Moving large square bales, with no machinery. Let’s do this.

[Hay Dude]

I've seen dually (pickup) flatbeds with a hay spear on the back, one bale on the spear, and another one in front of that, not sure how the front one got up there, or how they get it off ...

Get an old cotton bale truck ... They pickup and drop of on there own conveyor ...

I don’t know if the bale beds work with a square. I know they work with rounds. I can’t see why not though. They fit into the trailer receiver hitch.
Used rigs run like $1,500. New are salty. Only holds one bale. 2 would be better.
I’d have to look into that a little more-I like the idea

 

[Torvy]

So I'll spend your money...would something like this work?

 

[Farmer495]

That’s an option, but sadly I don’t have a pickup, I have a Ram 5500 with a flatbed.

I suppose that cheap HF thing could be bolted to anything. Just a matter if it would "slide" on your flatbed versus a pickup bedliner.

 

[Hay Dude]

Back to reality:

$1899. Has wireless remote. Removes easily. Works with square or round. Wonder if it works off hot wire in trailer plug? This one hooks to GN hitch in bed. Wonder if this company makes a similar priced version for the bumper hitch tube. Might stick out too far.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I think it's gonna need a lot more juice than that ... The link below has them also, comes with a 300 amp fuse!

Not sure how far away they are, if two trip are feasible ... Or how athletic you feel ... $900 Made in Missouri, USA!

2 SPEAR HAND WINCH FOR PICK UP TRUCK

2 Spear Pickup Truck Hand Winch Hay Bale Mover, 48" Spears 2 Spped Winch, Custom Fabrication 800 283 7107, Made in the USA in Lamar MO, Est 1976

hayspear.com

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Or if you could find a truck mount one that could handle two bales side by side like this for a skid steer ... Tractor Double Tine / Double Bale Stabber - MDS Manufacturing

 

[Hay Dude]

I think they are all GN mount, and unfortunately, I have a 3” ball. I’d have to swap balls everytime I use it. Unless someone makes one for 3” ball.

Or if you could find a truck mount one that could handle two bales side by side like this for a skid steer ... Tractor Double Tine / Double Bale Stabber - MDS Manufacturing

Probably too wide goin down the road.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I use to haul the 4'X4'X8' bales on a 53' flatbed ... They stayed under the 102" width ... Usually stacked then the long way, as we side loaded, occasionally put on sideways at the back on the rear kicker depending on moisture content (weight)

 

[Hay Dude]

I use to haul the 4'X4'X8' bales on a 53' flatbed ... They stayed under the 102" width ... Usually stacked then the long way, as we side loaded, occasionally put on sideways at the back on the rear kicker depending on moisture content (weight)

2 of my bales side by side, pushed together tightly would be 10’ (120”) wide, unless you stabbed the ends of the bales, but then they might fall off. They are 4x4x5.

I like the electric over hydraulic bale carrier. Just don’t like the idea of swapping balls every time I need to hook up the GN trailer.

I think I’ll just shove them off until I know it’s a “real” customer. She hasn’t replied for 5 hours. Must not have liked my delivery charge….lol

 

[4570Man]

So I'll spend your money...would something like this work?

View attachment 4425202

On a more practical level he was wanting a tandem axel flatbed. I’ve seen moffet forklifts for like $6500 used.

 

[airbiscuit]

Do you anticipate doing this type of delivery often? One bale at a time or 2?

Just spitballing here, but maybe you could make a sort of Roll Off. A winch and a roller at the back of the bed, and a sort of push cart attached to the cable (think Menards push cart)

edited ... This is the type of system our silage wagons had. the front of the wall of the wagon was attached to two cables on the floor, and a kind of ratchet winch pulled it forward to advance the silage.

 

[garry1p]

Use a High Lift jack and push them off.

back of bed|hi lift [ 4X4..2X8 flat against the bale|>>>>

I suspect you have all the materials on hand.

 

[Hay Dude]

On a more practical level he was wanting a tandem axel flatbed. I’ve seen moffet forklifts for like $6500 used.

