Bale Band It
- Thread starter ddivinia
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jimg
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I believe Robert has...if you do a search I bet you can find his commentary.
Robert_in_NY
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I have never seen one up here but have talked to a few guys who have been to demo's and even one owner. They are a great concept but the major drawback is there are no dealers and product support is a problem. By not having any dealers (unless things recently changed) if your machine breaks down you are stuck either fixing it yourself or waiting for the company to send the techs to you which depending on how far away you are from their company could be days. The other problem was reliability. The first ones were not very reliable and with the support problem it was a very expensive piece of equipment sitting behind the barn waiting to be repaired. Did I mention they are "very" expensive?
I do like the concept but so far that is the only positive I have heard from anyone about these machines. They are a great concept and if they develop a dealer network for these with better support they may come close to justifying their expensive price tag.
If you are seriously considering one of these machines look into product support and how they will handle any issues you encounter. If you are going to have to wait for techs to be flown in then it may not be a good system for your operation without a secondary system to bring bales in if the Bale Bandit breaks down.
I do like the concept but so far that is the only positive I have heard from anyone about these machines. They are a great concept and if they develop a dealer network for these with better support they may come close to justifying their expensive price tag.
If you are seriously considering one of these machines look into product support and how they will handle any issues you encounter. If you are going to have to wait for techs to be flown in then it may not be a good system for your operation without a secondary system to bring bales in if the Bale Bandit breaks down.
radman1
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My neighbor had someone put up his grass hay 2 years ago. They used one. Baled about 25 acres and pulled bale bandit behind. It seemed to work just fine when I was watching it. About 1-2 days later, semi truck and flat bed came in with about a 4600 JD CUT on the back. Parked the semi where he needed it. Then use the CUT to pick up the bundled bales, and stacked them on the trailer. He would drive up the back of the semi with some loads and stack them higher. After a few hours, loaded the CUT on the very rear of the flat bed and drove off with the load. 1 guy for the swathing, 1 guy for the baling and 1 guy loaded/drove the semi. It seemed very efficient.
deereguy
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I saw one at the Farm Science Review (in London, OH) on Tuesday of this week. It was at the show- not on a demo, I asked how much they cost- lady explained rising steel prices and they only have a "few" left before the price increase...old price is $57,000. If you search Google for the Bale Bandit there are a few blogs out there- one basically says...they deliver it and hand you a card they says...Good Luck!! Robert is correct in his statements.
The thing I see as a draw back is if you are selling hay by the bale or someone only wants 10 bales, you need to break open the bands, then you need to move the other 11 by hand if you need another 21 or however they are banded. They are a great concept, just seem to lack product support for what you pay.
Good Luck!!
The thing I see as a draw back is if you are selling hay by the bale or someone only wants 10 bales, you need to break open the bands, then you need to move the other 11 by hand if you need another 21 or however they are banded. They are a great concept, just seem to lack product support for what you pay.
Good Luck!!
I saw one at the Farm Science Review (in London, OH) on Tuesday of this week. It was at the show- not on a demo, I asked how much they cost- lady explained rising steel prices and they only have a "few" left before the price increase...old price is $57,000. If you search Google for the Bale Bandit there are a few blogs out there- one basically says...they deliver it and hand you a card they says...Good Luck!! Robert is correct in his statements.
The thing I see as a draw back is if you are selling hay by the bale or someone only wants 10 bales, you need to break open the bands, then you need to move the other 11 by hand if you need another 21 or however they are banded. They are a great concept, just seem to lack product support for what you pay.
Good Luck!!
One would have to do a lot of squares to justify it. It looks to be a better solution than the other accumulators, grapples, but it costs twice as much.
Don't need anything really special on your tractors to move the bales...
D.
