Splitter Hitch Pulls Two Balers At Once

Splitter hitch pulls two balers at once HITCHES Hitches 17-6-39 "It lets me bale hay twice as fast," says Jacob Banman, New Bothwell, Manitoba, about his pto "splitter hitch" that lets him operate two Hesston small square balers at the same time behind his Deere 4450 tractor. Banman bought a new Hesston 4590 baler to run alongside his existing Hesston 4600. The balers attach to 8-in. sq. hitch bar made out of a pull-type combine hitch. The hitch bar mounts on a two-wheeled cart made from the undercarriage of a New Holland manure spreader. A splitter gearbox, salvaged from an old pull-type beet harvester, mounts in the middle of the hitch bar. A pair of 7-ft. long pto shafts extend out in each direction from the splitter gearbox to a pair of 90 degree gearboxes mounted at either end of the hitch that drive the balers' original pto shafts. "I made about 6,000 bales with it last summer with no problems," says Banman. "I was able to make about 500 bales per hour. Baling twice as much hay per hour allows me to bale more hay at optimum moisture levels, which usually occur between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. With a single baler, I had been putting up about 60% of my hay crop at the optimum moisture level. My twin baler allows me to put up about 80% of my crop at the optimum moisture level in most years. I spent about $1,800 to build the hitch. "I figured it was cheaper to build the hitch and buy a second baler than it was to use preservatives or drying agents. I drop the bales on the ground and pick them up later with an automatic bale wagon." Banman says one disadvantage is that for custom baling he's limited to fields with swaths spaced 14 ft. apart. He plans to modify the hitch with a telescoping system that will let him bale varying bale swaths. Another disadvantage is increased operator fatigue from watching two balers. He uses a 150 hp tractor to pull both balers and says his hitch could probably be used to power other equipment but he hasn't tried any-thing else yet. For road transport he hooks the hitch cart up behind one of the balers and uses it to pull the other baler. "It takes only about 5 min. to switch from field to trans-port position," notes Banman. He used 4-in. sq. steel tubing to make a pair of short hitches that weld to each end of the hitch bar. The angle-drive gearboxes were salvaged from old pull-type combines. The gears in one drive were reversed to turn the baler pto shaft in the right direction. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jacob Banman, Box 26, New Bothwell, Manitoba, Canada ROA 1CO (ph 204 388-4566).

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