1.6 tonne mini excavator + hay spike?

I have a Schaeff HR12 1.6 tonne mini excavator. According to its spec sheet it could easily handle the weight of a round hay bale (normally 250-350kg) at nearly all posititions and reaches:


However I have been unable to find any hay bale spike/spear attachments for mini excavators, not even for midi or big excavators.

Is there a reason for that?
Is it super stupid to lift hay bales with a mini excavator? ...even if I get the the spike to the exact center of the hay bale, so the hay bales center of gravity would not try to twist the excavator arm.

I've lifted rocks probably weighing more than a hay bale off center at max reach and my miniex has survived as far as I know.

And I thought I was odd for looking for pallet forks for a backhoe! I think it's a great idea, but you'll probably have to make your own. The fork sticking "out" vs "in" will reduce the capacity but is far more useful for stacking etc. If you only have one spear there shouldn't be any danger of twisting the frame, the bale will find its own balance.

The reason they're not common is because a three point bale spear is so common and works fine with what most farmers have available.

Geith has pictures of pallet forks for excavators on their website. A hay spear would be even simpler, could even use a chain instead of the second set of holes so it's easier to adjust, simpler to build, and just as functional.

Pallet forks are next on my list
I've thought about having the pallet forks and the hay spike on the same attachment plate, like a normal agricultural tractor often has.
Well, actually I would like to get/build a thumb first, that way I can tear up the hay bale and load it into the IBC cages I use as hay feeders. Every time I have to pull up a stump or move a big rock, I dream about having a thumb on my miniex. I've had to build entire rock walls without the thumb - its not fun to have the rock roll down the hill after it slipped from your thumbless grasp when positioning it.

Thanks for the 1 spike suggestion, makes sense and is easier to build. I actually happen to have a truck axle somewhere, which just needs to be sharpened and attached to an attachment plate. My miniex does not have a quick attach, instead I have to mess around with hammering in/out those damn pins.
Has anyone built a quick attach for their mini excavator? ..Something you can operate with the push of a button from the cab would be ideal. If it had reversible buckets, then it would be perfect. Right now I have just 1 bucket and I am prepared to convert it into another standard if that means quick exchanging and reversible operation (which is very rare in my country, even for big excavators).

Back to the spike: how would you attach it to the plate? I imagine just welding it to the plate on a 90 degree angle is not enough, should it have ribs somewhere?

For the spike, I imagine using a piece of channel iron on each side with the hole for the pivot pin. angled in to an inch apart or the thickness of the spike, and sandwiched and welded to each side of the spike. If there's an H bracket, I'd use a chain instead of the "dog bones" links. Not sure if the chain would work if there isn't a H bracket, and the chain obviously wouldn't work for having the spike point in, but you wouldn't get a roundbale in there anyway.

You shouldn't have to do much hammering on the pins if you know how to change buckets, it doesn't look like a tight new machine. Just think, one pin at a time, positioned so that there's as little weight on that pin as possible, and use a much smaller pin/rod to hold the weight while you reposition and remove the other pin, then set the bucket on the ground so that there's no weight on the rod. Use the rod to pick up the new bucket, etc.

I don't think lifting capacity is the concern here.These tiny minis have a very small stick that could easily twist at half of they're lifting capy. (IMHO).
Perma,
Would mounting the spear to the dozer blade work? How much height do you need? Are you stacking the bales?
If you had some sort of 'trapeze' mount using the blade and the blade mounting pins you would have the bucket free to steady your load.I know it be more of a project and might be a bit 'clunky' but it sure beats twisting your stick I'd think.
I hear you about wanting a thumb and a quick connect. I've seen QC's for our size minis but at around $1000-$1500 I'll wait to build one.Same for the thumb.
And if your pounding on the pins you need to take the load off.I pop my 30mm pins by hand.Getting aligned to put things back can be a pain but usually just a twist or two and they go right in.Got grease?
HTH
J.
P.S. Love your parking solution!

Actually I can move the bales right now without any attchments:
I put the dozer blade near the ground
then push the blade against the bale
then squeeze the bale with the bucket
then lift the dozer blade up to get some ground clearance for the bale
And then I can drive it where ever I want:


The problem is, that I need to lift the bale over the sheeps fence, since my temporary fencing system does not have a gate and the panels will be in frozen hay in the winter.
I also need to stack them in the future.. actually the ability or the inability to stack bales is going to dictate the barn I am going to build.

Wow, 1000-1500 USD for a quick connect is way disporpotional to the price ouf my mini ex. Maybe messing around with pins isnt that bad afterall

for you hitch you can knock up a "half" hitch
only leaves 1 pin to hit in and out and makes the first pin even easier to connect buckets are reversible because you just swap the fixed pin
http://www.eiengineering.com.au/assets/Uploads/1.8TonneHalfHitch2A250.jpg
something along these lines

Couldn't you just weld some sort of adapter, like a receiver hitch from a truck, onto the back of your bucket and have the hay spear connect to that?

