loading a wagon with sq. bales

BACK OF THE WAGON
==!== ===!=
====!
!====
=!===
FRONT OF THE WAGON

= represents two horizontal bales
! represents on verticle bale

The diagram above shows how a full bottom layer looks; as you add layers, the "key" (ie the verticle bale) changes positions so that no two keys line up.

I go 6 high because that is what I can reach being vertically challenged and very gravitationally successful ( Short and Fat ) LOL

Anyhow, hay wagons are easier to start a stack with a back rack on it to stack against. They don't have to be much, two pieces of angle iron bolted on at the bottom and some flat pieces of steel to brace it with to hold it up, a piece of wood ( 2x6 ) every foot or so to hold the bales in place and you are done.

I usually start out stacking the bottom lengthwise, next row crosswise, but some folks in here have good ideas in well. Whatever works for you is how you should do it, the important thing is the hay gets out of the field before it gets ruined.

I like to put the hay wagon behind the baler and make one pass and be done, father in law wants to put the bales on the ground and go back with some hired help to pick em up, we are still debating back and forth but since I will stack on the wagon and he can drive the tractor I think we will do it in one pass.

We can go up to 6 rows high and it will fit in the barn just barely, so that is mostly what limits us. I stack the back of the wagon up that high then fill towards the front.

Anyhow, hay wagons are easier to start a stack with a back rack on it to stack against. They don't have to be much, two pieces of angle iron bolted on at the bottom and some flat pieces of steel to brace it with to hold it up, a piece of wood ( 2x6 ) every foot or so to hold the bales in place and you are done.

I usually start out stacking the bottom lengthwise, next row crosswise, but some folks in here have good ideas in well. Whatever works for you is how you should do it, the important thing is the hay gets out of the field before it gets ruined.

I like to put the hay wagon behind the baler and make one pass and be done, father in law wants to put the bales on the ground and go back with some hired help to pick em up, we are still debating back and forth but since I will stack on the wagon and he can drive the tractor I think we will do it in one pass.

We can go up to 6 rows high and it will fit in the barn just barely, so that is mostly what limits us. I stack the back of the wagon up that high then fill towards the front.

It is much better to load on the wagon as you bale pull wagon behind baler _if_ you have a stout enough tractor & you have 2 people, one to drive, one to stack.

Bending over & picking up from the ground & up onto a wagon with the bales is a big job. I do 2000 - 6000 bales a year.

--->Paul

On my 8x - um, I don't know how long my raks are???? Anyhow, I stack 3 wide across the bottom. Yes you get a good 1/3 of a bale overhang on each side. I do this 3 high.

Then the 4th & 5th row I put one bale lengthwise down the middle, and put a bale on each side like the bottom rows, across the rack.

The 6th row is 2 bales wide, across the rack.

This ends up with a load of bales shaped like a loaf of bread, gets narrower at the top. It is very stable. The couple of bales running length-wise really stablize the load fore & aft.

While many people will run some rows across, and other rows lengthwise to make a sturdy load, I find thos emiserable to unload by myself. I have a drive-in hay mow, and it is really rough to pull those bales off the rack while standing on the floor.

My plan allows one to pull the bales down & off the rack with a bale hook, no climbing up to get bales down, then come down to stack, etc.

I use a rear rack to start the bales. Sure makes it a _lot_ easier. You can manage without, but an empty bale rack bounces a lot, very hard to start your rows & keep bales from falling off.

I stack all 6 high on the back row or 2, and work my way forward. I would not want to do one whole layer, then the 2nd layer, etc. Would not work well that way.

--->Paul

I go full rows 4 high. The for the 5th row. I center 2 bales accross the top, but set in a 1/2 bale. That way the top row wont fall off the back.
I then put one bale accross the center for the 6th row.
Gives a rack of 124 bales.
I drag these full racks 30 mi at 30 mph and have not lost one yet.

one time I rember as a kid getting 9 high (it was on a 20ft donahue planter trailer and one hint... start at the back and work to the front so the guy pullin the wagon can see when your ready to move.