Pickup-Mounted Hesston Stack Mover

Pickup-Mounted Hesston Stack Mover HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Bale Handling (5) 20-4-25 An old pull-type Hesston "Stak Mover" mounted on a used 1-ton pickup makes a great low-cost hay mover, says Martin Nyland, La Glace, Alberta. "It lets me move hay fast over long distances and saves a lot of wear and tear on my tractor. Best of all, it didn't cost much to build," says Nyland. He already had the Chevy 1-ton Dually pickup and the Hesston 30 two-wheeled Stak Mover. He cut the pickup frame off behind the cab and replaced it with the frame off an old Dodge 2-ton truck, keeping the Chevy's original rear wheels and axle so the frame would bear as low to the ground as possible. He removed the wheels and axles from the 16-ft. long Stak Mover and bolted the deck onto the new frame. He mounted a homemade portable hydraulic unit on the frame just behind the cab. A 10 hp Briggs & Stratton engine belt-drives a hydraulic pump that powers orbit motors on the Stak Mover. He removed the Stak Mover's original hinges for tilting the deck up or down and made new ones farther back so the back end of the deck would reach the ground. He also removed the original cylinder that raised or lowered the deck and replaced it with a longer one. "I use it all winter long to feed cattle," says Nyland. "By putting chains on the tires I can plow through 1 1/2-ft. deep snow. To feed my cattle I climb on top of the stack and fork off the hay while someone else drives ahead. I got the idea after I rented a farm 12 miles from my home. At first I pulled the Stak Mover behind a Chevy 3/4-ton 4-WD æDually' pickup and mounted the portable hydraulic unit behind the cab. It worked good but if I went fast it was rough and the pickup didn't have enough traction or power. "The new frame on the 1-ton pickup is about 6 ft. longer than the original one so I had to have a new driveshaft made. The hydraulic pump is off an old truck and was originally pto-driven. I removed the pto shaft and mounted a big pulley on the pump and a small pulley on the engine crankshaft in order to slow it down. To start the engine I simply grab the big pulley and give it a whirl. It's easier to use than pulling a rope." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mar-tin Nyland, Box 11, La Glace, Alberta, Canada T0H 2J0 (ph 403 568-2378).

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