Any experience with Hay accumulators?

[DJL]

Does anybody have a small square bale hay accumulator? What types...the one that hooks to the baler or the type you pull with a truck/tractor after the bale is on the ground?
What"s the good/bad/ugly?
Thanks!

 

[Anonymous-0]

LOL well we had one back in the 70s and we always used to say it was kinda like having two balers tied together! by that i mean if you got the baler tying and working good and you got the accumulator working good you felt like you were on cloud 9...we had an old farmhand and im sure they have improved a lot since then though

 

[Walt Davies]

My friend has one and he has good luck with it. Better to use on flat ground though.
Walt

 

[Anonymous-0]

We run a kuhns 15 bale model. It pulls behind the baler and doesnt require hydralics. Probably the best money I ever spent. Kuhnsmfg.com they are great people to work with. Last year 12,000 bales with just 2 people, worked like a charm.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Trying to post picture and having trouble

 

[RickL]

have for several years,wouldn't go without now. Have helped sevreal with these give cal319-257-6764

 

[neblinc]

Here is my neighbors setup that we dug out of the retired equipment pile to gather & stack bales for our horses. He has not used the small square baler and the gathering equipment in over 10 years.
I needed to "ride" the acumulator since the "flapper" does not work to good on the slopes.


Randy

 

[CB in central NY]

I have an 8-bale model made by BaleSport (I think, they are out of business now). The accumulator drags the bales along the ground and the 8th bale trips the gate and releases them. The grab on the tractor picks them up and stacks them. It"s about the only way for just me and the wife to successfully hay. Level ground is better, but I have plenty of hills and it still works well.

 

[Anonymous-0]

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa88/keithharpster/?action=view&current=DSC01846.jpg

 

[Anonymous-0]

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa88/keithharpster/DSC01846.jpg

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa88/keithharpster/DSC01846.jpg

 

[Anonymous-0]

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa88/keithharpster/DSC01872.jpg

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa88/keithharpster/DSC01872.jpg

 

[044GTO]

Just got a farmhand this year that was sitting idle for several years. After I greased/lubed it, and hooked everything up, it didn"t work. After testing hydro lines, found that pump wasn"t working good. Just turned out to be a seal in the pump. Got it going yesterday and took an hour to tune it in to the bales I like to make (32" @ 45#). Getting pretty good at it after a couple hours of production. Just dont turn a corner when it"s ready to dump the bales, or else they scatter. I"m on hilly ground and it, and still think its the best thing since sliced bread. Baling in 2nd gear - same as with leaving them on the ground.

 

[Hap]

(quoted from post at 19:48:53 06/26/07) Does anybody have a small square bale hay accumulator? What types...the one that hooks to the baler or the type you pull with a truck/tractor after the bale is on the ground?
What"s the good/bad/ugly?
Thanks!

We've been shopping around for a while. If you want to see some in action you can go to http://www.steffensystems.com/ and they have movies of the accumulators in action and the bale handlers/grapples. We contacted a dealer in Texas and they said that the price for a 1050 accumulator and the 5510 bale grapple was around $18,000. Minimum HP required was around 63 or 65HP ... I don't remember exactly.

We tried to find a Steffens for sale used and we've only seen one or 2 posted over the last 2 years but they were long gone by the time we saw the ad. There doesn't seem to be anyone selling them used.

Do a search on Hoelscher and you might turn up something. That brand was mentioned in another forum somewhere and they said the accumulator was around 12k. I don't know if it was for big or small squares.