Who’s getting hay equipment prepped?

[5030]

Not for me. I get to drop off the large stack's in a customers pole barn with a very tall roof line. I also have a 1012 pull behind. Only maintenance I do is some WD-40 and air up the tires. Been that way for 15 years.

Kind of surprised you use WD40 as a spray lube, in as much as it has little to no lubricating value at all. It's a water dispersant (WD), not a spray lube. I use rattle cans of motorcycle chain lube, a grease gun and dielectric grease in my connectors, never WD 40. In fact I have a full gallon of that stuff on the shelf, I've never used. Battery posts and clamps get Fluid Film.

 

[5030]

No airing up implement tires here, they are all foamed.

 

[zzvyb6]

Kind of surprised you use WD40 as a spray lube, in as much as it has little to no lubricating value at all. It's a water dispersant (WD), not a spray lube. I use rattle cans of motorcycle chain lube, a grease gun and dielectric grease in my connectors, never WD 40. In fact I have a full gallon of that stuff on the shelf, I've never used. Battery posts and clamps get Fluid Film.

I use graphite lube on the 1012 chains. If you add transmission fluid to the WD-40 mixture it works fine. I have a separate pressurized spray canister to do the job.

 

[5030]

Motorcycle chain lube is much more convenient, goes on liquid so it penetrates the rollers and dries to a harder film once the carrier evaporates. Not need on my new bailer as it has a pressurized chain lube system on board so I just use 30 weight motor oil now. The lube system meters the oil out and preset intervals. It has centralized greasing as well minus the rotating pto shaft. Was an option I get when I purchased the bailer 2 years ago. How my square bailer was also. The knotter stack had one point greasing plus the knotter blowers to keep the chaff from fouling knotters, especially a PITA when square bailing wheat straw. The 575 I sold carried 8 twine balls in the storage bin. I did one wheat straw bailing job for the local road commision, they purchased an entire field of combined wheat straw. All I had to do was bale it, they picked up the bales. Started at the crack of dawn and finished at dusk.

Had to reload the twine box 3 times during the day. If I remember correctly, between dawn and dusk, I bailed 4500 small squares, long 1/4 mile windrows. Was a turn key job with no bailer issues what so ever. Drove the tractor in the climate controlled and stipped for lunch. The 575 at the head end of the windrows, I had to back down the pto as the 575's heavy flywheel and the bale piston would still toss me around on a headland turn. The 575 had the 'super sweep' extra wide pickup. Nice bailer and I recommend them. All I ever had to do to it was replace the twine knives a couple times and one pickup belt drive.

Amazingly I sold it on Tractor House for what I paid for it new and it looked new as I keep all my tractors and implements inside the barn when not being used. Listed it on a Monday and sold it on Thursday, cash sale and the buyer had it picked up by commercial carrier, permitted load because it was wide. Only missing paint was on the ends of the pickup fingers.

Was the best contract bailing job I ever did because it was no touch the bales and they paid me 50 cents a bale on the bale counter. 2 grand plus ain't bad minus the twine and fuel so I basically cleared 2000 bucks for a soild day's work and did it all in the comfort of an air conditioned cab. Probably ran 30,000 bales total on the machine in the time I owned it and I had also bought a FEL mounted bale accumulator so I'd load 20 squares at a time on flat racks. Putting them in the barn was the issue as the hayloft in the big barn is elevated which necessitated the use of a bale elevator and hired labor.

Bailer went to Illinois accumulator went to Indiana. I think the accumulator was a Kuhn if I remember correctly.

 

[5030]

Still have the flat racks though I have a buyer interested in them presently. All 4 are tandem axle repurposed sileage wagons. Very heavy duty with oil filled hubs and running lights as well. Bought the sileage wagons used at auction, stripped off the boxes and sold them to the local scrap yard back when scrap was high so I basically broke even on the wagons after scrapping the boxes and the mechanical parts. I believe they were Giehl sileage wagons.

 

[CliffordK]

If one is tossing bales from the ground up onto a hay trailer by hand, then it is best to start with the trailer as low as possible. I.E. Axles with fenders.

Years ago Dad built a custom hay trailer. Full width in front and behind the fenders. Fenders were square, and I think 14" tall, so bales fit between the fenders, then the next row sits on top nicely.

Unfortunately, one year Mom just decided to sell it to the neighbor for $100.

I have tried the automatic bail tossers, and while they work OK, but I prefer standing on terra firma, rather than on a moving trailer or truck.

 

[5030]

Not something I ever want to indulge in again. Rounds in net for me are the way to go and my lone hay customer who buys all of it and has for the last 5 years prefers 4x5 net wrapped rounds anyway.

 

[5030]

Guy down the road had a JD with a bale thrower in it and almost got killed with it as well. He no longer runs hay as he's missing a good part of his right hand, just another reason I won't bale idiot cubes.