Can a Kubota L2501 move a round bale?

[Ortimber]

Do you wish you would have purchased larger?

No, I like the L for many tasks but I don't intend to use it for any heavy lifting. I have a big green one when I need more firepower.

 

[flusher]

Don't overload your FEL. It's easy to split the sidewall on one or both of the front tires.

Good luck and be careful out there.

 

[4570Man]

Oh, you'd be reasonably safe moving the bales on a 3pt bale spear as opposed to the loader.

If the rear wheels come off the ground, the tractor will immediately roll to one side on the front axle pivot pin. Then hit the axle stops & almost assuredly keep rolling over.

If the front wheels come off the ground things aren't likely to be as bad. The solid rear axle wont ever roll side to side. It's easy to add ballast to the bucket to prevent that issue too.

The tractor isn’t going to roll over unless you screw up 3 things at once. One over load it. 2 carry the load upwards of 3 feet off the ground. 3 be unaware of the situation and not drop the load. If you keep the load low and pay attention and drop the load it isn’t going to rollover.

 

[MRollins10]

Oh, you'd be reasonably safe moving the bales on a 3pt bale spear as opposed to the loader.

If the rear wheels come off the ground, the tractor will immediately roll to one side on the front axle pivot pin. Then hit the axle stops & almost assuredly keep rolling over.

If the front wheels come off the ground things aren't likely to be as bad. The solid rear axle wont ever roll side to side. It's easy to add ballast to the bucket to prevent that issue too.

Thanks. Great to know.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have two tractors for moving round bales. My 80 hp tractor handles them easily with the loader and it's what I use most of the time. I can unload the trailer with it and put them where I want them. If you haul a bale with a truck, you can just roll it off. Same with a trailer if you load them so they roll off. But if you road them sideways so you can get more of them in the trailer, you will need something to pick them up, and off of the trailer. I don't think you will find a tractor that can do that under 50hp, but I might be wrong of that by a few HP, but not by much.

When my bigger tractor has broken down, I've been able to get the bales out to the horses with the 3pt hay spear on my 35 hp tractor. It's a little iffy on being powerful enough to do this, but it's made it so far. You have to get the bale just right, or it slides off. You need weight on the front tires so you can steer because there is so much weight off of the rear, that the front end gets light.

If all you had was something smaller, you might give it a try, but odds are pretty good that you will break something fairly quickly. Since you haven't bought anything yet, you need to set a minimum HP needed to do what you want and not even look at anything smaller. In my opinion, that should be 50 hp.

 

[Fallon]

I have two tractors for moving round bales. My 80 hp tractor handles them easily with the loader and it's what I use most of the time. I can unload the trailer with it and put them where I want them. If you haul a bale with a truck, you can just roll it off. Same with a trailer if you load them so they roll off. But if you road them sideways so you can get more of them in the trailer, you will need something to pick them up, and off of the trailer. I don't think you will find a tractor that can do that under 50hp, but I might be wrong of that by a few HP, but not by much.

The Grand Ls will move them fine. My L4060 with the medium loader will lift just under 1910lbs (shipping weight of my flail mower on the pallet, had to remove a dozen lbs off the pallet to lift it). At one point I lifted things with my 3pt impliment on the ground & it was rock solid without the ballast. The Grand Ls tend to be pretty heavy for the HP on the smaller ones.

 

[JWR]

... Aside from moving round bales a L2501 is ample for your other tasks, using 60" wide implements.

For two cows, buy square bales. Transport square bales in the FEL bucket.

Jeff 9366 has it all covered in Post#2 . The L2501 ought to be fine for everything you mention EXCEPT carting around half ton round bales. As Jeff says with 2 cows on a 7 acre place there is no apparent reason to mess with bales more than twice the size you should be handling with it. Of course like building pole barns "they are never big enough." Depending on what your total overall picture is, there could (?) be reasons to go for a larger tractor. Other factors may include the size space where you will store it, what all implements you might end up with, etc. I consider the dealer to be a very large factor in what tractor you "should" buy. Over time you will have cause to utilize the dealer and depend on them. My personal view is that the Orange ones have the best reliability record. Red (MF), Green (JD) and Blue (NH) are not far behind. Many good machines are out there.

