[AT] HayWagon build up

[John Slavin]

Spencer:

I don’t know what the convention is for how far the bed extends past the front wheels, but I can tell you a story about that.  When I was a high schooler, I helped a neighbor in the small square bale hay field.  I mostly worked at unloading wagons.  My boss loaded the wagons that were hitched to a New Holland square baler.  He had his son, some 12 -14 years of age drive the tractor, a Farmall 350 that was attached to the baler.  His son wasn’t always the best at watching the wagon, concentrating on driving and watching the hay feed into the baler, so it was really hard to get his attention from the wagon.  If my boss needed to tell him something he would often have to hop off the wagon and run up to the back of the tractor and then when he he was done talking to his son,  he would stand as the baler went by him and when the front of the wagon hit him in the ass he would just sit down and swing his legs over the wagon bed and stand up and go back to work. He never looked back at the wagon. Not the smartest I know, but it’s what he did.  We had several wagons and they were essentially the same with an overhang of a foot or so in front of the leading edge of the front tire, except one had a short bed in terms of it’s overhang over the front wheels.  This wagon had essentially no overhang in front of the front leading edge of the tire.  One time he forgot that this particular wagon was attached to the baler and at the same time the wagon hit him in the ass, the front tire also rolled up on the back of his foot and leg.  Not sure what it did, but his leg was in a cast for quite some time.  I think it did something to his achilles tendon. Could have been a lot worse I’m sure.  

So the short answer is, there needs to be some overhang at least if you’re going to do what my old boss did.

John S.