Horses Pull Big Bale Retriever

Horses Pull Big Bale Retriever BALE HANDLING Gary Josephson’s draft horse team hauls in the big round bales they’ll later eat His horse-drawn bale retriever is an electric-over-hydraulic lift that lets Josephson pick up the bales and drop them where he wants     “I like working with horses ” says Josephson “I can haul 15 to 20 bales on a single charge of the battery and then recharge it overnight ”     Josephson started with a back axle and frame off an old trailer The axle was long enough that the wheels fit around the end of a bale He cut the front third of the trailer frame off and reattached it over the rear frame This raised it enough to mount a front axle with truck wheels under it     The front wheel hubs mount to pipes welded to a short length of 2 by 3-in angle iron The spindle between the angle iron and the wagon frame is a loose pipe in pipe post     “There isn’t much weight on the front end so I didn’t need a bearing ” says Josephson “A heavy bale on the back end can raise the front end some but never enough for the pipes to slide apart completely ”     To make the hitch he welded two 1-ft lengths of pipe to the angle iron parallel to the ground with pipe stubs welded to their forward ends The double tree evener attaches to a pipe that rotates inside the stubs as the wagon rides over uneven ground     The bale spear is welded to an angle iron and pipe frame It rides on a steel rod that rotates inside two pairs of steel tabs which are in turn welded to the heavy steel pipe axle Each pair is welded to opposite sides of the pipe at each side of the spear frame     The lift cylinder is mounted to the frame of the wagon with the pump It’s powered by a deep cell battery also mounted at the front of the wagon     “It took some figuring to get the cylinder set in the right place so it would lift the bale high enough ” he adds “I have a remote control button that activates the hydraulics and releases pressure to drop the bale or tip the frame back to spear a bale ”     Josephson likes using his team for light work whether hauling bales dragging hay fields or using his packer fabricated from press wheels In keeping with his Canadian heritage his team are Canadiennes an increasingly rare breed     “They’re sensible easy to train and easy to work with ” he says     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Gary Josephson P O Box 487 Sundre Alberta Canada T0M 1X0 ph 403 638-4225; gjoseph@telusplanet net

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