Unloading a hay wagon

[L_Nicholson]

I'm trying to come up with a way to primarily unload a hay wagon with small square bales but also "maybe" try to be able to be scoop up the bales out of the field and load onto a trailer. I'm not in the hay biz nor do I really want to be so I don't want to spend lots of money on this.

Next year the plan is to have a guy hay my place on shares with both round and square bales and was thinking of either getting some bolt on pallet forks OR taking my FEL hay spike and modifying it by changing out the smaller spikes down below with much longer spears? long enough to stab 3 or 4 bales in one load.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated as this year since unloading 200 bales by myself before the rain came in was not fun.

Thanks!
Lee

 

[bontai_Joe]

Any neighbor kids that would work for you unloading? That was my summer job for 4 years at minimum wage. Rode my bicycle 3 miles to get there and worked all day, starting at age 12. I'm 52 now so it was 40 years ago. My friend and I got hired together and we each made $1.25 an hour to start. I was making $1.75/ hour when I quit working there 4 years later for a job that payed $1.85 and was 2 miles closer to home on my bike. I always considered it good work, and enjoyed it.

 

[L_Nicholson]

In a perfect world I could get my brother in-law who is 16 but we all know this is not a perfect world...lol. my kids are too young. A 4 year old can't lift too much. With schools starting back up so soon and the liability that follows hiring someone to help I'm more inclined to figure a way to do things myself. I'm 34 and my brother in law should be able to keep up with me but that ain't happening either..... I can't even get him to stay on my fence lines. I'm sure most people can feel my pain with the lack of help out there.

 

[zzvyb6]

Sticking with the original goal (a self unloading hay wagon), howz dis:

If the bales are stacked like bricks on a wagon with no sides, you could back the wagon down a ramp where the end of the ramp is at a dock height that's the same as the wagon floor. Band the bales with a belt and pull then off the wagon. There's a soft drink bottling plant near me. They empty the full truck this way and don't spill a drop (Its cans).

How a bout a tilt-bed wagon floor (like my snowmobile trailer)? Make sure you have enough ballast weight up front).

Hoist the wagon up to the hay mow floor and push them off with a beam and some ropes and pulleys.

If the hay is randomly loaded (as in kick baler), put a curtain (window shade) under the load and pull it up to dump them into a pen.

Buy dozens of cheap hay wagons and never unload them. Just pull off the running gear out from under it.

Get some model rocket engines and 'fly' each bale up to the barn. Extra points if a remote control capability is utilized.

Make just one very large 200 ton round bale and roll it home. Extra points if you can live in it while waiting to make use of it.

Burn the hay and buy only what you need from the government. Sell the ashes to Walmart as "Organic Plant food".

Sell the cows or horses and get plastic ones instead. No need to feed or water them. The ag inspectors are usually blind so it will be a while before they catch on.

Buy or make some minibarns on wheels. Then rotate the animals around the field as necessary to get them in position to feed from bales left on the ground.

Build a 35 story elevator shaft and put a 20 ton weight at the top. Park the hay wagons underneath it and cut it loose. The resulting compressed net bale will be dense but compact enough to fit in a normal sized discarded refrigerator.

Open up a roadside stand and sell them as "All Natural, Home Grown Kentucky Gold Smoking tobacco" bales. Let them pay YOU to have a hit off the bong.

Did I miss anything?

 

[zzvyb6]

Oops, forgot a really important one....

Take digital pictures of the bales as they leave the baler. You can then store them on PhotoBucket or other sharing sites. You save a heck of a lot on shipping this way and they can be used over and over again for feed. Just print them off as needed. Some shysters have been known to recolor some of the hay being sold in this manner using Adobe PhotoShop to add more alfalfa, so be very careful to check these products if purchasing hay on-line, especially from overseas eBay sites.

I'll admit I changed 1st to 2nd cutting once using this technique....

 

[L_Nicholson]

Lol someone has way too much time on their hands? Thanks for thinking outside the box.... it's just a little too far for me.

After talking to a buddy that welds for a living, he says he can get some scrap pipe that can slip over the smaller spears on the hay spike and then we are going to see if we can slide up under the bales... if not we may try for a smaller spear that can stab through the bales easily..... we will see I guess.

much easier than Bob's suggestions

Lee