If there's a "missing link" in your system for handling, stacking, feeding or processing conventional bales of hay or straw, the Stockwell "bale stack" mover and retriever system may be the answer.
Two models retrieve all bale stacks made by New Holland bale stackers, and will also retrieve bales stacked with bale accumulators, by hand, or whatever.
For example, suppose a New Holland 1049 bale stacker has been used to form a huge stack made up of individual 6-ton stacks (each 3 bales wide, 5 deep and 9 bales high) with the stacks placed side by side and tight together.
Stockwell's new truck-mounted model 99 allows you to retrieve these side-by-side, 6-ton stack of bales intact-just like they went in. One man does it all without lifting or touching a single bale. He can transport each intact bale stack to a feeding area where the bales can be tossed off the open sides into feeding racks or on the ground, or he can haul them down the road for restacking at another site.
Stockwell's model 98M handles up to 4 ton stacks of conventional bales (2, 2 1/2 or 3 bales wide, and 7 to 10 bales high). Both it and the model 99 can also be used to completely automate bale stacking, and retrieval of the stacks, where certain types of bale accumulators are used (see accompanying photo).
Both models also have still another important feature: In addition to handling stacks of bales intact, they can be equipped with grain or livestock boxes and used for conventional trucking jobs. Used for grain, the full-tilt feature allows the box to tilt a full 90 degrees if necessary, enough to force even the wettest grain to gravity feed out the rear endgate, according to Orville Stockwell, secretary and general manager of Stockwell Mfg.
For unloading bale stacks, the hoist is adjustable to tilt the bed 90 to 98 degrees. A hydraulically-operated "push down clamp bar" on both models aids in keeping the bales intact without having to tie down the load with rope or wire.
Model 99 is equipped with two hydraulically operated "clamp down" teeth which press against the ground as the stack is loaded to prevent the front end of the truck from raising up as the heavy 6-ton stack (3 bales wide, 5 deep and up to 10 bales high) is loaded onto the bed.
Model 99 for heavy, 6-ton bale stacks is a custom installation which requires that the truck be brought to Stockwell Manufacturing. The do-it-yourself package for adapting most any two-ton straight truck with the 4-ton capacity model 98 bale stack mover and retriever is a do-it-yourself installation. Both models will "pull back" almost as much total weight as they'll lift.