trailer to haul hay

[robert23239]

Hello,

Looking for trailer to haul some hay with down the road. I have a one ton dodge and was looking for a goose neck trailer. I have seen trailers to haul grain with that have the side boards on. I thought that might be good. A fully enclosed trailer would be but I don't see the one I really think that can do the job. It would keep the hay dry.
Or just a just a flat bed with tarps ???

looking for ideas.

Thanks ahead of time.

Robert

 

[MarkLeininger]

An open flat trailer is easiest to load and unload. An enclosed trailer is murder, don't ask how I know. Something with sides makes it easier to keep bales from falling off on the road, but again depending on how you unload it could be a pain. I like a flat bed with nylon straps to hold the bales in place. Tarps are OK if you just leave them on to travel with, but if they stay on very long they cause condensation that ends up molding the hay. You need ventilation to keep things dry, so the tarp can't stay in contact with the hay for long term storage.

 

[mojoinco]

I bought a 16' flat bed (10,000 gvw) and wouldn't buy anything less in length. Mine is bumper pull. Leaves me bed space, no special hitches. If money isn't too big an issue, I would look for something with a covertible dovetail (the ramps flip up on it to make the dovetail area level with the bed) and teh center section between raises up to make it level. Though if I ever add to my barn a goal will be to be able to back a (cheap/simple) trailer in and leave it loaded.

Also, a bed over has advantages: the bed is over the fenders, making loading/unloading easier. We are now buying the large bales, as it is much cheaper. I bought forks for the loader (skidsteer type) on my tractor. Takes 10 minutes to unload two bales (counting getting the tractor and unstrapping the trailer). I don't even get to -sniff- sweat anymore.

My trailer has stake pockets. I built 2 x 12 side boards. That and straps work great at keeping a load on the trailer. Small bales too.

 

[Bird]

Of course they make trailers, as well as 4-wheel wagons, specifically for hauling hay. The ones I've seen, and used, were loaded from the back end, hauled 5 big round bales at a time, and dumped them off the side. Robert, you don't say exactly what kind of bales (I'm guessing small square ones), how many bales you need to haul at a time, how heavy a load, how far you have to go with them, what kind of roads you'll be on, and how you intend to load and unload the trailer. That information might help people give you more reliable answers.

 

[WantedWolf]

I sure would like to see one of the self unloading bale trailers work.

It looks like the bales would hit the ground hard and possibly roll?

 

[DanD78]

I usually haul 200 square bales on a 8'6"x26' flat bed goose neck. With your truck you could probably haul another layer. I am limited by horse power.

Dan

 

[moloss]

I use a 30' flat bed to haul hay.....u didn't say if it was round bails or square but for round......when it's this loaded I only travel about 20-30 miles.....use a strap across the back, one over the top (front to back), and a couple over the top (side to side) over the length wise strap (this is to take all the slack out).....hope this helps...couple of pics from this winter.

 

[Bird]

I sure would like to see one of the self unloading bale trailers work.

It looks like the bales would hit the ground hard and possibly roll?

Roll? They sure will, so you want to be in the right place when you dump them. One day, when I was working with my neighbor, we were pulling two 4-wheeled wagons at a time with his half ton '88 Chevy pickup, very slowly, down a farm-to-market road from the field to his house. And on one trip, he failed to get the latch properly latched on one of the wagons, so he dumped all 5 bales from one wagon into the borrow ditch. I was just glad it was him instead of me. Since we were using the Oliver with a Hay King spear on the 3-point (no front end loader on that tractor), it was a bit awkward retrieving those bales.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

If you're only hauling hay, get a deckover flat bed and use straps. Don't even bother with tarps. Tarps are for hay storage, not transport. Get the biggest trailer your truck will handle. If you have a 1 ton truck, I'd say get a gooseneck.

Sides and an enclosed trailer will cost more, and they only get in the way. If you don't use 1 ton bales yet, soon enough you will. You won't want sides.

If you have anything else you plan to use this trailer for, that changes everything. Now you have to start thinking about deck height, dovetail, etc.

 

[Bird]

I sure would like to see one of the self unloading bale trailers work.

It looks like the bales would hit the ground hard and possibly roll?

If you'd like to see what one of those trailers looks like, go to this Red Rhino website. I've seen these trailers, but what we used worked the same way, but was wagons instead of trailers, and each wagon would hold five 5' wide bales; only four 6' wide bales, but we were hauling 5' x 5' bales and hooked 2 wagons together so we could haul 10 bales each trip.