Round hay bale dolly

KYErik · Dec 25, 2007

I don't know how many of you share my problem- my tractor is unable to carry large round bales, yet I needed a way to carry them out to feed to the cows.

Necessity is the mother of invention- so, an old rear axle, a few pipes, brackets and a winch later, this is what I came up with.

Its crude, but it gets the job done. The L shaped bale carrier is bolted to two saddle shaped pieces (square tubing with one side cut out) that pivot on the rear axle housing.

The general "winch/tilt" design is used on commercially built units, but they use a spear (which saves the trouble of tightening the strap to hold the bale on)

It has a two inch ball hitch because I also pull the bare A shaped trailer behind a truck to carry logs to my band sawmill. The biggest drawback is that it takes 10-15 minutes to get the bale strapped in and tilted and then another 5-10 minutes to drop it off in the pasture. I suppose I could have used an electric winch, but this was built on a budget.

bjcsc · Dec 25, 2007

Looks good, you can always add the spear and cylinder or winch when $s permit. I am wondering why the tractor won't pick them up, though...no 3pt? How did you move them before?

cityfarma · Dec 25, 2007

Could you mount a spike such that it swings down into the top of the bale to hold it when you lift? That would then take a lot less time to load and unload.

Another way is to extend the forks so they lift the full length of the bale. You would then not need to tie the bale.

Cityfarma

KYErik · Dec 25, 2007

bjcsc said:
Looks good, you can always add the spear and cylinder or winch when $s permit. I am wondering why the tractor won't pick them up, though...no 3pt? How did you move them before?

The tractor is a 1943 Case model SC (my avatar). It originally came without a 3 point hitch and I was able to fabricate one that will work for my post hole digger, grader blade and bush hog, but the rockshaft is set so far behind the rear axle that when I lift my 6 ft bush hog, all it takes is another one hundred pounds on the end of it to raise the front wheels off the ground. Even if I added front weights to counter balance, I doubt that the makeshift rockshaft and supports could withstand the force of a bale.

I moved the bales out of the field with my Case 530 backhoe's front end loader, but it is very clumsy to maneuver through gates carrying a bale and it makes a real mess when the ground is muddy. Another issue is that the backhoe is an old diesel and it can be hard to start in cold weather.

KYErik · Dec 25, 2007

cityfarma said:
Could you mount a spike such that it swings down into the top of the bale to hold it when you lift? That would then take a lot less time to load and unload.

Another way is to extend the forks so they lift the full length of the bale. You would then not need to tie the bale.

Cityfarma

Good points- I initially had metal extensions welded on to the forks, but they were too lightweight and I broke them off. I'll have to see if I have the right types of metal pieces laying around to build a swinging spike.

charlz · Dec 26, 2007

What about just a cross bar between the uprights with some bale spears? This would give you support in the bale as well as ones down the sides. If they were long enough I think you wouldn't need to tie it on. You might even put them on a pivot so they can be tied up out of the way when not in use... so no one walks into them

Charles

txslowpoke · Dec 27, 2007

Here is what we use, I built mine but this pic I found on the net gives you the idea.
http://www.lgportables.com/HAY BUGGY.jpg
It would eliminate the strap and speed up load/unload process.
The advantage of this design is it removes the stress from the hitch when trying to spear a bale, its basically a manual forklift. We use a p/u truck to back up to bale, lower the forks at an angle, back up, winch bale up and off you go. For road travel we have a hitch pin to lock the bale in place, on pasture moves we let the cable/winch take the stress.

KYErik · Dec 28, 2007

txslowpoke said:
Here is what we use, I built mine but this pic I found on the net gives you the idea.
http://www.lgportables.com/HAY BUGGY.jpg
It would eliminate the strap and speed up load/unload process.
The advantage of this design is it removes the stress from the hitch when trying to spear a bale, its basically a manual forklift. We use a p/u truck to back up to bale, lower the forks at an angle, back up, winch bale up and off you go. For road travel we have a hitch pin to lock the bale in place, on pasture moves we let the cable/winch take the stress.

Good point charles.

Thanks for sharing txslowpoke. Is that a single gear reduction winch or a double reduction? The winch I use has no reduction, but its still hard to tilt the bale even with a 5 foot pipe (lever).