 

[prof fate]

To answer the question posed by the thread title based on specs at Tractordata.com - Yes, on the 3pt.
BUT - If you are only going to have 2 cows and they are grazing on 3 acres how much hay do you need? Would round bales "go bad"?

3pt shoudl move them no problem..not as convenient as using the loader end though.

snow falls, ground freezes or gets dry and hay/forage becomes scarce, so added feeding is necessary at times.

We fed our horses hay today - they are in the barn due to 55F (last week it was 93-97F) and rain (3-4 inches today alone) and they were shivering..we've got 20 plus acres of pasture

 

[newbury]

To answer the question posed by the thread title based on specs at Tractordata.com - Yes, on the 3pt.
BUT - If you are only going to have 2 cows and they are grazing on 3 acres how much hay do you need? Would round bales "go bad"?

Again, because I'm interested, with 2 cows grazing on the pasture in the picture how much hay would you expect 2 cows to need? How long would a 1200 lb bale last?

Would it take a month? 2 months?

I for one would hate to pay twice what I needed for equipment that far exceeds my future needs. But if the OP is planning on more cows, more acreage etc. I could see getting a 50HP tractor. But based on his present land and usage a few square bales in a bucket would probably do for years.

Heck, I'm the one who bought a 50HP tractor for a half acre lot in Virginia Which now works real well on my 75 acre lot in Mississippi.

 

[prof fate]

My kioti CK3510HST has moved 900lb brush hog off a trailer and never a hint of the rear getting light. Moved many other things with unknown weights and felt fine (large logs, etc)

I have had the rear lift a few times via loader 'overload' and yes, things tilt sideways quickly. Trying to pry up a rock or stump for example.

I have felt the rear go light with a very full (heaping) bucket of clay..10.9 cu ft bucket, heaped is more I"m sure. Clay, says google, goes maybe 100 lb /cu ft - so 1200-1300 lbs. I say light - the rear bounces over bumps. Loader lift is said to be 1800lbs, rear tires are loaded, rarely any rear ballast. Tractor with loader is 4100ish lbs I think.

 

[MRollins10]

Jeff 9366 has it all covered in Post#2 . The L2501 ought to be fine for everything you mention EXCEPT carting around half ton round bales. As Jeff says with 2 cows on a 7 acre place there is no apparent reason to mess with bales more than twice the size you should be handling with it. Of course like building pole barns "they are never big enough." Depending on what your total overall picture is, there could (?) be reasons to go for a larger tractor. Other factors may include the size space where you will store it, what all implements you might end up with, etc. I consider the dealer to be a very large factor in what tractor you "should" buy. Over time you will have cause to utilize the dealer and depend on them. My personal view is that the Orange ones have the best reliability record. Red (MF), Green (JD) and Blue (NH) are not far behind. Many good machines are out there.

Thank you. Only been looking at Orange, Red and Green thus far.

 

[jeff9366]

Do you wish you would have purchased larger?

Don't think small, medium, large, THINK WEIGHT.

The fundamental importance of TRACTOR WEIGHT eludes many tractor shoppers. Heavier tractor chassis weight is more important for most tractor operations than increased tractor horsepower. Bare tractor weight is a tractor specification easily found in sales brochures and web sites, readily comparable across tractor brands and tractor models, new and used.

Within subcompact and compact tractor categories, bare tractor weight must increase 50% before you notice a significant tractor capability increase. It takes a 100% increase in bare tractor weight to elicit MY-OH-MY!

Shop your weight range within tractor brands. Budget will eliminate some choices. Collect a dealer brochure for each tractor model in your weight range. I spreadsheet tractor and implement specs, often a revealing exercise. I have a column for cost per pound.

