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QUESTION:i move around quite a bit of hay. big bales.. the
rolled up kind. space being a comodity, i'd like
to stack them.. but they're heavy.
i'm thinking of making a sort of 'forklift' attachment
to go on the back end of my farm tractor. it would work
something like this: fire up the tractor, back up (and fork)
a bale of hay .. drive it to the pile, lift the bale .. and
stack it.
i'm guessing the stacks wouldn't be any taller than
4 bales.. so that'd make it about 12', more or less.
i'd spear them in middle (instead of scooping, like
a forklift).. so add 2 more feet... 14'.
the bales weigh.. maybe.. 200-300pounds? (in that neighborhood)
the tractor's got hydraulic lines i can use.
and i know how i'd attach the thing (copy the
hookup on my other equipment)..
how would you do this? what would be the
best (cheapest?) way to go about it?
if i go for the forklift option.. the 'rails' would have
to telescope down to a reasonable height (4 or 5 feet?)
... will i be able to find (square?) tubing that fit
into eachother snug enough?
or would a 'backhoe' type option work better?
2 pistons or so.. and an arm?
ANSWER: Those are some pretty small bales. Virtually nobody around here
rolls them smaller than 5' dia and some go all the way out to 6' (the
max that most bailers will make). If it's a dense grass then the 6'
bails can get as heavy as 2,000 lbs.
How big a tractor and how big is it's 3 point.
The standard solution is a 3 point attachment. If you configure the
hookup right then the boom will go from horizontal to near vertical.
With another cylinder on the forks you can then rotate the bail down
once it's in place. These are routinely used to stack the big round
bales two high on a semi truck. But it takes a big tractor in at least
the 130 HP range and a category 3 (or is that 4) three point to take
the weight that far out.
If you have to go forklift then you need to get a mast off a old
forklift. Building it would cost a lot more.
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