Rear-Mounted Bale Handler Reaches Higher Than Most

Rear-Mounted Bale Handler Reaches Higher Than Most BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 26-3-29 Handling big round bales was a hassle for Clyde Clark, Milan, Pennsylvania. If he used a front-end loader, he could stack them higher than he could with a three-point mounted spear. But when it came time to feed them, he found he could get through mud in feedlots and pastures a lot easier if the bale was carried on the back of the tractor. With those two facts in mind, Clark designed a three-point mounted bale handler that lets him stack bales up to 45 in. high. "I can reach across trailers with it and stack bales higher," he says. "Our bales are 1,800 lbs. and it handles them very well." Clark's bale handler is a steel tube frame, built so he can extend it higher with a hydraulic cylinder. A second cylinder angles the spear to let him push the bale higher or reach farther. "A neighbor bought a handler that worked similar to mine, but used a cylinder in the top link," he says. "I think he paid about $1,200 for it, and it didn't work nearly as well as mine." Clark has made a couple of handlers using his design. The first, made with 4 and 5-in. thin-walled steel tubing that he had around the farm, buckled when he was using it to move some bales that had frozen down. "It was fine for moving bales, but it just wasn't sturdy enough to take the pressure of pulling those frozen bales loose," he says. The frame on his second one is made with 3-1/2-in. heavy-walled square tubing. "I braced it well, and think it will stand just about anything I can put on it," he says. To allow the frame to extend and reach higher, he used an I-shaped configuration, with a scissors action. It has a single spear that he made from a 2 1/2-in. round bar he found in a scrap pile. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Clyde Clark, RR 1, Box 252, Milan, Pa. 18831 (ph

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