Most tractors under 3,000 pounds bare weight operate in residential or hobby farm applications on one to ten flat acres. Subcompact and compact tractors under 3,000 pounds will enter a residential garage with typical 84" door height.

 

[aczlan]

Round bales weight from 800 to 1,200 pounds dry. In Texas most round bales are probably towards 1,200 pounds.

The L2501 weighs 2,700 pounds, bare tractor. You cannot lift 1,200 pound round bales safely with a tractor that weighs less than 4,000 pounds bare, 5,000 pounds bare safer.

We frequently move 5x4 round bales with a B7500, we use a 3 point spear and take it slowly, but it works fine.
The L3830 works better, but when it is still baling, my wife runs the bales back with the B7500.

To answer the question posed by the thread title based on specs at Tractordata.com - Yes, on the 3pt.
BUT - If you are only going to have 2 cows and they are grazing on 3 acres how much hay do you need? Would round bales "go bad"?

Yep, our B7500 will handle MOST of our 5x4 round bales happily. There are a few that are problematic, but it is generally fine.

Aaron Z

 

[Xfaxman]

The OP didn't say what size round bales. The 5x6 bales that came off of our Blue Stem field were close to 1500 pounds. I know because I pulled the trailer across the scales at the feed store.

Now I can weigh the bale myself. This one is 5x5 and 1132 pounds:

Here is a handy chart:

 

[Fallon]

I had a L3200, same loader & frame as the L2501. I helped a friend move a small barn full of "1,200lbs" big square bales. I got the job done, but it was sketchy as ****. If I recall the loader is rated to 1,200lbs at the pins. Add in a couple hundred lbs for the forks & a decent bit for the load being well in front of the pins & I was well past the OEM rating.

I had a 5' rotary cutter on the back & a small pile of 50lbs bags of stuff on the back of that. Loaded R4 tires too. Lots of ballast & it was located a lot further back than normal for better performance. It still really wasnt enough. The back end was really light & pretty much came off the ground at least once.

The lack if ballast is guaranteed to be the weak point on the economy L 2 & 3 thousands, possibly the "frame". My new L4060 on the other hand is rock solid at max loader lift with just loaded tires (I keep ballast on the 3pt pther than that one time). So hydraulics & loader design are the weak spot there. Probably closely followed by the front axle, but that's just a guess. Everything has a weak spot, so that's not a complaint against either machine. Just s matter of where that weak spot is. Hopefully it's a power or ballast weak spot, not a structural issue.

I was lucky if I could lift a bale high enough to stack it on another bale. It depended on how lucky we were with the weight of a given bale.

In short, a L2501 might be able to lift your bales. But it wont be able to do it safely. You can probably get away with an occasional bale, as I did. But plan on getting a bigger machine if you plan on moving big square or round bales.

Found a photo of moving those bales with the L3200. That's likely as high as I could lift that bale. I still pucker up remember doing that.

I couldn't use my 3pt bale spear (cheap impulse garage sale score I really dont need or use much) as it would just tear out the top of the bale. A round bale wouldnt have that problem as they dont have the vertical flakes that are really weak against vertical pressure.

 

[dchemphill1]

I move smaller round bales with my L3901 with weighted tires and extra weight on back. The guy I get hay from makes them smaller 600-900 lbs. I am not trying to stack them. Just take of trailer and move to barn. Works great

 

[MRollins10]

Found a photo of moving those bales with the L3200. That's likely as high as I could lift that bale. I still pucker up remember doing that.

I couldn't use my 3pt bale spear (cheap impulse garage sale score I really dont need or use much) as it would just tear out the top of the bale. A round bale wouldnt have that problem as they dont have the vertical flakes that are really weak against vertical pressure.View attachment 570497

Great picture! Thanks

 

[Syslogv4]

I have an l2501 and I am able to pick up 4x5 round bales with the front loader with no issues at all. That痴 with strapping the bale to the bucket. I知 getting a ssqa bale spear soon.