Lots of thought went into this. I could get a “2-fer” with a 25’ tandem and a moffet. Nobody around here uses them for hay and the reason is the rear steering wheels are really small on the buggy and hard to control on hay field bumps.
I did find this truck yesterday, but bed is only 22’ long. I thought it was a really sharp older truck though. $22,000

 

[Hay Dude]

If you put a piece of plywood under the bales the PVC idea would probably work but I don’t have a lot of confidence that you could overcome the friction between the hay and the pvc pipes.

Why would there be friction between hay & pipes? You put the pipes on the flatbed first, then the plywood on top of the pipes, then the bale on top of the plywood. That will roll pretty easily.

If you were willing to flop them on the ground to start with why don’t you just use the dump truck?

I’m not willing to do that if the bales start sliding at a rapid speed down the dump bed and onto the ground where they could break. Dump truck bed sits about 2’ higher off the ground than Ram flatbed. More of a chance the strings will break.

 

[BleedingOrange]

Haydude, out of curiosity, do you get flaky people like this to sign a contract of some kind, like x amount of bales in x amount of time at x dollars delivered per bale, or just do the deal verbally ? What I,m kinda asking is, how do you know for sure you can at least cover your investment ?

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

Well, I finally realized one way square bales are inferior to round bales. I always knew this, but now it’s come to be a problem.

Customer messaged me last night. Has 4 easy keepers and wants to feed them big bales on the ground with NO hay hut or feeder.
Ridiculous, I know, but ifn that’s what they want, who am I to judge? She’s too far to run them over to her with loader tractor.

Problem is, she only wants 2 per month. If it was round bales, no problem, just roll them off the trailer onto the ground, but my 4x4x5 hay blocks don’t roll so well

Trying to think of ways to deliver them without tractor. Best I can come up with is load them on the bed of my Ram and me and my son push them off, but at 1000lbs each, won’t be easy, or will it? I think I might put a 5’ long pc of 4x4 under the back edge of the bale to give it some “slope”, then strap down real, real tight. Then when I get there, the slight angle off the edge of the truck, we might be able to shove them off.

Would love to have a cheapy, easy to chain down skid loader right about now….

What are 4 easy keepers?

Would this work? It should work on a flatbed also.

 

[Hay Dude]

What are 4 easy keepers?

Man you gotta get out more lol
Easy keepers are lower end, non-picky horses

Would this work? It should work on a flatbed also.

 

[WM75Guy]

Man you gotta get out more lol
Easy keepers are lower end, non-picky horses

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

we

Man you gotta get out more lol
Easy keepers are lower end, non-picky horses

We have 4 neighbors with horses, 2 with cattle and one pig farmer, never heard of easy keepers

 

[BlueKnife]

Well, I finally realized one way square bales are inferior to round bales. I always knew this, but now it’s come to be a problem.

Customer messaged me last night. Has 4 easy keepers and wants to feed them big bales on the ground with NO hay hut or feeder.
Ridiculous, I know, but ifn that’s what they want, who am I to judge? She’s too far to run them over to her with loader tractor.

Problem is, she only wants 2 per month. If it was round bales, no problem, just roll them off the trailer onto the ground, but my 4x4x5 hay blocks don’t roll so well

Trying to think of ways to deliver them without tractor. Best I can come up with is load them on the bed of my Ram and me and my son push them off, but at 1000lbs each, won’t be easy, or will it? I think I might put a 5’ long pc of 4x4 under the back edge of the bale to give it some “slope”, then strap down real, real tight. Then when I get there, the slight angle off the edge of the truck, we might be able to shove them off.

Would love to have a cheapy, easy to chain down skid loader right about now….

For what I would imagine she's going to end up paying for delivery, she could probably just buy a little 4x8 utility trailer and come get the bales from you every couple weeks. Then she could just leave them on the trailer to feed. It'd save her some hay probably, due to the bale not laying directly on the ground.