joshuabardwell
Elite Member
I bought five round bales today and brought them home on my trailer, stacked three-and-two. The top two were (relatively) easy. I parked the truck parallel to the trailer and tipped them into the truck's bed. One, I did with ratchet straps and elbow grease. The other, I tipped some of the way, but it wouldn't finish going, and I didn't have enough extension on my loader to push it, so I hooked it up to the drawbar with a ratchet strap and pulled it over.
The bottom three were going to be a trick, though. In the past, I have handled round bales either by buying them one at a time and shoving them out of the truck wherever they were meant to end up, or parking the trailer as close as possible to where they were meant to be stored and then rolling them into position by hand--sometimes with the help of another person, and occasionally a long pry-bar. It was a lot of work, I don't have to tell you.
One of the things I had hoped to use my tractor for was moving these bales around, but there just hasn't been money in the budget yet for a bale spear. But I got to thinking and applied a little git-r-done. See what you think.
First, I laid some 10k ratchet straps down.
Then I rolled the bale off the back of the trailer, onto the ratchet straps. For the last one, which was all the way at the front of the trailer, I used the loader to lift up the front of the trailer a few feet, so it was easier to roll off. (Don't worry--I chocked the wheels real good before doing this, to avoid any seesaw surprises.)
Next, I pulled the tractor up to the bale and hooked the ratchet straps to the bucket. I curled the bucket all the way to try to limit the amount of stress on the bottom plate of the bucket.
Finally, I moved the bale into position and disconnected it.
As you can see, I put the bushhog on the back of the tractor for ballast, and I'm glad I did, because even with it, if I accidentally moved the loader a little too fast, the tractor definitely got bouncy. I actually intentionally lifted and then jerkily dropped the bale a few times on level ground, just to get a sense of how tippy the tractor really was. It seemed to me like having the loader up high was a risk, but on the other hand, the bale is below it, so I wasn't really sure what the net effect on lateral stability would be. Regardless, I moved at a snail's pace on any part of the property that had any sideways lean at all, and at a turtle's pace everywhere else.
It seems to me like the biggest risk of this scenario is that the bale might get to swinging and cause more of a shift in balance than the operator might expect. I dunno. What do y'all think? Was this an example git-r-done ingenuity, or just a dumb-butt trying to get himself killed?
One other question: I have contemplated whether my loader really has the capacity to lift a round bale. It's rated at just over 1,000 lbs lift capacity (to full height at 500 mm forward of the pins). Seems to me doing it my way puts all the weight at that 500mm-forward-of-the-pins position, but if I was using a proper bale spear, a lot of the bale's weight would be much farther forward of the pins, putting a lot more leverage on the loader. I wonder whether, if I was to get a bale spear, I would need to get a 3ph spear instead of a FEL one. What do you think?
The bottom three were going to be a trick, though. In the past, I have handled round bales either by buying them one at a time and shoving them out of the truck wherever they were meant to end up, or parking the trailer as close as possible to where they were meant to be stored and then rolling them into position by hand--sometimes with the help of another person, and occasionally a long pry-bar. It was a lot of work, I don't have to tell you.
One of the things I had hoped to use my tractor for was moving these bales around, but there just hasn't been money in the budget yet for a bale spear. But I got to thinking and applied a little git-r-done. See what you think.
First, I laid some 10k ratchet straps down.
Then I rolled the bale off the back of the trailer, onto the ratchet straps. For the last one, which was all the way at the front of the trailer, I used the loader to lift up the front of the trailer a few feet, so it was easier to roll off. (Don't worry--I chocked the wheels real good before doing this, to avoid any seesaw surprises.)
Next, I pulled the tractor up to the bale and hooked the ratchet straps to the bucket. I curled the bucket all the way to try to limit the amount of stress on the bottom plate of the bucket.
Finally, I moved the bale into position and disconnected it.
As you can see, I put the bushhog on the back of the tractor for ballast, and I'm glad I did, because even with it, if I accidentally moved the loader a little too fast, the tractor definitely got bouncy. I actually intentionally lifted and then jerkily dropped the bale a few times on level ground, just to get a sense of how tippy the tractor really was. It seemed to me like having the loader up high was a risk, but on the other hand, the bale is below it, so I wasn't really sure what the net effect on lateral stability would be. Regardless, I moved at a snail's pace on any part of the property that had any sideways lean at all, and at a turtle's pace everywhere else.
It seems to me like the biggest risk of this scenario is that the bale might get to swinging and cause more of a shift in balance than the operator might expect. I dunno. What do y'all think? Was this an example git-r-done ingenuity, or just a dumb-butt trying to get himself killed?
One other question: I have contemplated whether my loader really has the capacity to lift a round bale. It's rated at just over 1,000 lbs lift capacity (to full height at 500 mm forward of the pins). Seems to me doing it my way puts all the weight at that 500mm-forward-of-the-pins position, but if I was using a proper bale spear, a lot of the bale's weight would be much farther forward of the pins, putting a lot more leverage on the loader. I wonder whether, if I was to get a bale spear, I would need to get a 3ph spear instead of a FEL one. What do you think?
