Hillside 4 Bale Accumulator

Hillside 4 bale accumulator HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 11-3-8 A Mississippi farmer built his own 4-bale accumulator for square bales because he couldn't make use of larger 8-bale accumulators on his hilly hay ground. M.P. Guthrie, who farms near Faust, told FARM SHOW that when he tried an 8-bale unit behind his baler, the bales slid around inside the accumulator on hillsides. He decided to build a 4-bale unit and pick up the bales with his 8-bale Farmhand bale fork, picking up two 4-bale groups at a time. Guthrie's accumulator simply tows along the ground behind the baler. As the first bale falls to the ground, it slips through the open gate on the unit. As it slides back along the side of the accumulator, it trips a lever that moves the gate over so the second bale slides into the opposite side of the accumulator. The second bale trips another lever which moves the gate again for the third bale which, in turn, trips its own lever. As the first two bales reach the rear of the accumulator, a pair of wheels that run along the top of the bales trip another lever that lowers down in the path of the fourth bale. When the fourth bale trips this lever, the rear gate of the accumulator opens and all four bales slip out of the unit in a group, and the gate swings back down, automatically relatching itself. "Every bale activates a lever that activates something else. There are no belts, chains or gears. It's all ground-driven by the bales pulled along the ground. Unless a bale falls sideways on a sharp turn, it's totally trouble-free," says Guthrie. He built the accumulator out of old angle iron, pipe and steel cable. The only modification to the baler was a hitch to tow the unit. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, M.P. Guthrie, Rt. 1, Box 102B, Faust, Miss. 39074 (ph 601 469-4526).

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