Bale Band It

[ddivinia]

Has anybody used or seen one of these in action?

Bale Band-It

D>

 

[ddivinia]

Found a video:

YouTube - bale band it

 

[jimg]

I believe Robert has...if you do a search I bet you can find his commentary.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have never seen one up here but have talked to a few guys who have been to demo's and even one owner. They are a great concept but the major drawback is there are no dealers and product support is a problem. By not having any dealers (unless things recently changed) if your machine breaks down you are stuck either fixing it yourself or waiting for the company to send the techs to you which depending on how far away you are from their company could be days. The other problem was reliability. The first ones were not very reliable and with the support problem it was a very expensive piece of equipment sitting behind the barn waiting to be repaired. Did I mention they are "very" expensive?

I do like the concept but so far that is the only positive I have heard from anyone about these machines. They are a great concept and if they develop a dealer network for these with better support they may come close to justifying their expensive price tag.

If you are seriously considering one of these machines look into product support and how they will handle any issues you encounter. If you are going to have to wait for techs to be flown in then it may not be a good system for your operation without a secondary system to bring bales in if the Bale Bandit breaks down.

 

[radman1]

My neighbor had someone put up his grass hay 2 years ago. They used one. Baled about 25 acres and pulled bale bandit behind. It seemed to work just fine when I was watching it. About 1-2 days later, semi truck and flat bed came in with about a 4600 JD CUT on the back. Parked the semi where he needed it. Then use the CUT to pick up the bundled bales, and stacked them on the trailer. He would drive up the back of the semi with some loads and stack them higher. After a few hours, loaded the CUT on the very rear of the flat bed and drove off with the load. 1 guy for the swathing, 1 guy for the baling and 1 guy loaded/drove the semi. It seemed very efficient.

 

[ddivinia]

I am still not sure I will do any squares. I need to get my production up or my consumption down before I chew off square baling. Just looking at the various options.

What does a Bale BandIt cost anyway?

D.

 

[deereguy]

I saw one at the Farm Science Review (in London, OH) on Tuesday of this week. It was at the show- not on a demo, I asked how much they cost- lady explained rising steel prices and they only have a "few" left before the price increase...old price is $57,000. If you search Google for the Bale Bandit there are a few blogs out there- one basically says...they deliver it and hand you a card they says...Good Luck!! Robert is correct in his statements.

The thing I see as a draw back is if you are selling hay by the bale or someone only wants 10 bales, you need to break open the bands, then you need to move the other 11 by hand if you need another 21 or however they are banded. They are a great concept, just seem to lack product support for what you pay.

Good Luck!!

 

[ddivinia]

I saw one at the Farm Science Review (in London, OH) on Tuesday of this week. It was at the show- not on a demo, I asked how much they cost- lady explained rising steel prices and they only have a "few" left before the price increase...old price is $57,000. If you search Google for the Bale Bandit there are a few blogs out there- one basically says...they deliver it and hand you a card they says...Good Luck!! Robert is correct in his statements.

The thing I see as a draw back is if you are selling hay by the bale or someone only wants 10 bales, you need to break open the bands, then you need to move the other 11 by hand if you need another 21 or however they are banded. They are a great concept, just seem to lack product support for what you pay.

Good Luck!!

One would have to do a lot of squares to justify it. It looks to be a better solution than the other accumulators, grapples, but it costs twice as much.

Don't need anything really special on your tractors to move the bales...

D.

 

[R W]

Appears to be a great machine but the inital cost would be high, also good service back up would be required.

 

[ddivinia]

Appears to be a great machine but the inital cost would be high, also good service back up would be required.

A guy has one here locally - he seems to be waiting on parts a lot.

$2 a bale - bale it and band it...

D.

 

[a64stroker]

I run a bale bandit in se pa and maryland. its pulled behind a newholland 575. they take alot of hydraulics and will test your nerve but as long as you watch the banding for twisting when the plunger goes back and keep the crimper adjusted . i have baled 200 bundles without a problem from the bundler. if you do have one that breaks just park nest to it and feed them into it manually and you can rebundle the bales.

 

[Mike120]

A friend has two of them. He just bought his latest this year. He also has a hired hand that is a genius at maintaining them and actually had to make parts for the oldest one. It's about five years old. Says the newer ones are a lot more reliable and loves them.

 

[qualityhay101]

We do around 60 to 80 thousand small bales for horse hay and my Q is would a bale bandit last 2years. Dont get me wrong i love our new holland BW38s but our time stacking and moving is costly. We stack everything in buildings to do it right takes 25 min just in stacking and when the rain is coming you dont have time to waste on high quality hay. A few years ago we purchased a stinger it picks up big bales fast we can pick up 100 big bales and hour and stacked. Loading and moving is easy. With small bales it takes 1 to 2 hours per semi and big bales takes 10 to 20 min per semi. So a) can i stack the bandit bundels with my stinger and b)would the new 200 series last.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

We do around 60 to 80 thousand small bales for horse hay and my Q is would a bale bandit last 2years. Dont get me wrong i love our new holland BW38s but our time stacking and moving is costly. We stack everything in buildings to do it right takes 25 min just in stacking and when the rain is coming you dont have time to waste on high quality hay. A few years ago we purchased a stinger it picks up big bales fast we can pick up 100 big bales and hour and stacked. Loading and moving is easy. With small bales it takes 1 to 2 hours per semi and big bales takes 10 to 20 min per semi. So a) can i stack the bandit bundels with my stinger and b)would the new 200 series last.

You should also check out the Bale Baron. You can You Tube it. Looks like a more robust design. Uses twine instead of banding.