Bale Mover Built On Truck Bed

Bale Mover Built On Truck Bed TRUCKS Miscellaneous 32-5-20 Big bales are handy, but moving them without a tractor and loader isn't easy. Windle Tucker built a bale mover on an old pickup bed. "I have three acres, a milk cow and some calves, just enough to need some hay," says Tucker. "I don't care for the little hay bales, so I needed something to handle the big bales when they came in stacked two high on a trailer." The retired trucker wanted something he could use to pick bales up from the trailer and stack in his barn. He needed both reach and flexibility. Not having a tractor, it also needed to be able to be hooked to the front bumper on his pickup and pushed into place. Because he had help available, Tucker wasn't concerned about controlling the loader from his truck seat. Instead, he designed it so a second person sitting on the loader bed would control it with hydraulics. "I wanted to be able to see where it was going," says Tucker. "I studied front end loaders and modeled my mover after them." Tucker knew he needed a set of cylinders to lift and lower the arms. He needed a second set of cylinders to change the angle of the spikes so he could maneuver bales easier. Finally he needed a way to hinge the spike frame to the arms. He started by stripping the box off an old 1/2-ton pickup bed he was using as a single axle trailer. Once he had shortened the frame and swapped a set of 3/4-ton pickup springs for the original, lighter 1/2-ton springs, he was ready to start. A set of channel irons bolted to the frame with short uprights formed an upper bed. A sheet of 1/4-in. steel welded to the upper frame at the hitch end created a mounting plate for the 5 hp engine and hydraulic pump. It also serves as a seat for the operator. Tucker used 2 by 2-in., 1/4-in. thick steel tubing for the lift arms and base upright supports. To add strength to the uprights, he inserted a steel bar in each, welded them top and bottom and then drilled a hole through the tubing and the bar to mount brackets for the arms. To reinforce the arms, Tucker welded a 1 by 4-in. crossbar to the arms about 2 ft. from the working end of the arms. He then ran a 2-in. wide strip of steel the length of the arms and over the cross bar, welding it at both ends to add more support to the arms. Lift cylinders were mounted to the base upright and to a steel plate welded to the arms at a point about half way down their length. At the spike end of the arms, Tucker dropped leg sections of 2 by 2-in. sq. tubing at a right angle toward the ground to serve as pivot points for the spike frame. Two braces of the same material ran back at a 45 degree angle to the arms, creating a solid base for the spike frame. Steel plates bolted to the ends of the legs and the support braces served as bases for a 2 by 2-in. cross bar between the two legs. The spikes were attached to a length of 3 by 3-in. square tubing. Two 6-in. lengths of heavy-duty 1-in. diameter steel pipe were welded in line at either end of the tubing. A third piece of pipe was welded to the cross bar at the lower end of the arms. A steel rod inserted through the three pieces of pipe completed the hinge or pivot point of the arms and the spike frame. Pieces of steel plate welded perpendicular to the 3 by 3-in. tubing and about 6 in. from the end of it serve as connecting points for the second set of cylinder arms, with the other ends anchored to the 1 by 3-in. cross bar on the arms. The spikes are seated in bushings welded to the 3 by 3-in. tubing. Using the spike frame cylinders, they can be inserted into a bale at an angle and used to lift or lower the bale into place. "I put two sets of valves on the arms by the operator's seat," explains Tucker. "One set lifts the arms, while the other adjusts the angle of the spikes. It is solid. I can pick up a 1,400-lb. bale without a problem." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Windle Tucker, RR 1, Box 3240, Elk City, Okla. 73644 (ph 580 225-5946; loopy@waywireless.com).

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