Hillbilly Boom pole

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Is there anyone out here that has a 3-point bale spear that has “doubled” as a boom pole? In other words, can I slide a heavy walled pipe, say 3/8” and 8 ft long, over my 4ft bale spear? I have lifted 1,000lb bales with the spear alone. Will the leverage of the additional 4 ft do anything to harm or break the bale spear, provided I don’t try to lift anything much over say 1,500 lbs?
 
If you are doubling the length you should reduce the load, not increase it. I do not know by how much, there should be a formula for it but I do not know it. 1,000 over the length of a 4' spear is a lot less load on the weld that holds the spear to the frame than 1,500 on the tip of an 8' pole. It may be fine, it depends on your spear and how heavy it is built.
Zach
 
I could see it done if and only if you rigged up a set of chains that would go back the the bucket or top area of the bale spear so that the it would be more on the chains then on the spear.
 
I made one to fit on the loader bucket. Wish I had a picture but had heavy angle iron 4 foot long welded perpendicular to the pipe. The top of the angle went over the cutting edge of the bucket. Pipe went under the bucket. Had chain hook welded on the pole about 10-12 foot up from the cutting edge. I used 2 chains to go from the chain hook to a hook welded on each corner of the loader bucket. I used somewhat light 3" pipe cause thats what I had. and could lift 500-600 lbs up to 25 feet with what I had. Used it to set roof trusses on the shop.

I think your asking lot to put a pipe over the bale puncture wound and pick up 1500 pounds. Going to take a large tractor and put lots of stress on the bale spear.
 
What are you trying to lift? The farther out on the pole you go the less weight you can lift.
Years ago we rigged a pipe on a loader bucket to set roof trusses on the pole building we built, I forget how long the pipe was, maybe 12 feet and 4 inch diam. It was reinforced with a log chain and binders. It sure made the tractor bounce.
 
I do this all the time with the bale spear on my loader. I slip a 12', 3" pipe over the spear and lift most anything "within reason". I built 32' trusses out of oak for a barn I built, and raised them with the spear and pipe. I don't know what they weighed, but it worked just fine. I've also used it to raise siding and walls for deer stands that were 22' high in the air. You have to use good judgement with how and how much you lift...always making sure NO ONE is under the load. The worst thing that can happen otherwise is you will snap the spear off. 'Has never happened to me. I did weld reinforcing to the pipe. You will want to use a high weight rated bale spear. I think mine is something like 3500 pounds?
 
(quoted from post at 10:03:12 07/09/13) Is there anyone out here that has a 3-point bale spear that has “doubled” as a boom pole? In other words, can I slide a heavy walled pipe, say 3/8” and 8 ft long, over my 4ft bale spear? I have lifted 1,000lb bales with the spear alone. Will the leverage of the additional 4 ft do anything to harm or break the bale spear, provided I don’t try to lift anything much over say 1,500 lbs?

For example: If we assume the 1000 Lb bales are round bales 5 ft wide then the leverage as you call it, or bending momment, would be 5 Ft / 2 x 1000 Lbs = 2500 Ft-Lbs. Since the bale is uniform we can simply treat it as a point load acting at its center or 2.5 Ft. Now if you attach a chain at the end of an 8 Ft pipe, the chain acts as a point load at 8 Ft. The load acting at 8 Ft that equals a bending moment of 2500 Ft-Lbs can be found by: 2500 Ft-Lbs = 8 Ft x Load. Solving for load we have: Load = 2500 Ft-Lbs / 8 Ft = 312.5 Lbs. Therefore, a load of 312.5 Lbs at the end of an 8 Ft pole will result in the same bending moment as a 1000 Lb bale that is 5 Ft wide. The bending moment acts to break or bend the bale spear where it is attached to it's mount. Or, to state the same thing another way: a load at 8 Ft has 3.2 times the leaverage as a bale which acts at 2.5 Ft.
 
Nice calcs. I help to relieve the tension on the end of the spike
by doing what I said. I welded a plate at the base of the spike to
the frame, that the pole just slides under....sliding fit. That way
the bending moment of the pole comes into play in distributing
the load. Plus with a simple bolt dropped through the two, it is
locked in place and installation/removal is fast.

I found that a 2 7/8 drill pipe works best having enough metal
thickness (schedule number) and diameter. plus it's not too
heavy to lift.

Mark
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top