"Push Trailer" Makes Bale-Selling More Profitable

"Push Trailer" Makes Bale-Selling More Profitable WAGONS/TRAILERS New Wagons 27-2-8 Robert Rogers, Piedmont, Alabama, recently called FARM SHOW to tell us about the 53-ft. long, fifth wheel "push trailer" he built that allows him to load small square bales into cargo vans and semi trailers. Rogers is a commercial hay producer who sells 50,000 to 75,000 small square bales of hay and wheat straw each year. He loads the bales into semi trailers and delivers them to farm supply stores. The stores sell the bales off the trailers. "Loading the trailers was very labor intensive and took two or three men several hours to load each one," says Rogers. "My push trailer lets me load 630 bales in a 53-ft. trailer in less than an hour - all by myself." To make the "push trailer", Rogers cut the back end, top and one side off a 27-ft. van trailer, leaving a 4-ft. high wall on the open side. He uses a skid loader and a Steffen 15-bale grapple fork to load bales over the side of the push trailer. Once the bales are stacked 7 layers high (105 bales), a hydraulic-operated pusher plate moves the bales forward into another van. A 53-ft. trailer holds six full groups of bales and part of another one for a total of 700 bales. Rogers says he's willing to build push trailers for about $15,000, not including the cost of the Steffen equipment used to push the bales back and forth. Rogers is a Steffen dealer. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Rogers, 2405 Co. Rd. 29, Piedmont, Alabama 36272 (ph 256 447-7501 or 6045).

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