gooseneck dedicated round bale hauler

KURK1

Member
How many of you use an inline round bale hauling gooseneck trailer. A friend just bought one and loves it. I just can't see much advantage. It holds 8 bales, but is longer than his regular 12 ton flatbed trailer that can haul 14. I haul 6 on an 18 ft heavy duty car hauler. Were talking about 4x5 bales. I understand the unloading benefits, but our barnyards are small, so we need a tractor there to move them anyway. I can load my trailer with the 3 point on just about any tractor, and bring it on the trailer when I go to the field. With the inline bale hauler you need a loader tractor or a bobcat, which you will have to haul with another trailer. Am I missing something?
 
I looked at those too, my thought was if I am going to buy a goose neck might as well one that I can use it for multiple things!
 
Personally I use a 3-ton with a bale rack on it, I haul 12 straw or 11 hay per load.
Most of my hauling is either on site or for straw up to 7 mile one way.
Back into the bale yard, pull a knob, lay down a stack and I am off for the next load without getting off my butt.

A good friend has an inline hauler like you describe and he loves it but often he is hauling bales 20-30 miles, tractor at one end to load then he or his wife takes off at highway speed back to the yard, pull a handle, dump and go back for the next load.

Both have advantages and disadvantages it all boils down to what works best for your set-up.
 
IF your in areas where the DOT enforces the width laws then hauling bales side by side gets to be fun real fast. Your talking about 4 foot wide and 5 foot tall. So if you place them right your under 8 foot wide. We use 5x6 bales so side by side your over width. IF the trailer has a license plate on it you will need to have over width permits for it in Iowa. One for the state highways, one for each county your hauling in, one for each municipality you travel through. Just because your a farmer hauling your own hay does not get you a free pass if it is a licensed trailer. Make it over width and put an SMV on it while pulling it under 25 MPH and your fine.

The last 5 years or so the Iowa DOT enforcement has cracked down people hauling hay on the public roads. It comes from stupid people doing stupid things. Double stacking without any tie downs driving 50-60 MPH on a gravel road. That will get you a ticket now.

So this is making the single wide bale trailers be pretty popular around here right now. Fast unloading and legally able to travel on public roads without a fist full of permits.
 
I've been looking at those inline haulers as well. They're pretty expensive for a single use trailer. Seems they start at 4500 and go up from there. You need to haul a lot of bales to justify owning one. Finding one used isn't likely because they're a relatively recent invention.

The loading issue doesn't bother me because I only load with a skid steer anyway. The unloading issue is very appealing because I only have one skid steer, so I need a driver for the tractor or pickup and need to drive the skid steer back and forth.

A couple years ago, a local fly-by-night hauler loaded up a bunch of rounds at an auction site on a flatbed gooseneck. He never strapped down and lost a few bales going out the driveway. Driver behind him ended up dead. You and I are now providing meals and shelter for the fly-by-nighter Those bale haulers look VERY appealing to avoid a situation like that.
 
As usual JD seller has hit the nail on the head. I run 4x5 bales as well so I can use a flatbed and be legal width. Most everyone around here runs bigger bales. Many still haul with flatbeds but could get in trouble. I have been seeing more of the bale hauler trailers go by lately. See some now that haul two rows of hay.
 
I made my own.i could haul 8 4x5 bales side by side.used an old sugar cane trailer,converted from 5th wheel to gooseneck.i built a long rack that hinged so it would dump.pull a lever and 4 bales would almost "fly" off on one side.the trick was the rack was hinged so it could be easily be brought back up and locked back in place but the weight of bales sticking out 1 foot would cause it to fling them out when released.SMV placard and farm plates allowed me to be wider then 8 ft.Boy the dirty looks the La. state police would throw my way!
 
I bought one this spring. Neighbor bought my flatbed 25 GN from me we do hay together and split it. I can haul faster than he can me hauling 8 and him hauling 10 me loading it all....Trailer loads faster too....We start with me loading 10 on him with him driving around field bale to bale for me to load, he leaves I carry to inline trailer with tractor and load 8 then haul. I can load another load before he gets back and have his 10 lined up to load. On second load I can haul two as he is hauling one. This is hauling about 5 miles.
 
Only advantage I see to them is the quick unload. I stack and tarp all my hay so I would have to handle them at home again anyways. I haul up to 30 miles so hauling 17 at a time really helps, hauling 8 on a trailer would drive me insane.
 

Farm or commercial it's illegal to combine 2 items together to make a oversized load, width, height, length, it doesn't matter.
You can pull your 11' wide mower conditioner or folded planter down a road with no issues, but 2 5' wide bales on the wagon or trailer making the load 10' wide is a no no.
I had one neighbor that hauled his big 6x6 bales side by side on a bale wagon running 30 mph down local roads, if you meet him he'd run you off the road or hit you mirror and scratch the side of you vehicle. One larger farmer here would pull two 38 ft wagons loaded with 6x6 bales side by side unstrapped behind his 3/4 ton pickup down the only main highway in this area, he only drove 20 mph but in the 15 miles he traveled he never pulled off the let traffic by, one time when I got behind him by the time he turned off to go to his farm traffic was backed up over a mile behind him. No way he could have stopped those wagons in a emergency.
DOT has finally started cracking down on wide loads of hay around here and we're seeing more inline trailers
 
They just had this dicsussion on the newagtalk site, boy oh boy those inline trailers are the best and anyone who doesn't use one is a fool is what I learned there......

All in good fun. :)

I haul round bales across my farm, some are a distance down a lot of field road. Light years I end up carting one at a time on the back of the tractors with the bale forks. I don't have a loader or bobcat that will lift a 5x6 bale it's all 3pt action.

If I get a lot of hay like this year, I use the one bale spear I have on three point to load thrm on the Donahue trailer, 8 bales maybe. But I have to chase back and forth with the tractor with the spear to load and unload, so get the wife involved to drive it, while I pull the load with another tractor.

I could: buy a second 3pt spreat and go to the work of tying up 2 tractors with spears.

Buy a special spreat and trailer combo that would let me hook and drop the trailer easy, use one tractor for loading, hauling, and unloading.

Buy a real bobcat or loader tractor that could lift a big bale.

Buy a self dumping trailer like talked about.

Retire from cattle and hay and rent out my grass to others.

Some of those options cost a lot, or take a fair amount of time, or still leave me stranded needing to get two machines to the far side of the firm.

So, I continue on as I do.

If I had a little more hay, or if I had to go down the public roads a lot, those inline self dump trailers would appeal to me for sure! In my area they don't fuss much, but it can be illegal to haul 2 bales wide on a trailer as others mention, and so forth.

Paul
 
Paul - I have a home made bale trailer for round bales. I made a quick hitch of sorts using an old 2 5/16 house trailer hitch. I can hook and unhook it from the tractor seat on my old open station Deere tractor. I put a hitch receiver down low under my rear spear. My only expense was the hitch receiver and welding rods - the rest was from the scrap pile.
 

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