We placed the shredder on the scale behind the chop box (feed box), this way we can weigh out small or large amounts of hay, so we know what we are feeding. We also intend on spreading straw with it. We built the prototype but ironing out the bugs took too long so we bought a Brandt Bale Processor, which is capable of processing both round and big square bales. We are well pleased with out choice of machines.
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We have come to the conclusion that it could take up to 60 hp to turn the beater at 1000 RPM (in reality it turns 1500RPM). The original beater was made of a heavy walled 6 in (15cm) pipe, on this pipe we first used knife sections (off a haybine) as teeth that stick out, then we made some teeth out of 3/8 by 3 inch plate by 5 inches long, cut at a 45 degree angle to allow it to grab more material and not just cut it and so throw the material further. It threw it about 10 to 15 feet out. Unfortunately, our hydraulic motor would stop when it sucked in a wad of material. The solid teeth were too agressive, a set of moveable hammers (or flails) are much more forgiving. With the system (flails) on the Brandt bale processor that we are now using, the rotor does not stop, it only slows down if the material is fed too fast or it sucks in a larger amount then it can process.
We now use a hydraulic motor off a New Holland haybine header, an Eaton 74624 hydralic motor, that we pressurize with a 30 gallon per minute (at 1100 RPM) pump. We tried this motor with our TV140 Bi-directional Tractor and it worked nicely, it threw the straw about 50 feet out. It works good, depending on the type of bale, if it is really fluffy stuff it does not fly far or if the wind is blowing like in the pictures.
Since starting this project which we originally planned on putting on a 1 Ton 4 wheel
drive pick-up, we have come to the conclusion that a 1 ton is not enough truck! We have
acquired a 3 Ton 4 wheel drive truck, and it is much better in handling the weight. As you
can see it is quite a truck, so far the 4 wheel drive has kept us from having to drag it
out of the manure... It has an automatic transmission, but no two speed transfer case, so
to go slow enough one either rides the brakes or has to stop put it into neutral, rev the
motor, then let the motor slow down and put it into drive...etc. In larger areas we just
drive back and forth a few times, it sure makes a beautiful bed for the cows. To feed hay
the low gear would work fine, just to spread bedding it would be nice to have a lower
range. The automatic transmission sure is a must, the clutch would not be able to handle
the abuse that it would have to take.
We chose to use the square bale pick up forks that came with the Brandt Bale processor, we just extended the tips to make sure we never jab the forks into the bale under the twine. So far it has worked like a charm. We also copied the Brandt style of loading the bale, the arms are just 3 feet (1 meter) longer then theirs. It works very nice, the odd time the bale gets lifted too fast or gets hung up on something and it then falls in incorrectly, this does not matter, the machine grinds it out just the same as if it was in correctly!
We also decided that it would be nice to load three bales, so we added a spear on the front. The was no problem since the truck originally had a very heavy snow plow on it.
Here is a Mpeg video of the machine in action, it is a 3.4 meg file.
Last Updated 21 Apr 2003
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