Mcconnel Bale Packs

[Jsmith2211]

Hi all. Theres one of these mcconell bale packers come up on facebook for not stupid money and I am considering it. The only thing is i've heard the packs are a bit loose. Does anybody have experience with handling them with a flat 8 grab? My thoughts being you could pick up two packs side by side with a flat 8 and stack them accordingly? The one advertised on facebook has been reduced down to making packs of (I think) 12 as well which might help. Just interested to hear peoples thoughts. Obviously a baron would be nice but I cant justfy spending 20x the money of a mcconnel...

 

[JWL]

That does sound a bit over ambitious, from what I remember from working with a balepacker years ago they needed to be lifted from the bottom row with the appropriate bale squeeze. Even trying to pick them up from the second layer would cause problems as the base layer would sag in the strings making them an arse to put down tidy again.
Yes the packer could drive you to sitting weeping behind a broken bale or two but when they were behaving they were an impressive way of moving idiot bricks without leaving the tractor seat. Even using them from the stack they were still bloody handy

 

[will_mck]

Flat 8 will never pick them up. This is the best mcconnel pack grab I've seen, some guy on the small/conventional baler facebook group made it, he can lift two packs at a time with it, looks a good sturdy job. Its a squeeze type grab

 

[Mark C]

The packs are very sloppy, a flat 8 is a no no, you need the grab similar to the one above

 

[radar]

Worked on Plymouth Estates as a student near Ludlow as a student and they did a lot of trialling for McConnell. Definitely need a squeeze lift and a baler that bales 100% all day every day as any bust bales completely screw the system!