Moving round bales without a bale spear

[joshuabardwell]

LOTs of work but effective and by having the bucket tilted up, you stay fairly close to the tractor.

It's a bit of work, getting the bales off the trailer, but honestly, even the big ones roll easier than you would think, as long as they're on level ground. If I could have approached the trailer from the back, it would have been easier to use the tractor to unload them, but given where the trailer was dropped, and given that I didn't want to hook up the truck and move it again, this was the best option.

I dont think those loose wrapped bales will weigh more than 800 pounds when green (freshly baled) and certainly not 1000 pounds when dried out for a few month. A 5x5 bale has to be tightly baled to weigh 1000 pounds.

I really don't know, honestly. I have never bothered to take one to the scale to weigh it, and if I did, it wouldn't do much good because the next batch would be different. But I agree that I'd be surprised if they came in over 1,000 lbs.

A bush hog is likely the best at using its weight effectively to counteract FEL forces. It gives you plenty of counter weight for task with the FEL but it does make the tractor train fairly long so it isnt very maneuverable in tight spots. Even a light weight 6 foot bush hog is going to weigh about 800 and being hung far back from the tractor gives you much more counterbalance than the same 800# on the lift arms between the pins like a ballast box is.

That was what I thought too. It's only a 5' hog, and since I can jeeeest barely lift it by hand by pulling up on the tail-wheel, I reckon it probably doesn't weigh more than 500 lbs. But 500 lbs hanging off the back like that is better than 800 lbs tucked up between the arms, IMO.

Regarding 3 PH bale spears, they can be found really cheap (around $100) on Craigslist but the real drawback to them is not only can you not stack with them, but you cant unload a trailer with them either.

Right. That's what's got me torn on whether I want a 3ph one, which is cheaper, and which definitely will not stress out my tractor, and a front-end one, which is far more versatile, but expensive, riskier (more tipover risk) and will require proper ballasting.

You wouldnt necessarily need but one of those straps in the center if is was cinched down tight as those straps look like the 10,000 pound rating ones that I have, way overkill for a <1000 lift.

I thought about one strap, but I wasn't sure the bale wouldn't tip to the side and fall out. They're 10k straps, but remember that's breaking strength. Working load is 1/3 of that. So, still plenty of margin for a <1k bale. I had some 2.5k straps that I used to move the first bale, but I didn't like the way they stretched when I lifted it, so I switched the big ones. They were kind of old and ready to retire, though, so maybe that's why.

 

[redman135]

Be aware that a side to side swing with the bale can easily tip you over. I got a wakeup one day with a bale suspended under the loader, and nothing on the back , went through a small side dip and lifted the back wheel , I felt it lift and dropped the bucket. I had driven through there before, but with a bale on the back as well. (The tractor was an MF362 with duals @ 10'wide)

 

[sd455dan]

for those with a bit larger tractors, moving round or large squares can be done without using a bale spear if you have a grapple.(with adequate FEL lift)
I was really wanting a bale spear attachment- but the grapple has worked so well for round bales and this year large squares that i don't think it is needed now.