Square Bale Accumlator

TNFARMKID

Member
Has anyone had experience with a product like the Rocky Mountain Bale Sweep? I am trying to find a bale accumulation system that would best fit my operation. I'm in East TN hills and mountains, with fields scattered about a 10 mile radius. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I don't have one.... so take this with a grain of salt. It looks SLOW to me. I could see using that setup to gather mabey 500 bales a day and to load them on the trailer.... so you'd save having people on the ground lifting bales. I think you'd still need someone packing and unloading tho. In short... I really don't see the point of the whole thing. I think you'd gain more with a thrower.
I use a Kuhns 18 bale accumulator. With that one man can bale and gather in a day about the same as could be done with a small crew otherwise. It's no faster than a crew. It's just that you can do it alone. The biggest downside I see with the Kuhns accumulator is that it can be tempermental on steep hills. They rely on gravity for the bales to slide down the table into packs.... so on a steep downhill grade the bales don't slide. On sidehills the bales will sometimes catch on the gates and jamb up... Most of this can be alleviated once you learn it's tricks and work your fields accordingly. I find that you also need to make a pretty solid bale if you want the stacks to stand up. If you make less than a 45# bale, you will have problems... 50-55# usually works pretty nice.
That's my take on accumulators anyway.

Rod
 
I have been looking at the Steffens accumulator. I just started the research so know real info yet. I don't like the idea of dragging the bales on the ground. I do worry that I would be dragging tha rear of the accumulator on the ground in some fields, mainly on entering and exiting.
 
My son has a Hoelsher accumulator on a JD 348 twine baler and it works pretty good. Granted, his fields are pretty level. You have to be going pretty straight when the bales dump or it will leave a pretty messy pile. Made in Kansas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj3hhH7zQGM
 
I'm with you RustyS I do not like the idea of dragging bales on the ground. I would probably only be doing 500 to 750 bales a day/evening, my dad and I both work full time and time is tight. I only have 2 or 3 customers and labor here is unfindable to say the least. We have small to medium sized fields and road travel is a nightmare.
 
Traveling on the road is so bad here. We remove the 4 row header or 13ft table off My Gleaner F when we hit the road. Easy transport will have to be factored into adding an accumulator to our operation.
 
ive been dilly dalling around for years with this idea.. this is my take and I should note that i bale on mostly flat fields BUT alittle over half of fields are 30 minutes away by car..

The rocky mountain looks good BUT I need these to be on a trailer and hauled far..Dont see it being able to unload on trailer tight enough.

accumulators that drag behind baler questionable in my opinion would prob use a better grade of twine if I went that way.

The one that I like is the bale wagon that you can dump in pile and then stack..however again for me on my place would work fantastic but 30 minutes Id have to dump and stack then haul...

I also have seen a grapple/accumulator that gathers "drag" and then grapples and then you could stack.. this seems as good or better for me.. Not alot of room in fields for the bale wagon thing..

Also I sell hay also.. not sure customers would notice if you dragged the bales or not..just if their animals eat it seems to be the going concern with my customers

my 2 cents... good luck..
 
I have a Kuhns 10 bale flat and it does a great job. I have had it about 4 yrs. I have a one man operation. I can do it all by myself.
 
I have been around several Hoelsher accumulators. They seem to work well. I like the bale grabber they have for moving them with a loader. It works great. If you have buildings that you can stack in at floor level you can handle the bales without ever toughing them by hand. This includes loading out too.
 
Things that jump out at me are - how do you unload the wagon? Doesn't look like you can unscoop the bales. Second thing is hills. When you load a wagon IMHO, the tighter the stack, the less likely he bales will fall off. The way the bales on the video look when unloading on a wagon is very loose.

How many bales, how big of fields, are you a one man army?

An EZ trail wagon might be the answer. I think due to their width are somewhat stable on hills, will hold 100 bales and can be towed via a truck from the field.

Good luck,
Bill
 
(quoted from post at 18:45:27 09/23/16) I have a Kuhns 10 bale flat and it does a great job. I have had it about 4 yrs. I have a one man operation. I can do it all by myself.
My son has one of these too.They work great.
 
Bill VA we bale around 1500 small squares a year. Mainly all the work is done by my dad and me. Fields range from 5 to 30 acres. Its just hard for two people who work full time jobs off the farm to stay caught up. I have found a very similar unit to rocky mountain bale sweep and it runs about $1500. I have also been kicking around the idea of building a unit like it myself. Thanks to everyone for all the helpful input.
 

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