Bale spear

[Ralph wd45]

I switched over this year, from snall square bales, to buying large rounds, because of not having to put out hay daily, in bad weather, to my cows. I brought home the first load of bales last evening, and the new bale spear that I just bought& installed on my loader bucket, wont penitrate the bales,but instead just pushes them off the trailer, and dumps them on the ground. I shoved one around the barn lot, till I tore off part of the netting, and still only got the spear 1/2 way into it, pushing against the trailer wheels. these things weigh over 1000 lbs, and I wonder if it,s because they are wound too tight? The guy I bought them from loaded them with a 20 ft chain, draped around the bales, from the hooks welded on his backhoe bucket corners. I thought that was a lot of trouble, for him having to wrap the chain each time, but it worked! Is their any way that I am not thinking of? I still have several loads to bring home, and put inside.

 

[old]

They may in fact be to tight but that does not happen often but I have btdt and it is a pain if they are. That said you have to hit them just right and either be a little below center or above center to get the spike in and the spike has to sit level and you have to hit them straight on if you are so much as 5 degrees off you can have the problem you have

 

[Spotted Horse]

I've found that a tapered spear will penetrate easier than one that is straight diameter over most of it's length.
I've never had a problem picking up my 5'X6' roundbales with my tapered spear, and my alfalfa bales average real close to 1500 lbs.

You are attempting to "stab" the bales from their "end", (and NOT trying to do it from their "side") arn't you????????????????
Even a tapered spear will have trouble penetrateing a round bale from the "side" without using something for a backstop to keep the bale from rolling.

 

[kyhayman]

There is an art to spearing bales. For me, using all kinds of spears, what I've found is....

1.polished works better than rusty
2.spear needs to not be bent
3.hit just above to just below the center of the bale
4.tight bales spear better than loose ones
5.a slight down angle on the tip of the spear helps a lot
6. sticking bales is an active process, sometimes you have to change the angle of the tip as you go

Practice helps... using a skid loader I can load 14 4x5's on a 20 foot wago in a shade over 4 minutes if they are bunched. Kid that helps me is amazed. But, thats the practice of 2500 bales a year for 30 years. It took me 2/3 of that to get really good at it.

 

[Ralph wd45]

Well, I took the spear off of the bucket, and welded two chain hooks--one on each corner, of the bucket comb, then cut 20 ft of 5/16" chain off of a roll, and put the remaining bales in the barn. It was a lot of crawling on and off of the tractor. Taking the chain loose, on the stacked bales, required crawling up on the lower bales, to reach the chain. That is an awful lot of crawling for a 71 yr old man! I am not looking foreward to the next 5 loads!! About the previous post! I had the bales end wise on the trailer, and also on the ground. My new spear is tapered full length, and does have flat grey paint on it. It is about 2-2 1/2 inches around at the base. I kept getting off the tractor and walking foreward to check the angle of attact, and a straight spear didn't help,of course I was trying to hit the center of the bale, maybe I should have been above or below middle.

 

[IaGary]

Aim below center with the spears tipped down slightly. Drop the loader as you drive in.

Gary

 

[old]

Walk up to one of the bales and try to push you fingers into one. Try a number of places and that will then tel;l you where to aim that spike. You will find you can not get you fingers in any where near the center of the bale but as you go out you will find that one spot in most that you then need to aim at

 

[Shetland Sheepdog]

Let me qualify this post by saying that I have absolutely no experience with a spear, and have only moved 36 bales total with a loader! Now that we have the disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I had very good success moving the 36 bales using the forks on my loader! Just spread the forks to the point where you can go under the bale from the end without digging up turf, but the bale don't drop through! You could, with care, probably pick up wrapped bales without hurting the wrap as well! Oh yeah Ralph, I'm 71 as well! LOL
JMHO, HTH, Dave

 

[LAA]

Sounds like tight rolls. I get them too tight sometimes in real dry hay. It usually works to knock them over face up and drive the spear down with the loader, after you have a hole made you can use the same whole each time you move the bale.

 

[Tx Jim]

Technically the very center should be the loosest point as very little compaction has taken place in the beginning of forming the core.

By chance are the bales too high moisture. I'd suggest removing any paint on the spear so it will slide in easier.

 

[Chris in SK]

Do yourself a favour and get a grapple on your bucket. I have two large spears on my bucket that slid under the bale, and a grapple, but found I didn't need the spears at all. With the lip of the bucket and the grapple, I can put 5x6 hardcore bales anywhere easily, and it's really useful for lots of other stuff.....ripping manure up, picking up duals, logs etc. Chris

 

[camju]

I don't know what kind of spear you have but...
I use 2 they are square at the tip and round in the back.
I pick up bales from end or side
You have to angle slightly down when entering(below half) the bale and push down slightly while going in.
I have never seen a bale so tight or wet that I could not spear.
If you have the one only in the middle I have heard they are to thick and to fast a tapper.
The center of a bale is sometimes folded hay and can't be speared very well.
I would try about 1 ft below center and let the bale twist around when you lift up.
Here is a photo
the black spear costs $89 and will not bend and can lift 1000Lbs bales by itself
the red one is $56 and bends all the time if I stick it in the dirt or in a tree when pickin firewood out of windrows.
I lift alot of 1600+lbs bales with these forks.

 

[Shetland Sheepdog]

I did think of one disadvantage to using the forks! it would probably be difficult to pick up bales that are stacked as the bales would be sitting on the bales below right where you would want the forks to go!
Dave

 

[Formerly PaMike]

Kyhayman, What do you use on the front and back of the wagons to keep the bales from rolling off? I had made some steel bars and lagged them to the runners, but the lags sheared off...

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 17:41:35 09/16/10)
I use 2 they are square at the tip and round in the back.

I pick up bales from end or side

I lift alot of 1600+lbs bales with these forks.

What brand of baler do you have that can make a 1600# bale that can be speared from the side with those spears?

I can't spear a 1000# from the side with a smaller diameter set of spears than what your picture shows!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[camju]

New holland baler, makes them even heavier if the alfalfa is 18%.we weighed some at 1950Lbs. 2 years ago.Very big bales and if the tension is turned up they get to heavy for my tractor (1650)and have to use dad's vultra.

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 12:19:07 09/17/10) New holland baler, makes them even heavier if the alfalfa is 18%.we weighed some at 1950Lbs. 2 years ago.Very big bales and if the tension is turned up they get to heavy for my tractor (1650)and have to use dad's vultra.

I've tried to spear some of my 1000-1100 lb bales from the rd side with zero success. I needed to load bales in covered stock trailers for hay buyers so they could roll them out. This was Coastal hay which might make hard to spear on rd part.

 

[camju]

I found to spear on round you have to be at a real good angle down.Tips of spear a foot off the ground ,back side of fork 2ft off ground.as soon as the spear enters bale a bit start adding down pressure and it should go in.I don't know anything about coastal hay so can't tell.Droping bale to remove on Rd you again have to add down pressure or you can't pull the spear out.I used to haul 1000's of bales tube style and only loaded and unloaded with the double spear.The one farmer had made a 2 bale fork and loaded/unloaded 2 at a time,all on the round.He had payloaders not tractors.I haul Flax straw now and we use a grapple to load and they use a backhoe with grab to unload.

 

[Anonymous-0]

If you get the chain on your bucket adjusted to the right length you will seldom need to leave the tractor seat. I tried to give more detailed instructions but the site filters are giving me fits right now,