Bale wagon

I need to build sides on my wagons so I can use them with my bale kicker. I don?t want to add a lot of weight (because the running gears are on the lighter side). I?d like to make the sides so there easily removable. The wagons are 8x16 and 7x16. If anyone has pictures or plans for sides, that would be great!
Thanks

I take kicker off baler and go bale basket wagon instead I loved the switch when I was doing it

use three 2x4's upright for the rear about 6 ft high and have them in pockets which u can buy. the use a 2/4 on slant for each side rail on a slant about 1/2 way, bolted to top and bottom. then use 1 in boards about 1 foot apart horizontally. don't need the whole wagon side covered , as I presume u have a person stacking them. that's the way we had our wagons and easy to remove if you want a flat rack. plus its light as two guys just lift the back off.

Don't think you have to worry about weight on that for lighter gears. The weight would be for removeable. Do you have grain boards on your beds? We just made like if adding extra boards for picking corn.

If the wagons don't have stake pockets that is the first task. Substantial reinforced pockets are necessary if you intend to remove and replace the sides, and use them for a Kicker. Look at bale wagons made for the task on line. Your easy on/off, light structure is really difficult to achieve. Bales make serious projectiles. My thinking is to use 2X4 upright stakes made from knot free white pine or spruce. Steel L brackets can be bolted to the top on cross "Roof" rafters (on edge, not flat). Once they are in place, diagonal braces made from 1" X 1/4 " steel strap, must be used to create shear strength from corner to corner on left right top and back sides in the form of an X. Again bolted with washers, not lag screws on each upright. The open front needs to have smaller gussets on the top corners to prevent wracking from left to right. Probably 3 feet on the hypotenuse. I don't know what your skill set is, or what you know about strength of joining wood to wood, so I will say two 5/16 bolts and washers (no lock washers) into each piece is minimal to keep things from rotating on a single bolt. The strength comes from flexability in this idea, not rigidity. Good luck, Me, I would buy real catch wagons, or hire high school kids! or make the cages permanent. Jim

Bale baskets are expensive. I?m looking for an inexpensive way to bale hay.

(quoted from post at 10:21:13 04/01/20) Bale baskets are expensive. I?m looking for an inexpensive way to bale hay.

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Well, you just added a third factor to the mix that will make what you want to do impossible. Strong, easy to remove, and cheap. You can make them strong and cheap, but they won't be easy to remove. You can make them strong and easy to remove, but it won't be cheap. You can make them easy to remove and cheap, but they won't be strong.

Kickers can throw bales so hard that you'll blow right through the back of a wagon if you're not careful. Made that mistake a couple times, switching from the big 9x20 to a little 8x16 wood wagon. Bales would barely reach the back of the 9x20, but hit square in the middle of the back wall on the same setting in the smaller wagon when I forgot to turn down the kicker. Hit so hard it picked the front of the kicker rack up almost off the running gear...

Wagon was built from 2x4 uprights and 1x6 cross pieces, but they are NOT your modern big box store lumber. Rough cut hemlock.

I bale hay with a baler with a bale thrower onto kicker rack wagons. I don?t think the sides and rear of the racks could be built light enough to be ?easily removable ? and still hold up to any amount of use. If you used stake pockets and built the sides in 3 sections per side with double upright pieces bolted tight together at each section and corners at the rear that would bolt to the rear side upright it might work. Hills put a lot more stress on the rack so keep that in mind if you?re in a hilly area (as I am). Personally I would build the sides on permanent, and get another wagon if you need a flat rack. I have a couple older light running gears and they are fine with an 8 by16 rack.

When I said easy to take off, I should have said easy to take off with a loader.

Buy two 16 foot steel gates for sides, and two gates of whatever width your wagon needs, like 8 foot. Now get a steel plate welded on the end of a 6 foot steel pipe, and bolt it to the floor, front and back, on both sides of the wagon. You may want to fasten more pipe post down the wagon say every 4 feet to give the steel gate extra support. Put gate hinges to the rear of wagon. And be sure to get your end gate with hinges on both ends. So you can hold the three gates together with the hinge pins. Keep the gate up about a foot from the floor, and fasten the gates to the post in whatever way you like, bolt, chain , gear clamps, be creative . Should be light enough that one man can set it up and take down. And if you don?t like it, you can use the gate in a fence, or sell them. Square tube steel gates are very strong.

Start nailing 2x4s together and just keep adding more wherever it breaks, as it will.

Catcher bale racks cost $900 used for a reason. They get a whole lot of stress on the front corners because they can?t be anchored well, so have to be built strong.

You shouldn?t have to worry much about keeping them light, your racks aren?t very big so you won?t get much bale weight. Not a big deal, but just won?t be a weight issue.

At times you can find a riposted out rack with a good metal cage on it for $400-500, that would be a good buy for you, put the racking on your wagon.

Paul

mine were all around 800.00, or get you metal rack wagon seen one sell last year whole unit was around 500.00