What Bale Sledge is this?

[Farmer Brendan]

What type of bale sledge is this? Who made these sledges?

BALE SLEDGE

Bid Live on Lot 405 in the Cundalls Farm Dispersal Sale of 2 Tractors, Farm Machinery, Implements, Livestock Requisites and Workshop Tools Auction from Cundalls.

www.i-bidder.com

 

[solo]

I can just about remember my father using one of those. Once 8 bales were in then the operator pulled the latch rope to let them out. They were then stacked by hand ready for a Perry loader to load onto trailers and then manually restocked on the trailer. 1960 to 1970 era. No idea on make.

 

[Pan mixer]

The only good thing was that you could put a line of heaps across the field so that there was always eight bales available nearby when hand stacking. Also the bales could be dropped out of the way on corners - unlike a flat 8 sledge.

 

[yellowbelly]

What type of bale sledge is this? Who made these sledges?

No idea what the one in your pic is but, back in the day, they were called manless sledges because the type before that had a man riding on it, picking the bales off the baler and stacking them in 8's and then pushing them off in little stacks as the baler moved along.

Yours looks to have been modified with belting to replace the two or three inch wide flat metal strips that the bales rode on until the sledge was full. See the Browns version in the pic below...

 

[djs]

What type of bale sledge is this? Who made these sledges?

BALE SLEDGE

Bid Live on Lot 405 in the Cundalls Farm Dispersal Sale of 2 Tractors, Farm Machinery, Implements, Livestock Requisites and Workshop Tools Auction from Cundalls.

www.i-bidder.com

I may be wrong but was this made by Neway Benson?

 

[mixedfmr]

Think that might be spelt NUWAY?

 

[Pan mixer]

I think we called them man savers. I prefered standing on the sledge myself whilst Mrs PM drove the baler - there was a lot less walking about.

The steel strips caused field fires in dry years on flints, that gave the sledge-man something else to do.

 

[Bald n Grumpy]

I may be wrong but was this made by Neway Benson?

Nuway benson roll up sledge?

 

[Will 1594]

Got one here ,going in scrap when next wet day

 

[glasshouse]

That eould be good to tow behind a big baler and leave thrm in twos

 

[Pan mixer]

That eould be good to tow behind a big baler and leave thrm in twos

I wouldn't want to try and pull the rope in that case.

 

[David.]

The Perry one used to dismantle easily in field, so it could be tied on top of the baler for travel.

 

[getting on]

Takes me back. I started out on the ride one behind the baler. If it was a heavy crop you were flat out!

 

[Jasper]

When I was a kid I used to run all the way home from school so I could stack 1000s of bales out of one of them . Now I would hobble the other way as fast as I could

 

[mixedfmr]

When I was a kid I used to run all the way home from school so I could stack 1000s of bales out of one of them . Now I would hobble the other way as fast as I could

Just think of all those castles you would build
Them top 2 of 8 were a bit of a push early on. Weight training or slave labour ?
Enjoyed it though

 

[Jasper]

Just think of all those castles you would build
Them top 2 of 8 were a bit of a push early on. Weight training or slave labour ?
Enjoyed it though

Joking aside we got well paid for doing it . I was the first kid in our village to have a Raleigh chopper bought with money I earned on the farm .plus there were lots of good old farm workers and the days were never dull

 

[mixedfmr]

Joking aside we got well paid for doing it . I was the first kid in our village to have a Raleigh chopper bought with money I earned on the farm .plus there were lots of good old farm workers and the days were never dull

Yes, loads of folks to pass the old times down
I got paid in FUTURES

 

[Bongodog]

Just think of all those castles you would build
Them top 2 of 8 were a bit of a push early on. Weight training or slave labour ?
Enjoyed it though

Top 2 of 8 ? you were lucky, used to go bale stacking for a friends dad his elder brother on the tractor used to get distracted and forget to pull the rope. Result 9 or 10 bales to stack, i'm sure he wouls chuck an occasional 11 on so he could watch 3 young lads trying to push a bale onto the 6th layer

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Dad had one like the OP and as @David. says he used to chuck it on top of the baler to move down the road.

It was quite rusty when I was a kid so I don’t remember any name on it. Plus, I think it may have been near a shed fire when I was about 2-3 years old.

 

[David.]

Funny how stacking 15 or 20ac of bales up in 8s wasn't seen as particularly arduous back in the day, often after school, because harvest seemed to be September often as not back then. Usually be an uncle roped in to help, and after a day's work at that.
Have we got lazy, or older and more sense. It all seems, with hindsight, to have been mostly an exercise in turning money and sweat into pigshit anyway.