I would probably fab something quick off the bucket first to see if that machine can handle a bale even.

The chart looks to have good info but I have no idea what it is saying, it's in what language?

How about adding a thumb, would it be large enough? I've seen bales moved that way before, granted with a bit larger machine.

ValleyFirewood said:

How about adding a thumb, would it be large enough? I've seen bales moved that way before, granted with a bit larger machine.

Click to expand...

Thumb is what I was thinking too. But looking at the pic of the mini-ex that he posted, I'm not sure if he'd be able to grab enough of the bale with a thumb?? It may just tear a piece of the bale out.

I like the idea of attaching a bale spear to the existing bucket to try it out and see if the mini will do what you want first. Can you turn your bucket around 180º? Maybe you could use one of the bale spears that clamp on to a farm loader bucket?

Since someone mentioned it: http://www.fluneywelding.com/forks.html Scroll to the bottom for pallet forks for mini-ex.

Andrew

wow, amazing feedback

The Learner said:

for you hitch you can knock up a "half" hitch
only leaves 1 pin to hit in and out and makes the first pin even easier to connect buckets are reversible because you just swap the fixed pin
http://www.eiengineering.com.au/assets/Uploads/1.8TonneHalfHitch2A250.jpg
something along these lines

Click to expand...

I feel a bit stupid, but since I only have 1 bucket I have never had to change buckets on my mini ex. Thus I always presumed it was the most basic 2 pin affair.
However at closer inspection I have a pretty cool quick hitch system.. I just saved lots of money by just going outside.. nice

ValleyFirewood said:

The chart looks to have good info but I have no idea what it is saying, it's in what language?

Click to expand...

its in german, which I cannot speak aswell. Apparently only the VE columns apply to my HR12, so I translated the whole thing to english and only left the applicable columns.

For a hay bale I think its safe to add 1.2 meters (length of the round bale I'm using) to the actual dipper position. So only the horizontal 2.5m and 3m columns would apply here as the 1.3m and 1.8m columns. This means I can stack the round hay bales 2 bales high and cannot reach deeper than 1 bale.

Andrew_D said:

Can you turn your bucket around 180º?

Click to expand...

Nope, I have been thinking about just making an adapter plate that would enable me to turn around any attachment. But thats way bottom of my todolist, its like #1246 on my list (yes, that is the actual number).

Tags said:

Couldn't you just weld some sort of adapter, like a receiver hitch from a truck, onto the back of your bucket and have the hay spear connect to that?

Click to expand...

ValleyFirewood said:

I would probably fab something quick off the bucket first to see if that machine can handle a bale even.

Click to expand...

This time I even didn't have to go outside to save money, good thing I keep pics of my scraps in my laptop:


Since this is the front axle from a truck, the bearings should easily handle a 300kg bale?
Maybe just drilling some holes in the little bucket and bolting the axle via the 4 wheel bolts directly to the bucket is enough? Would it just tear the bucket?
It is kinda inconvenient to change from digging mode to hay mode, but this solution would literally cost me nothing

ValleyFirewood said:

How about adding a thumb, would it be large enough? I've seen bales moved that way before, granted with a bit larger machine.

Click to expand...

Andrew_D said:

Thumb is what I was thinking too. But looking at the pic of the mini-ex that he posted, I'm not sure if he'd be able to grab enough of the bale with a thumb?? It may just tear a piece of the bale out.

Click to expand...

Andrew is right, the bucket is just so small it would tear a chuck off the bale or just mess it up so much it becomes unstackable. However I will be using the thumb to tear up the bale for loading into feeders.

I move bales with my bigger mini, Case CX50B and 1500lb bales. I carry them like you, but with a 18" bucket and thumb, I can grab them by the far top edge to set them over a bale ring. As for a spear or stacking bales, you are out of luck. The chart you are referencing is based on a load at the bucket. A spear would increase that load based on the distance from the center of the bucket. You would have to reach over the bale and point the spear towards you to be able to carry a bale.

see the first table in my post, there I compensated for the load shifting away from the excavator.

Whats left of the round bale after you have lifted it with the thumb?
Could you make photos the next time

I have to add a thumb anyway and if the hay bale is left somewhat intact after grabbing it with the thumb, then I don't see much point wasting time building a dedicated hay spike at this time.

Before you go building try slinging a chain or strap around the bale and see if you can boom up and out with it tide to your bucket.

I don't normally handle bales with our excavator, but last winter because the loader tractor wasn't running and the hoe was there. I carry them like you do and then take the strings off and grab the top corner. With my blade down, I can pick a 1500lb bale up and swing it over a bale ring.

thats an excellent idea, I will try that ASAP

you sure have heavy bales there, mine are half the weight - they are really dry and just 1.2 meters in diameter.