Chuck Hainsworth claims he can bale more than twice as much hay pulling two balers instead of one.
“We more than double our efficiency because we lose less time on the headlands,” says Hainsworth, of Mt. Morris, NY. “We can easily cover 10 acres per hour.”
He recently patented a hydraulic-powered hitch for pulling two small balers behind a single tractor. He uses two of them in his timothy and timothy-alfalfa haying operation, and is ready to market his invention to other growers.
The 25'-long bridge hitch goes up and over the first baler to the second one. A steerable rear axle, controlled by hydraulics from the tractor cab, maneuvers the second baler. It swings out up to 30' or can be positioned directly behind the first baler for transport.
Hainsworth says it can easily be moved in or out to pick up irregular windrows, or to maneuver around telephone poles or other obstacles.
“That baler will actually respond faster to change than the front one, because you're just pulling a hydraulic lever,” he says.
The hitch mounts to a ball attached to the tractor's three-point hitch. The front baler hooks to a drawbar at the bottom of the hitch. Both balers are powered by 50-hp hydraulic motors that direct-drive their flywheels. Those motors, mounted on the balers' input shafts, are powered by a 2,500 psi pto-driven hydraulic pump attached at the rear of the tractor.
The hitch's main beam is filled with oil, serving as the system's hydraulic reservoir.
Hainsworth says running the front baler with hydraulics instead of the pto avoids driveline problems in sharp turns. And almost any tractor will suffice, because you don't need a 540-rpm pto.
The hitch can be used to run any two-tie small baler models, with only minor modifications. Contact him at 585-734-3264 or balerhitch2@aol.com.
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