Bale spear material

I am looking to make a couple replacement spears for my bale fork. I have the one long with two stabilizers. The long one seams to bend pretty easy. Just wondering what a good material would be to make the new spears out of? Would harder material be better? Thanks in advance.

The only thing I ever found hard enough was a couple of axles out of the rearend of an old fire truck. I've snapped both of those off though. I broke one twice right flush with the frame. I've reused them,but they're getting short. I tried the shaft out of an old land roller. It lasted about half a dozen bales before it looked like a horseshoe. I've got a shaft here out of the back of an old JD 54 manure spreader. It's a larger diameter than the truck axles. I was going to try it when that axle broke a few weeks ago,but I was low on oxygen,so I just reused the axle again. I'll try it one of these days,but I'm a little concerned about the diameter and getting it in to these tight bales.

I have built many by using Axle shafts from semi rear ends. I go to a rebuild shop or salvage yard and get shafts with worn splines. Most times I get them for under ten bucks. I get the ones that are just a fuss under 2 inches in dia. The best way I have found to mount them is to install a short piece of 2" ID seamless tubing as a receiver welded where you want the spear. I drill the tubing and tap it to 5/8 thread. Cut the flange off the axle with a torch. Install the axle in the receiver and tighten the set bolt. You can drill a 3/8 hole through the end of the tubing to install a sheer bolt case you run into something hard. Sharpen the speer with a hand held grinder, or use the county black top. I lower the speer on the road and apply a little down pressure. Drive about 600 feet then loosen the set bolt and turn the speer. Never do this on a sunny hot day. You need cold asphalt to work. Never seen it hurt the road and I have built a at least 6 of these. I have never broken any off and have used them on 120 hp loader tractors. I install two speers about 34 inches apart like a forklift would have. I load everything from bales to logs. Lifted junk cars by stabbing through the widows sideways. I know they are tuff. You just need to have a very sharp point to stab hay. Good luck Al

Go to a farm store and buy one of those that fit into a tapered sleeve, they are around $100 and well worth it, I use them to weld into a material bucket at the correct angle, then when I don't need it they come out of the sleeve with ease. Truck axles work okay but the bale hangs up on the when you want to back away from them. The ones I'm talking about are sharp and square in the shank, install them with the edge of the square 'up'...

Hi
I fix tractors here for a living I have seen most creations known to man for bale spikes, on tractors that come here. Like Tims has said go buy proper spikes with good quality steel. There are some cheap ones that are junk. on our farm we have a genuine quickie dual spike that's 16 years old. Dad broke 1 tine doing something stupid He admitted that so it was, "stupid"! the other tine is original but has a slight bend from the same accident, I think they are Kvernland tines. The other tractor has a 4 year old HLA twin spike on it, haven't damaged a tine yet on that one only tightened them when they bedded into the cups.

We run hard core straw bales here for bedding. I can push that spike right in the ends of the bale or clean through the sides of any bale even one thats part frozen. With those tines being designed the way they are the bales slide off nice to. I have heard guys say with big 2" spikes"AkA truck axles" the can sometimes push the middles out of soft cores!, these wont.
If you spend the money on the proper good tines, I think you will wish you had never seen the spikes you have used and bent, and wont need the 2 short tines to stop the bale turning if you space the other 2 wide enough apart. with a few of the tractors that came here I have had to put a bale on the spikes to pull the loaders. lots of them would wreck the bale, be no use to me and to get the loaders off I have had to use the bale fork like pallet tines and slide them under the bale.
it's your money and time, but tine cups and proper bale fork tines is where I'd be going from my experience.
Regards Robert

I agree with getting a proper spike. I've tried the truck axles and cylinder shafts. They are OK but the right spikes are well worth the difference and if you break one they are easy to replace.

i agree with tim.buy the real deal with tapered end and the sleeve it goes into.will penetrate bales alot easier then the fat found ones and bales will slide off easier.i bought eight of them 38" to use to build a manure forks for the loader.work great and don't bend.got them from agri-supply.
also built single bale spear,only longer spear.use it on 5x6 bales,still straight as an arrow.

Check out titan manufacturing on ebay. They have a spear/sleeve/nut on there now for $79 free shipping. I've bought a few things from them and seem to be good quality and prices. Seems their eBay prices are better than their website prices and almost everything has free shipping. Saw the stabilizer spikes too.

I should explain a little better. I have a manufactured bale spear with the tapered sleeve in it. I work at a machine shop and can buy a 12 foot bar of steel. Just wondering what grade of steel should I buy or at least get a price on. If material it as much as the spears are, I will just buy the manufactured ones. Thanks again.

Hi If you got the tine cups, I'd still go buy the proper tines,you got to buy the steel and do the machining your times still worth something, and as long as you get the good ones you are done. no messing around and they should last many years, you could find you are back here in this situation in 2 years or less if you don't get it right . I priced bright steel 1 1/8th" the other day for loader pins it was $1.10 an inch, and cheaper to go buy the pins at $20 each , even with me doing the work making them in my shop here, there was $8 plus of steel in them.
Regards Robert

MNfarmboy: Good question about spears. I've seen every sort of lashup and mickey mouse arrangement out there. You need a medium carbon steel and it MUST be heat treated. If you have the shop facilities to heat treat long pieces, something like 1045, 1070, or 5160 will work if you heat treat them to about 43C Rockwell. If you don't have heat treatment available, you can buy 4140 already heat treated, but at the current price, you may find a commercial FORGED spike is a better buy. Remember, if you are welding any steel or steel alloy with more than 0.3% carbon, you must use appropriate filler metal, pre-heat, and post heat the welds. It's nice to have access to a lathe so you can turn the points on the spears if you decide to fabricate your own.