and grip with the tractor, we have been towing a 14 ton 36ft long bale trailer behind a 165 HP tractor and that thing sticks to the ground like glue with the trailer full. It gets damned exciting on hills though with 14 ton of silage piled up behind you

 

[em14]

Renze - You live in a very beautiful area ... when I saw your trailer frame I thought of the "Bird Cage" Maserati of years pass! Very nice pictures! Thanks
Leo

 

[GuglioLS]

Hi Renze,

I just finished reading your home made bail trailer build. I must say it came out super heavy duty. The welds are professional grade, of course I suppose I should expect nothing less than that from you anyway. And the paint job came out looking just as nice. I see you really put that thing to the test loading it up three layers high like that. I thought the wheels were going to blow. Did your tractor get light in the front end with all that weight? as in did you notice any difference in steering?

Great project


Larry

 

[Renze]

Larry,

With tractor/loader weighing in over 4 ton, it doesnt really notice anything on its front axle... All i notice is that the rear wheels belly out during the ride, causing a wave, because of the high center of gravity of this load.
IT is quite a difference compared to old turntable steered trailers: When pulling these, the play between tow eye and pin, plus the general construction play, will make it swerve from left to right, it turns to the right until the mechanical play doesnt give, then the turntable is steered a bit, untill it runs out of play to the left. Because it has a heavy loader on it, and i dont use rear ballast, this towbar play is a plain b*tch because it ticks the rear end aside everytime, so you keep steering.
With the tandem, no such thing. And when i brake, the trailer keeps inline with the tractor, and the tractor can stop the unbraked trailer much safer because of more braking grip.


I'm running on 10-15 tires, all 6 ply. The walking tandem originates from a 3 ton manure spreader, but it has some over capacity: The wheel hubs are rated for 2 ton per axle, though i cannot find a rating for tandem use for this particular axle. Knowing 4 ton on axles and 1 ton tongue, makes it a GVW of 5 ton. I loaded 6, so that made it 7 ton GVW test weight...
I would like a wider, 2.55 meter wide wagon, so i can stack 3 bales next to each other instead of 2 (current trailer is 2 meter wide, bales are 80cm wide) With the same length of 6 meter, i would require 150% of load capacity when it can accomodate 3 instead of 2 next to each other... Then loading 3 high would give 9 ton load, and 11 or 12 ton GVW.
If i can get 2500 Euro for it, i have 1500 euro profit, enough to build a new 12 ton trailer on a tandem with 15-17 tires....

If i would ever build a turntable steered trailer, it would have a solid drawbar attached to the axle (no pivot point in the drawbar) and a pivot under the turntable, with the axle mounted about a foot behind this pivot point. This will also result in a vertical drawbar load to increase handling on terrain. Kinda the same idea as a semitrailer with 5th wheel, attaching the 5th wheel before the axle.


Because scrap is expensive, there is a man in my area that buys all old farm machinery, cuts them to pieces for scrap, and sells tandems, loose axles, tongue parking stands and tires loose. I can get decent stuff there, for little money.

If i wanted to go safe, i could use a surge brake with a 1200 kg towbar vertical load:
http://www.bpw.de/download/pdf/Prod...ngen_Auflaufeinrichtung_AVE-2000-AVEG2000.pdf
This is advised up to 8 ton trailers, but if i run 12 or 15, its still better than no brakes....
Hydraulic brakes would have to be manually operated (i dont see my father do that in time) but it would need a whole lot less maintenance, surge brake cables stretch or rot solid and keep trailer servicemen at work...

Maybe i should develop my own surge brake head for heavy trailers, perhaps with hydraulic power transfer..... i'm sure there is a market for the average farmer, who doesnt want to pay for a hydraulic or pneumatic brake valve on their tractors....