Square bale thrower wagon increased capacity ideas

[SHALER]

i know some of you use the standard 8x18 wagon with racks on it for use behind a square baler with a belt or pan thrower. My goal- to get that wagon as full as possible.
My problem: as the bale wagon nears capacity, bales start falling out of the front of the wagon as the thrower throws them in to the wagon. Who has not experienced this as
you try to get the last 10 or so bales in the wagon? My idle thoughts on how to keep bales from falling out of the front of the wagon: Install some sort of tubing across
the front of the wagon about 2 feet or so above the front gate of the wagon. This would theoretically hold back any bales that might normally roll out of the front of the
wagon. does anyone do this and what sorts of hardware did you use? My only concern is that a bale coming out of the thrower might hit such a bar, but with a little trial
and error you could probably adjust it to a place where the bale thrower will throw it over the bar 99.99% of the time.

 

[DeltaSteve]

I have never used that type of system.I use a NewHolland 1032 stack wagon. I think you should just head for the barn when the wagon is full.LOL However,It would be nice if that point would be at the end of a windrow instead of the middle. However,I like your idea of a bar across the front. It sounds like a good one that should work. Try it. Play with placement till you find the 'sweet spot'.Good luck,and happy baleing.

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

You can do that with a pan thrower but not a belt thrower. We have bars on two of our wagons. Tom

 

[Case30Deutz06]

There are multiple ways to go about this.

One thing we did years ago was add bars across the corners of the front of the wagon. That description may not be the best but you can see on the wagon in the picture I have included. Very easy to do. The picture is a random one I had...wagon is not full enough to show utilizing them yet.

You can add the tube across the front like you have described. I used to sell straw to one of the local farmers/livestock companies. They would bring their wagons over and I would fill up the wagons with my baler. They had a John Deere baler with pan thrower and had all their wagons with the extra tube in front, but because they often bought straw from farmers who would bale with their own balers that sometimes had belted throwers, they had the extra bar on hinges and would lower it if needed. The first time they brought a wagon over to our place they lowered the extra front tube because of my belted thrower. I told him leave it up. He was surprised and impressed I could bale into it as I was the only farmer with a belted thrower that could bale into his wagons with the extra tall front up all the way...read below why.

With that said, me and my dad are a bit picky on throwers. From the factory we find all the belted throwers are angled to line-drive the bales into the wagon. We don't like this. We like to put arc on the bales. So we always angle the belted thrower more. We have a Hesston inline baler and a Deutz-Allis baler. On the Hesston baler I know we adjusted the axle mount to give the thrower more angle, and I cannot remember if we adjusted the thrower itself. On the Deutz baler we adjusted the angle on its original thrower, and then after we wore out its original thrower we installed a New Holland hydraulic belted thrower and I remember angling that even more.

One warning though: I do not know how you unload the wagon or who you have unload them. If you unload them yourself it doesn't matter. But if you unload out the side door, by piling more bales in the front of the wagon it makes it more of a pain to "start" the wagon when unloading. If I am baling and someone else is unloading I have been cursed at many times for piling too many bales in front. They have threatened to remove the bars...

 

[Bruce from Can.]

Just stretch a couple lengths of light chain across the front of the wagon, with a snap fastener on the ends for easy quick removal at unloading time. Easy to adjust up or down to find the sweet spot to help keep bales from tumbling out. I always found when loading bale wagons and manure spreaders, they never seemed big enough. Unloading...different story !

 

[crooked rows]

We just tie a 2 x 4 across the front....

 

[JK-NY]

Sometimes I stack the front of the wagon when it is partly loaded and go a little higher than the front of the wagon. I have a JD baler with the pan thrower and am very familiar with the problem you described, it is even worse with a nearly full wagon if you are headed down hill.

 

[paul]

The angles as others show helps hold back a few bales in the corners, and I’ve seen looser chains across the front, they droop to keep the lower center but will catch bales tumbling forward. If you hit the chain with a thrown bale it has some give to not create as many problems as a bar across, and bales will come back out of loose chains a little easier.

At some point the wagon is just full and got to call it.

Paul

 

[Roger in Iowa]

Yep, make you wagons larger and larger and you wonder why the hitch on the baler for the wagon fails and next would be the hitch on the front of the baler.

Might want to live with what you have.

 

[showcrop]

I have always done as JKinNY does. Since the thrower doesn't put them in the front, when I start a new wagon I will throw around thirty-forty into the middle, then stop and stack them 10-15 in the front and 20-25 in the back. This eliminates the lost space in the front, It reduces mis-shaped bales that bounce too hard off the back, and I find out if the bales are heavy because of the windrows sucking moisture out of the ground. It also shows up on my phone as additional cardio exercise at the end of the day, adding to my life time.

 

[Northvale PA]

I had a bunch of 15’ long sections of 3/4” nylon rope. We tie them horizontally about 18” above the factory bar. The wagons came with a chain but they broke quickly when short thrown bales pounded them. We can easily get 150 bales on a 8’ x 16’ wagon. If I climb up and toss them against the side rails, make it 160. Yes, pulling the front bales out is slightly hard, but later cutting alfalfa locks together anyway.

 

[Bill VA]

If you have a JD Pan Kicker, you can make the front of the wagon as high as the arch of the throw. In this pic, 100% of the bales were put on the wagon by the pan kicker.

 

[lastcowboy32]

(quoted from post at 17:42:26 07/27/20) i know some of you use the standard 8x18 wagon with racks on it for use behind a square baler with a belt or pan thrower. My goal- to get that wagon as full as possible.
My problem: as the bale wagon nears capacity, bales start falling out of the front of the wagon as the thrower throws them in to the wagon. Who has not experienced this as
you try to get the last 10 or so bales in the wagon? My idle thoughts on how to keep bales from falling out of the front of the wagon: Install some sort of tubing across
the front of the wagon about 2 feet or so above the front gate of the wagon. This would theoretically hold back any bales that might normally roll out of the front of the
wagon. does anyone do this and what sorts of hardware did you use? My only concern is that a bale coming out of the thrower might hit such a bar, but with a little trial
and error you could probably adjust it to a place where the bale thrower will throw it over the bar 99.99% of the time.

With the average NH belt thrower baler, you can have bars or chains across the front of the wagon up to about two or three bales high. Definitely two... if you want to go three... then you need to check the hitch height adjustment at the front of the baler (NH balers have the tractor hitch connected to the end of the tongue with a system of bolts so that you can adjust it up or down) If you lower the front of the baler a little... the kicker aims up a little more... and you can clear bars, boards or chains across the front of the wagon up to three bales high with that 99.9999 whatever amount of the time that you're saying.

You can also, if you want the wagon to be strong... put a bar, chain or board across the very top of the wagon, and the belt thrower will throw under it 99.9999% of the time.

Pan throwers would (obviously) have trouble with that bar across the top.

Over the years, I've formed a compromise between loading the wagons more and the amount of fiddling required to do so.

If I can get about 110 or so on our little 8 x16 wagons? I'm happy... hook up the next empty wagon.

To get on more requires fiddling ... and that fiddling doesn't matter a lick to the cow eating the hay next winter. It's just fiddling for your own pride.

 

[lastcowboy32]

Bruce from Can


You speak the truth!