Narrow Front Tractor and Loader Update

This is not my video, but was what had me asking about the strength of a narrow front vs wide front end strength on an old tractor. It is a Farm Hand hay accumulator and grapple promotional video. Narrow front tractors with loaders are seen in this video. Pretty nimble tractor with the narrow front tractor.

Enjoy!

ps - I have no plans to add a loader to my NF Farmall 350 or buy an accumulator and grapple anytime soon
Narrow Front Video With Loader

Did you hear their claim that the hay fork would replace 8 men ?

Come on Farmhand, that is a little beyond belief.

Stack square bales outside where I live that way , and you would have a pile of rotting junk. And the strings would be rotten within the first two months. Obviously their target market was in the dry west.
And how dismal the hydraulic power was on those tractors that they couldnt even run that bale accumulator.

Major safety violations seen in the film with a loader on a narrow front tractor. You NEVER DRIVE a narrow front tractor with the bucket high enough that you can see beneath it. Unless, of course, you are going to empty the bucket immediately upon reaching the desired height. The producer of that film obvious had never seen the loader safety films produced by the US agriculture extension service for 4-H tractor driving classes.

On the western irrigated hay fields, not hard to believe.

Pretty good system for its day.

Round balers and now large squares replaced it, but for a decade or two a way to handle large volumes of hay it was the way to do it.

Paul

The stability difference between narrow and wide front is greatly overstated. Wide front tractors pivot so they really are only slightly better than a narrow front.

Narrow front tractors are built pretty sturdy, as its a small lump of cast iron that has to take a lot of stress, jar, hole and bump stress, pushing when in soft deep mud....

Wide fronts came as an add on, and were built to add comfort not strength. As outriggers more or less they add a lot of leveraged, pry stress in all directions.

The narrow front is clearly going to be more sturdy in 9 out of 10 model designs.

Id rather have a wide front for a long day on the tractor.

The narrow front can offer sharper turns/ maneuverability, uses less room in the shed/ trailer, is more sturdy. Works with a mounted corn picker. So there are always some trade offs....

Paul

Local highschool kid put up hay in this manner to build up his college fund. He took it a step further and used one of those grapples on a skidsteer in place of a tractor and loader. He did not store hay in outside stacks like shown in video. For the most part he sold his hay out of the fields or left it on wagons parked in the shed untill buyer came to get it. He used a wire tied baler only. The kid would of re-fused to use a twine tied baler with his grapple. I think I'd of been the same.
He seen some premium money selling small bales versus big round. But his hay customers was pretty limited, and mainly consisted of horse people. He graduated high school and is off to college now. I'm sure he won't be back to mess with little bales during the summer anymore. I know the kid. Messing with little bales was a little beneath his style to begin with, if you know what I mean. I'm sure his accumulate and grapple are for sale. The wire tied baler belonged to his grandpa. And he don't ever sale anything.
What little I have been around bale accumulates, they have to stay shined up to work right. If not, they just be one big PITA untill they are shined up.

(quoted from post at 08:56:49 01/26/22) Major safety violations seen in the film with a loader on a narrow front tractor. You NEVER DRIVE a narrow front tractor with the bucket high enough that you can see beneath it. Unless, of course, you are going to empty the bucket immediately upon reaching the desired height. The producer of that film obvious had never seen the loader safety films produced by the US agriculture extension service for 4-H tractor driving classes.

Click to expand...

jal, I went back and looked and I didn't see the loader high except when approaching the wagon or stack. You have to raise it to get the bales on top of what is already there.

Where I live. You would have to be a VERY LARGE WEALTHY farmer to afford all that equipment!

All the farm auctions I've been to in my 50 years. I've seen one Farmhand bale loader.

Here, you hired high school boys to walk behind the baler and toss the bales on a homemade wagon.

We quit hay in 1984. We were using a 1941 farmall H on the sickle mower. 1948 Farmall M on the loader, raked and baled with a 1957 Allis Chalmers wd45. Had a homemade two wheel trailer. Every time the trailer would go over a bump it would dump two or three bales off the top!

This post was edited by fixerupper on 01/26/2022 at 05:34 pm.

I didn't watch only half of the video and only one I saw with the loader very high other than to set hay on the wagon or the pile was the Moline with the contraption for a loader he went from the top of the pile to the top of the wagon while the loader was at pile height. Don't see anything wrong with the loader operator on the 560 seems reasonable. I would hate to think I had to wait for the loader to lift to the height I needed at the edge of the load or pile to be able to pile would take for ever that way.