Bale-Moving Cart

Bale-Moving Cart HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 10-4-6 "Anyone who handles round bales will wonder how they ever got along without this simple cart which takes just a short time to build," says Earl Roland, Bottineau, N. Dak. "Basically, it's just an A-frame trailer with a 2-tooth fork that pivots on the axle. I used an old piece of 4-in. well casing and burned holes in it for the two 4-ft. long, 1?-in. solid teeth and used a 6-ft. pipe that I reinforced with a 5/8-in. rod to get good leverage when picking the bale up. I used an old swather idler pulley on top to increase the lift capacity of the winch which is mounted near the ball hitch of my trailer, the total length of which is about 10-ft. "I'm using 3/16-in. dia. cable but will probably replace it with 1-in. cable to make it heavier. I'd like to put a brake on the drum to make it easier to lower the bale without having to use the crank on the winch. That would also help feed cable onto the drum. "I built the frame from 2¢-in. dia. pipe, a couple car spindles, and a used 1,000-lb. boat winch. The 15-in. tires came with the old car spindles. The wheel base is about 7 ft. "I've moved about 1,500 bales with only minor modifications, such as adding a little reinforcing to the teeth and lift pipe. I use it a lot for fall feeding from the hay field to pastures and in cold weather when it's hard to get a tractor started. I pull it with a 4-WD pickup. The biggest advantage of this bale cart is that all you need on your pickup is a ball hitch. Nothing mounts permanently inside the pickup box." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Earl Roland, Rt. 3, Bottineau, N. Dak. 58318 (ph 701 263-4946, or 263-4547).

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