[AT] Oliver 880 @ auction

[dfolske at nccray.net]

On 24 Jan 2005 at 19:23, Dudley Rupert wrote:

  But I am
> curious, however, as to how the hay was brought in from the field to the
> stacking area.  Was it brought using a wagon and then this hay stacker
> unloaded the wagon and made the stack or was it some other way?
> 
When we stacked loose hay with them the stacks were built in the 
field. Later in the season we used a stack mover consisting of a 
tilting bed with 24 foot x 4 inch x 6 inch beams every 18 inches. 
We would back up to the stack, tilt the bed then manually drag out 
5/8 steel cables and heavy block and tackles from a PTO driven 
winch on the front. These would connect to a big cable and pipe 
sling on the back side of the stack. Put the pto in gear and the 
winch would slowly pull the mover under the stack until it was 
anywhere from 2/3 to 7/8 of the way on then the mover would stop 
going backward and the stack would slide on the rest of the way.

To unload, you disconnected the tackles from the sling and hooked 
them to cables running through pulleys on the end of the outside 
beams to a "push off" at the front.  The stack would slide off.  
Through the heavy sling back on and head for another load.

These stacks would weigh anywhere from 8 to 20 ton. You had to 
be very careful going down steep hills with the JD 80 up front!

Some neighbors would tear the stacks apart with a grapple fork or a 
hay fork ( heavy teeth, 12 inches apart about 6 feet long) on a 
loader and haul the hay home on large wagons or trucks with big 
racks.