Wreckit Ralf
Member
Whats the opinions on this machine? Looks quite a handy tool, especially how quick and easy it looks to hitch up and go. Although I'm guessing it'll be a higher price than a bedder, as no one round here seems to use one.
Spread-a-Bale
- Thread starter Wreckit Ralf
- Start date
Had one for 7 years.
Very heavy so need a reasonable loadall on the front and could damage boom/headstock
Likes 6 stringers best but straw can wrap around beaters esp oat straw. Can chew through bearings too but does a very quick job of spreading with right straw. Easier than faffing about with other straw choppers/bedders imo
Very heavy so need a reasonable loadall on the front and could damage boom/headstock
Likes 6 stringers best but straw can wrap around beaters esp oat straw. Can chew through bearings too but does a very quick job of spreading with right straw. Easier than faffing about with other straw choppers/bedders imo
A farm I know with a spread a bale had a JCB and a manitou, they could only use it on the manitou as it kept pulling the top off the JCB headstock. I think as said above, a good tool but heavy. I believe you can get one mounted sideways rather than endways which would be less overhang but not easy to self load bales then
ccp contracting
Member
- Location
- Kent / Surrey border, UK
Two of my customers have them one on a JCB the other on a Manitou , they both say best tools they have ever bought , they can be used from the end or side depends where the brackets are fitted.
- Location
- North Suffolk
Depends on layout of your buildings and whether you want to drive in the shed. All bedders have their pros and cons. I wouldn't find spread a bales that manouverable due to the large length out. Would be like trying to get a plough round the yard (we had the same issue when dad was convinced a linkage mounted spreader would be easier to move about than a trailed one). I know of a chap who strapped a 12ft gate to the front of his handler to check he could get about safely before buying.
KJL
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland.
How do they cope with a dampish cardboarded bale? Also, is there any chance the rotors could flick a stone back at the loader windscreen?
But they pull the bale apart and throw it without chopping the straw up, long straw we found was a more absorbent bed and the stock didn’t force the straw into the muck like chopped
Mark C
Member
- Location
- Bedfordshire
Spreadable are a great machine. We our on our third and have run one since they first came to the market. Really need a 3 tonne or larger machine for 6 string bales. Will spread wet bales well. Don’t chop it so less dust. Never had a stone come at the loader but a few holes in fibre cement cladding , but that’s really down to the Baler man !
- Location
- Somerset
- Location
- east mids
I think they're a great piece of kit. You can tease the bale in quite slowly, so can usually spread the tough ones fine. The occasional block up between the rotors can almost always be cleared by reversing the spreaders. Had a stone come back off a RSJ once and smashed the windscreen... sounded like a 12 bore going off. Not too bad for many years of daily use though
deleted user 837354
Member
As above, the utility of a spread-a-bale v a tow behind chopper will vary according to your yard and building layout. They do give handlers some stick as they stick out a long way.
They aren't that aggressive with the straw, in wheat I found it often threw lumps out. It's not a steady stream like a chopper.
On another place I used to shove a hesston or two quadrants in the back of a Teagle and fire it along a diagonal barrier, could bed a lot of beasts very quickly but again it means having a tractor and handler in the same place.
All you can do is demo one and try it. Either machine may work for you well until you get the layout and 'sequence' worked out and become used to doing it. Self loading the spreadable is very handy but you need to take that into consideration when stacking bales in the barn to begin with.
Very simple machines with not much to go wrong either. Hydraulic motors as pretty idiot proof. Might find one at a farm sale for not daft money.
They aren't that aggressive with the straw, in wheat I found it often threw lumps out. It's not a steady stream like a chopper.
On another place I used to shove a hesston or two quadrants in the back of a Teagle and fire it along a diagonal barrier, could bed a lot of beasts very quickly but again it means having a tractor and handler in the same place.
All you can do is demo one and try it. Either machine may work for you well until you get the layout and 'sequence' worked out and become used to doing it. Self loading the spreadable is very handy but you need to take that into consideration when stacking bales in the barn to begin with.
Very simple machines with not much to go wrong either. Hydraulic motors as pretty idiot proof. Might find one at a farm sale for not daft money.
Last edited:
- Location
- Near Colchester
It is possible for a stone to break the windscreen from a spreadabale.
On the otherhand I have never had mine block on dampish straw, only once on very wet oat straw did it jam up enough that I couldn't fix it by reversing the rotors, and that is after thousands of bales, some of them hay.
Suckndiesel
Member
- Location
- Newtownards
It is possible for a stone to break the windscreen from a spreadabale.
On the otherhand I have never had mine block on dampish straw, only once on very wet oat straw did it jam up enough that I couldn't fix it by reversing the rotors, and that is after thousands of bales, some of them hay.
Managed to kill our collie dog with ours last winter, he was always mad for jumping trying to catch the straw, think a stone hit him on the head.
Run ours on a 32.6 merlo and it handles it fine, serious amount of tail swing with it tho
- Location
- Near Colchester
That must be a 1 in a god knows how many chance
Ours works really well on a 741-120 Manitou
j6891
Member
- Location
- Perth & Kinross
Anyone made their own version/something cheaper/lighter? Or are they actually good value for what's in them?
- Location
- Near Colchester
I did wince at the price when I bought mine, however it is strongly made and having all that weight in it with a wet bale or a bale of hay it would require some clever ideas to make a spreadabale lighter I reckon
They aren’t over heavy it’s the half ton of bale that adds to the weight and the distance out from the headstock.
I couldn’t ever buy a new one because I paid £3400 for mine 6 years ago and I haven’t spent a penny on it.
Use mine on 535-95 JCB’s and it’s fine for stability,bed the nearest parts of pens 1st while the bales full then boom out with the part bale,one thing not mentioned is the difference in dust levels versus a chopper,very little off a spread a bale.
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