Evidently they were built in Kansas by DewEze manufacturing in the 60s or 70s, and used in that region for a while. I have a buddy who spent his childhood riding on the back of one up in Oklahoma. A search on the web finds at least one person still using one today. I was just wondering if anybody had seen one parked in a field somewhere or gathering dust in a back barn. Seems like it would be the ultimate restoration project for somebody that hauls a lot of square bales (like me), likes to see unique farm equipment at the shows (like me), and has a lot of free time on their hands (ok, that one is not me...).
Here are some picks from a website of a woman in Tulsa. The Hay Monster looks like it's in great shape!
Anybody seen one around lately?
Chet.
I was telling a friend today about my put-myself-through high school/college hay hauling machine, “the DewEze Hay Monster“, and had to do a Internet search to show him a picture. I found this thread. I know it’s old but I wanted to chime in.
For the green country area of Oklahoma, ozarks hills of Missiouri, and the eastern Flint Hills of Kansas this is by far and away the best solution. The regions farms/ranches in the day were primarily made up of old Homestead type farms operated on slim budgets. Newer barns that would accept a new Holland type easy stacker were hard to fund.
These photos are the best. Brings back the sights and sounds of good times with good friends. Generally I would hire two high school buddies to stack in the back and I will drive and then we would unload in the barn. We generally could put a load of hay, 200 bales is correct, in the barn every hour without difficulty.
I know we probably shouldn’t of done it but generally we were roading this thing not at 50 but at 65 miles an hour, learned my lesson one day when the steering wheel came off thankfully the brakes kept it straight as I stopped. Taking it through the city traffic of Bartlesville Oklahoma during construction season was exciting as wide as it was. But we got all over north eastern Oklahoma and south eastern Kansas hauling on large ranches like the Drummonds and smaller spreads like Billy Munger. And just a few dimes per bail hold we had to be very careful to make a profit with it but mostly we just had a good time and learned how to work hard. I can still remember the sound on hot summer mornings of that engine starting up and long nights under a full moon running without lights just because we could through the field picking up bales. Great memories! Had a cousin ones who came down to help me haul hay on his summer vacation from the big cities back east. To his credit he finished the week but having done so he threw his hay hooks down on the deck and exclaimed “that’s why I’m going to college“ as he stepped down after the last load of the week for him. It was still work but a Sight better than truck and trailer.
For a kid who had been hiring his sisters to work for him loading a truck and trailer then graduating to this thing was a dream. The ability to have a elevator on the snout with just a pulling up a couple of pins and flipping out the extension was amazing. Truly it was a solid piece of equipment well engineered for the task.
It was preceded back in the 60s by the old green machine. That’s a bit before my time but I heard the old-timers talk about it. My particular model had a 318 Industrial Chrysler engine with, if I remember correctly, a small five speed Allison transmission. It was an incredible machine. Never really had any major repairs that weren’t self-inflicted.
As I look back over the years I’ve realized the genius of this Machine. It filled a niche between the pick up and trailer and the auto stacking crowds. Ultimately it died not because of lack of interest but because of lack of willing bodies to throw bales.
I was passing through Thayer Kansas last week just on the north side of town before you climb the hill I saw one parked outside of a barn on the east side of the highway. It took me back all those decades agoo seeing it there. I almost stopped to climb around on it. It was still in great shape with them almost all of the paint like the one in the picture.
