Bale handlers

[Eastcoaster]

What is your preference in round bale handlers, roller type versus grab type? We have a grab type here for handling wrapped bales and we get some tears in the plastic when stacking bales. Would the roller type prevent this?

[grassfarmer]

Never owned a grapple type but we used to have a McHale roller type in Scotland and it was about the most useful piece of machinery we ever owned. Rollers for moving wrapped bales, rollers come off to leave double spikes to carry 2 bales side by side - or big squares - or tote bags 2 at a time - or pallets - or feed bunks. Not a machinery fan but that was one useful tool - always wondered why people bought the grapple type that could only grip one round bale.

[grassfarmer]

Here is a picture of the McHale with the rollers removed to show the spikes.

[Eastcoaster]

This is one I am thinking about having a look at. We have a McHale bale slicer at present.

[grassfarmer]

Two weaknesses of it - 1. you need to be careful when building a stack of bales not to drive too far ahead when placing bales on higher rows as you can snag wrap on the bales underneath with the back of the unit as you back out. 2. you need to keep an eye on the bushings on the spikes - we eventually tore one right out but we were doing a lot of heavy work with it - ie lifting 4x500kg fertiliser totes at once.