Bale trailers or transtackers!?

A new chaser is over £80,000. With a good driver you can clear 60t per hour easily to the side of a field and make stacks that look like a telehandler made them. Thats one load every 8 minutes tot he side of a field. We run 4 balers and rarely have any bales out overnight, and the chasers are back in the yard soon after the balers.

If we carted them back to the yard with a chaser we would need about 6 chasers and staff to drive them.

This stack was just over 500 bales, took just over 4 hours and was 4 fields cleared to a central grass field. Longest haul was a mile.

Any more than 5 minutes on the road and its cheaper to tip on the headland, get the fields clear and the bales safe, then cart with trailers or a lorry.
View attachment 568726
You hit the nail on the head.....Good Driver.

Biggest issue we had, at the time, was landowners expecting you to transport them a ridiculous distance to their yards.

That's when the trailers were better.
 

DieselRob

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
North Yorkshire
What are bale chasers like to buy second hand? Do they usually get moved on due to problems? Are they controlled by electronic control boxes or just hydraulic valve?
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
What are bale chasers like to buy second hand? Do they usually get moved on due to problems? Are they controlled by electronic control boxes or just hydraulic valve?

Depends on the make and the driver.
I've just sold mine, was a Heath QM. Built by a farmer in a farm workshop. Very simple. Very simple electrics to. 1 giant valve block, 12v off / on.

In 7 years mine had a 4 rams resealed and one crack welded up. However I was the only driver and treated it like my baby.

I have seen 2yr old machines that are a wreck. They pick the last bale up and then get unhitched and left all winter covered in straw. The rats go in and demolish the wiring. The students never grease them and the bushes get badly worn. The good news is it's easy to tell and abused one.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
Depends on the make and the driver.
I've just sold mine, was a Heath QM. Built by a farmer in a farm workshop. Very simple. Very simple electrics to. 1 giant valve block, 12v off / on.

In 7 years mine had a 4 rams resealed and one crack welded up. However I was the only driver and treated it like my baby.

I have seen 2yr old machines that are a wreck. They pick the last bale up and then get unhitched and left all winter covered in straw. The rats go in and demolish the wiring. The students never grease them and the bushes get badly worn. The good news is it's easy to tell and abused one.

But a clever man all the same. :LOL::LOL:
I often see him at vintage shows with his stationary baler.
Briggsy Newby Hall baler 2015 (2).jpg

Camera shy.
 

Hesston4860s

Member
Location
Nr Lincoln
I'd always go for the chaser in my situation, for the fact that I don't have loads of staff for loadalls and trailers. With the chaser I can (or could when I had straw to bale) either run straight back to the yard, or stack in an out of the Farmers way place and fetch with a trailer at a later date.

I simply wouldn't bale straw now without having a chaser, also when I have gone in with a trailer and loader the wheel marks compared to the chaser are unreal !.
 
Depends on the make and the driver.
I've just sold mine, was a Heath QM. Built by a farmer in a farm workshop. Very simple. Very simple electrics to. 1 giant valve block, 12v off / on.

In 7 years mine had a 4 rams resealed and one crack welded up. However I was the only driver and treated it like my baby.

I have seen 2yr old machines that are a wreck. They pick the last bale up and then get unhitched and left all winter covered in straw. The rats go in and demolish the wiring. The students never grease them and the bushes get badly worn. The good news is it's easy to tell and abused one.
Think Richard Briggs and John Heath are a bit more than farmers with a workshop , have you ever been in Richards workshop or yard Who build the chasers.
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
Think Richard Briggs and John Heath are a bit more than farmers with a workshop , have you ever been in Richards workshop or yard Who build the chasers.

I meant it as a compliment not an insult! Never been in Richards yard but dealt with him several times, sold him a trailer too, very clever man. Have been to Heaths a couple of times.

My point was the Transtacker and the Arcusin are built by designers in an office, manufactured in big factories but Heath have made a better machine in a farm workshop. They have a well kitted workshop now admittedly, but was it like that back in 1994/95?

We brought out first chaser in 1999, was an ex hire 1996 machine and is still here and going strong. We ran a Walton for 7 years, I drove it for 6 and worked for CHK who built them at the time and worked on the modifications when they became the Transtacker.
We've never run an Arcusin, but have looked at them several times, but our two biggest customers said they didn't have big enough wheels. I have driven one for a day though.
Just amazes me when I go in Heaths yard how much they can do and have done with what they have compared to the other manufacturers.
 
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I could do with getting in touch with whoever makes them as need some parts for mine and can't make owt of big bale north !.
Was just chatting to Richard as he coming to our wedding and was asking where places to stay. Will send you his number. @Andrew did your old chaser have the hay bob tine drawbar lock mod done to stop drawbar opening on road and double muscled thumbs working old switch box thousands of times a day
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
Was just chatting to Richard as he coming to our wedding and was asking where places to stay. Will send you his number. @Andrew did your old chaser have the hay bob tine drawbar lock mod done to stop drawbar opening on road and double muscled thumbs working old switch box thousands of times a day

It's still got the brake cylinder lock on there but a modified version of the original.
We wore the old switch box out so I made a new one, much nicer switches and has an interlock in there too to stop the drawbar opening on the road.
I've just changed from a QM to a Super as doing more Hesstons again now so the old girl has retired and is still tucked up in the shed.
 

Hesston4860s

Member
Location
Nr Lincoln
What do you need?

Well mine originally had the "carriage" that slid down the bed with the first two bales to keep them stood up. But it never worked properly after I pushed it off late one night with some bales and bent it. So last year I took it off, cut the floor and welded in 2 lengths of channel and just have the 1 stand up bar like the current new qm's have which all works fine. But the new qm's have like a pop up bar on the head that stops the bales sliding to far down the head. I need the 2 bits of profiled steel to weld to the carriage the head fits to and the 2 profiled "banana" shaped bits that fit the head, so I can add this pop up bar to mine !.
 

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