Moving round bales....not a problem.

[SteelDust]

After owning the 1533 for about two weeks I finally had the opportunity to move a few 4x4 round bales last night (900-950 lbs.). It handled them without a glitch. Rolled 2 out of the back of the pickup bed. Picked them with the pallet forks, carried them approx 100' over flat ground and deposited them into the round bale feeders. Had to lift about 4 feet to clear the rails of the feeder. There's a small learning curve of rolling the forks forward to compensate for the tilt as you lift. But, using a little finesse on the stick it's not a problem. (Man, it's really touchy when tilting forward or lowering under load )

I'm thinking of adding a removable bale spear to the top of the pallet fork assembly down the road for added stability. But, with the forks spread as wide as possible I don't know if it's necessary. I'm probably never going to lift them high enough to encounter the possibilty of having them roll over onto me.

On edit: backend stayed planted to the ground without any implements attached to the 3pt. Tires are loaded with CaCl-

 

[stump54]

My experience has been the same; no problems with round bales. I use a skid-steer type bale spear.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/3126/sort/1/cat/500/page/1

 

[JerryG]

I had a spear above my forks for a while. It didn't work worth a hoot. It would just scoot the bale around. I finely took it off and it works a lot better. Just make sure that the bale doesn't roll down the loader arms. Your forks may have a back guard to keep that from happening.

 

[SteelDust]

I'm thinking you are right, after using the forks a couple of times on the bales I think the spear is pretty much unnecessary. Yes, my forks do have a back guard...I'd really have to get stupid for them to have any chance of coming back over on me (the most I can ever see having to lift them is 4-5 feet off the ground.

 

[JerryG]

I like my forks for moving bales except when I am taking bales from the stack in the barn. It is almost impossible to remove a top bale without tearing up the bottom bale or knocking them over. I really need to build a single spear for that.

 

[Blackfoot-Dean]

After owning the 1533 for about two weeks I finally had the opportunity to move a few 4x4 round bales last night (900-950 lbs.). It handled them without a glitch. Rolled 2 out of the back of the pickup bed. Picked them with the pallet forks, carried them approx 100' over flat ground and deposited them into the round bale feeders. Had to lift about 4 feet to clear the rails of the feeder. There's a small learning curve of rolling the forks forward to compensate for the tilt as you lift. But, using a little finesse on the stick it's not a problem. (Man, it's really touchy when tilting forward or lowering under load )

I'm thinking of adding a removable bale spear to the top of the pallet fork assembly down the road for added stability. But, with the forks spread as wide as possible I don't know if it's necessary. I'm probably never going to lift them high enough to encounter the possibilty of having them roll over onto me.

On edit: backend stayed planted to the ground without any implements attached to the 3pt. Tires are loaded with CaCl-

Hi, I was curious what size is your bucket arms? My bucket manual says 1200lbs max and the bales I want to start making in 2022 are 1200lbs so I'm not optimistic that my 1533 MF will handle them well enough or safely. My rear tires are filled with calcium and I was going to buy a rear spear to counter weight it with a round bale if needed.

 

[Gee Ray]

I had a MF 1528. The front axle is very weak where is attached to the frame. The axle broke off 3 times as I was using it to do hay. You need to use a rear ballast for your tractor. You need to transfer the weight from the front axle to the rear axle. The only way to do this is by adding a rear ballast behind the rear axle. A hay fork added to the 3 point hitch would allow the ballast without much added length. Pick up a bale with the rear fork and then with the front fork. Allowing 2 bales to be moved quickly.

I think you need to double check the weight limits on the front end loader. I would not want to lift 1200 bales with a machine that is being pushed to it's limits. I know my 1528 was strong for it's size but it did not hold up well to the use. I was only doing 5-600 pound bales.