Lifting Bales of Hay

J

jillm

Member
Does anyone know if you can lift bales of hay with a farmall cub international 1956. The bales are the round large ones, also how can you do it without hydraulics i.e. on a winch or something
 
my guess is that the cub is to light in the front for that :( doing it with a winch seems to be a hard way to do it . adding hydrolics to a cub is not that hard to do. i have used a ford 5000 to move round bales and with them still a little green a slight incline and the front wheels wasn't on the ground.then ypu would steer with the brakes :wink: :!:
 
The only way to safely attempt this would be to use a block and tackle to gain mechanical advantage. Most large bales would approach the weight of a cub or come close enough to be unsafe. There is certainly no safe way to lift one with a loader or similar implement directly with the cub.
 
I bale 4 foot round bales and they can weigh as much as 1000 lbs. I would not recommend even trying to move them with a Cub. Maybe you could put a piece of steel rod thru the center and use it as a axle and roll them. But there is no way a Cub could pick one up.
 
The real question is......how much weight can you add to the front of a cub without breaking something at the pivot point, which in this case would be the rear axle...........

Probably the only person who truly knows this, and what you could do to modify/reinforce a cub to do this particular duty would be rick prentice...

Here is what I do know....

The rear rockshaft with my modified hydraulics will pick up somewhere around 500 lbs, at that point, the lines burst. The front of the tractor (with a single set of front weights) does not lift up.

Trying to pick up the back of an A (1800 lbs) does not work. It begins to , and then the cub stalls -- this, I believe is too much for the little cub pump, even with my big hydraulic cylinder......the front wheels do come off the ground with one set of weights...the axle does not snap.....at least not right away. (This was with repaired lines....) I may at some point replace my 2" cylinder with a larger diameter one, so I can do more stupid things that get me into more trouble.........

I think it would be possible to modify a cub for this duty, but for your own safety, and for that of the cub, it would have to be reinforced in some way....perhaps with a subframe that adds the counterbalance weight......

subframe extending from the implement mounts on the torque tube through the drawbar mounts right through to the rear mount for the bale spear. Weight added beneath the belly of the tractor, as well as the front wheels, for even distribution and balance, keeping your center of gravity low.......

and, of course, the hydraulic system, as is standard, will not do the job.....you would need to design a much heavier system.
 
jillm":3e8uhdnq said:
Does anyone know if you can lift bales of hay with a farmall cub international 1956. The bales are the round large ones, also how can you do it without hydraulics i.e. on a winch or something
Click to expand...

Jill:

In my opinion, and it is just that... this is not one of those things that you can safely and sensibly do with a Cub. It was never designed to handle round bales. Now, hauling around 1/2 dozen square bales on your Kodiak Karry-All, is do-able :!: :idea: :wink: :D
 
The only way to move round bales with a cub is using a trailer. It is too light to move those. They weigh about as much as the cub does, if not more. I use a Farmall H with a loader and forks. Put some weight on the back and I can use it. Works pretty good. Hope you can find a way to move 'em... :D
 
Hi Jill. Just like everyone mentioned, they're probably too heavy. When the backhoe was finally mounted, I decided to see how light the front end was. The backhoe itself weighed 950#, according to Woods. With the backhoe somewhat extended, you could lift the front end of the cub with two fingers :shock: . That's when the next project was making the front loader for some added weight. Woods recommends that any tractor with a backhoe be equiped with the front loader too.

Rick
 
If it was me i would use a trailer if i didn't have any big hills to go up and down. Remember you probably have enough power to pull it but do you have the brakes to stop it.
 
You might be able to create a scissor lift that works off the rockshaft similiar to a kodiak carry all. Just to pick them up, but it would be awfully hard on the hydraulics if it didn't just blow them out. You'd probably just ride a wheelie though. I wouldn't try it on anything besides level ground. Cubs weren't designed for that kind of weight. I'd say if they were bailed tight, you'd have a fun time just spearing them without the cub spinning. Brandon.
 
Jill,
If you really want to use the Cub on big round bales, Virginia Mike is on the right track.
Can you find an apparatus like the Amish and other horse farmers use? They have figured out how to handle round bales with a rig pulled by horses, so if you don't have excess hills, maybe that would allow the Cub to do what you want.
Good Luck!
 
After all this, I must ask how large these round bales are? They could be anywhere from 300lbs to a ton, as they have made a few small "large round" balers over the years. A Cub should have no trouble with a little 300-pounder on the back if all you're doing is moving a few around the yard once in a while.
 
I suppose, as with all things in life, I never like to hear the answer "no, it can't be done."

This is one of the things which probably shouldn't be done......

With extensive modifications, however, it probably could be.

It is, however, totally out of the question as is, without using one of the trailers mentioned above.

Your question, as I now re-read it, seems to imply simplicity, using a simple winch, instead of a hydraulic system.

None of the ways in which this could be done would be simple........

So, while, I suppose, the ultimate answer would be yes, the practical one would most certainly be no.
 
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