Making Hay and saving $$$$

Did not want to infringe on Fly Belgium's post about making hay but saw this and think he could cut his labor cost in half!!!!---Tee

Making sharp turns might get a little HAIRY

Good thing the hay doesn't look too heavy....

Original multitasking!

Better be steady on his feet!

I baled hay with that a couple times when I did not have help. It works fine. There is a brake on the steering wheel shaft so when you are going straight there is time to take the bale to the back of the hay rack and get back to steering before you get too far off the windrow. I still have all the parts and JD 116W baler, but the Wisconsin is stuck. That's my Dad and big brother in the picture. My Dad made several things around the farm to make life easier. He made a cable winch barn cleaner that could slide 1 or 2 cows worth of manure down the gutter and up a chute into the manure spreader. Where the cow would stand in the gutter it was all I could do to get one cow's worth moving. He mated a JD LUC motor from Grandpa's old block baler to a JD speed jack into one unit to power an old JD elevator. It also powered a hay hoist to unload the hay wagons 8 bales at a time pulling them with the forks up and dropping them into one of three hay mows. A cable or rope reel with a brake type clutch powered through a 4 speed transmission powered by the LUC and speed jack. One time the hay went up and into the barn extra fast and we were firmly told NOT to play with the transmission! It was mounted on a skid and staked down at one of 2 barns. He died at the age of 52 when I was 15, my brother was 19, and my sister was 13. I can not tell you how sad we were and what our future was to be. My Mom had to be put into a nursing home the following year and we hung onto the farm until I could buy it when I was 19. My brother and sister have done well in their lives also.

The tractor is a 1946 A sitting in my shed and it runs fine. Dad purchased it new when he came home from WWII. The belt pulley on the fly wheel ran a hydraulic pump for live power. It was also used on a 1929 JD D, and also on a 1935 JD b for our loader tractor.

He also built the 2 end spans of a 3 span iron bridge with a little help from my brother and I. He died before we poured concrete for the floor so he never got to use it. It still stands on 4-16 piers, but the retaining wall got washed out in 1993 when we had 10 floods in June. The cows had some pasture to get to across the creek. They preferred the bridge to going down to the creek and walking across the chunks of rock and concrete Dad had put into it over the years. A concrete mixer truck went across it with no trouble. On both ends of the bridge the cows paths merged into a single lane and the spread out again at the other side.
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Interesting baler. The wheel appears to be under the back. And the wagon tongue hitches directly to the tractor, and runs beside the baler. No right turns allowed !!

That dude would really be busy if it was a block baler and he had to hand tie the wires !

I wanted to do that .

The wagon pulling attachment is home made. Back pipe of vee hitch is attached to baler frame ahead of the baler tire. It is a piece of pipe around a smaller pipe to allow up and down. The front pipe of vee hitch is attached to baler tongue. It has a smaller pipe inside with holes to allow adjustment. The wheel at the end of the vee hitch is a swivel steel wheel. We referred to them as the baler irons.

Don't know what brand of baler that is but isn't it one of those with a curved chute and the chamber runs crosswise. MM maybe?

Thanks for the Rest of the story mrslesq--Sounds like your Dad was ahead of his time--a tinkerer. You have every right to be PROUD of him! Thanks again---Tee

What brand is that loader. I got one like it.

Wow! Thank you for the back story and for the explanation of your Dad's engineering. That is a REAL MAN.

Tom in TN

The ..ONLY.. good thing about a hand clutch.

thanks for sharing that story. What is a speed jack?

My Dad had me driving the baler by about 6yrs old. But our land was not flat like that at all, so the bales got dropped on the ground. Dad walked behind the baler and around the field picking up missed hay. Then I drove the wagon. That guy in the picture was a pretty clever guy. Mark.

If take a hand clutch over a pedal any day of the week

I never did figure that out. Traded it off on part of the payment on truck I bought . Too hard to find help try not to put up any idiot cubes unless I have fo

Hard to see if baler is plugging up before it is too late.

SV, put a clutch on your 30-4020 that can only be operated by hand then you will start singing a different tune. One hand for the steering wheel, one hand for the loader valveHuumm.. then I need a hand for the clutch and what about the gearshift. Hey Bertha can you ride with me on the tractor to run the clutch and shift gears!!! ; > )

I learned to stack loose hay on and Deere G with and F-10 Farmhand.
You learned to be ambidextrous really quick!!

A flat pulley on the LUC ran a bigger flat pulley on a shaft That had a big gear on it running a small gear on another shaft thus slowing the RPM down to a pto speed.

Not much different than running a backhoe or big loader . My arms move a lot Easier than my legs . I never use the clutch on the powershift unless I am hooking onto something

amen

It's a Deere 116W or 114 W baler.

Thats quite an outfit...I have a JD 116W baler with engine shown here sitting in my neighbors shed before I bought it..He wouldnt sell it to me until he got it running...

SV, PS trans that is cheating Lol! Never argue logic with a ..green underwear guy.. To add; I know a bit about operating those PS trannies. Buddy of mine had a big dairy. Back in the day I helped quite often cutting silage pulling the 6 wheel silage wagons. He had four PS 4020s we used for that. Great setup!