Truck Mounted Bale Fork

Truck mounted bale fork HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 16-5-7 "My truck-mounted, three-pronged bale fork lets me haul one big square bale or two round bales at a time," says Bobby Beck, Mt. View, Okla. The bale fork bolts to the rear end of Beck's Ford F-450 Super Duty 11/2-ton pickup. Beck welded three spikes to a rectangular steel frame built from 4-in. sq. steel tubing, then welded a subframe below the truck's bumper and pinned the two frames together. Cable from an 8,000-lb. winch at the front of the floor connects to a lift arm on the frame. Each of the two outside spikes is used to spear a round bale, with the center spike between bales. All three spikes are used to spear a big square bale. Beck uses a toggle switch in the cab to winch bales 3/4 of the way onto the truck's floor. "I've used it to pick up big square bales weighing 2,400 lbs. with no problem. It'll also handle two 4 by 4-ft. round bales weighing 900 lbs. each," says Beck, a cow-calf operator who feeds bales by hand from the truck to cattle on pasture. "I had been using a front-end loader to place one bale at a time on my pickup. How-ever, my pastures are up to 50 miles apart and I got tired of all the driving. My bale spike doesn't tie up a tractor and lets me haul twice as many round bales. Another advantage is that the three spikes hold big square bales together so I can feed sections off of either end. The rest of the hay stays between the spikes allowing me to feed out part of a bale, then drive to another pasture. "The winch is rated at 8,000 lbs. How-ever, I can double its pulling power to 16,000 lbs. by doubling up the cable between the winch and bale spike. The 4 ft., 10-in. long center spike was made from 2 3/8-in. dia steel pipe, and the 21/2-ft. long outside spikes from 4-in. sq. tubing cut in a triangular shape for strength. Beck recently replaced the long center spike with a 3-ft. triangular shape - like the outside spikes - for easier penetration of dense bales. The winch is powered by an electric motor that runs off the truck's 12-volt battery (Beck notes that a 36-in. hydraulic cylinder could be used instead of the winch). He bolted the winch to a steel frame and welded the frame to the truck's floor. A pin holds the winch spool at the top of the lift arm. Beck used 6-in. wide, 3/4-in. thick channel iron to build the subframe, with 5/8-in. strap iron to support the bale spike's mounting arms. Two 1-in. dia. pins se-cure the arms. By removing the bale spike, the same pins can be used to support a pair of "gin poles" that serve as a lifting crane. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bobby Beck, Rt.1, Mt. View, Okla. 73062 (ph 405 347-2468).

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