[AT] Semi-O.T. One man baling? (bale trailers)

[Grant Brians]

Frank, there are quite a few trailers in this area which were farmer made
that were originally built for hauling orchard crawler tractors, but would
probably meet your needs and they are not too expensive to build. A low deck
is built with either stub axles welded over the deck or with a fabricated
drop axle. Old truck wheels are used and the deck height is about 14". Here
they are tilt trailers to load the crawlers with a drag disc, but for your
purpose, it would not need to be a tilt. The width could be the width you
want.
    Here people don't hand handle the three twine/wire bales typically
anymore, they use a harobed (bale wagon). But that is with 120-160 pound
bales and they are EXPENSIVE to buy and maintain. Even the antiques are
thousands of dollars and then they typically need a LOT of work and they are
not as efficient as the newer ones. So a low trailer may be the best way to
go.
            Grant Brians
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 7:02 PM
Subject: RE: [AT] Semi-O.T. One man baling?


> I have been thinking further about the big flat sled
> I mentioned earlier. We used to use one many years ago
> that as a kid I thought was huge. In reality it was
> probably about 6' x 10' and stood about 8 inches tall.
> The advantage of the low deck is of course when
> picking bales up off the ground how much easier it is
> to not have the first layer already 3 feet off of the
> ground like on a wagon. Also you don't have to keep
> climbing off and on the wagon, just a simple normal
> height step.
> The down side is that the sled would do a fair amount
> of damage to the turf. It had occurred to me to make
> one but to use two skinny runners on each side and use
> a row of smallish round faced wheels between the two
> like in-line skates. In soft spots the runners could
> take over. The wheels that John Deere uses for gauge
> wheels on the lawn tractor mowers jump to mind or
> maybe something a bit wider and heavier.
> Then I got to thinking about making a "very" lo
> trailer patterned somewhat like the big trailer here:
> http://www.arnes.com/lowbed2.html
> Picture one made in this style but of course a little
> lighter with only one axle on the rear and a dolly
> axle under the front. For my purpose the deck could be
> less than a foot off of the ground. Bales could also
> be stacked on the rear deck and over the dolly wheels.
> The bottom of the side rails could have wide skid
> plates for crossing humps and ridges. As a piece of
> slow speed farm equipment it could be a bit wider than
> legal trailer width if needed.
> The next thought is to just use a regular hay wagon
> to build it but cut it out in the middle, stretch it
> out and make a very low platform in the middle. Done
> that way it could still be used as a wagon to pull
> behind the baler when help was available and would
> just hold that many more bales.
> Just wandering around...
>
>
>
>
> "farmer"
>
> My most recent list
> mailto:budget_muzzleloading-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net
>
>
>
>
>
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