Building a Hay Dolly

[CountryDriven]

Hi y'all, for the past few months I've been trying to determine the best project for me to do in my agg fab class at my high-school. A hay dolly really seems to have a sense of practicality to it, especially given our situation. My family currently has 2 horses on 5 acres in North Texas, 2 of that is all they are really ever allowed to graze on, so our demand for hay is somewhat high. While a tractor would be nice, we simply don't have the means right now. This is where the idea of a hay dolly came along. Instead of being limited to purchasing hay on a as-needed basis (which costs about 120$ in the winter at the feed store) we can purchase hay in bulk for half that cost, and have it readily available in the winter.

With that said, today I purchased a Rockwell American 89" axle:


I plan to follow in the footsteps of this talented welder who made this hay dolly:
http://ayerswelding.blogspot.com/201...ales-with.html

My question right now is how do you connect the pivot point onto the axle? In almost every design I see, the a pipe is just bigger than the axle allowing it to pivot on the axle itself. Any Ideas? I'll be updating this build as I go so others can do the same!

[agmantoo]

In the 3rd pic up starting from the bottom enlarge the pic and you will see that the bale carrier section rotates on the axle. The short pipes are the pivot and the same short pipes are welded to the horizontal pipe at the base of the bale carrier. The function here is to control the height of the bale carrier forks. Therefore the short pieces welded to the bale carrier portion are fixed in place and at the axle these same short pieces rotate around the axle resulting in a pivot.

[CountryDriven]

Thanks Agmantoo, so would I need to cut this short section of pipe in half and weld it onto the axle? Is this what others do? I really dont want to cut the axle in half if I dont have to.

[agmantoo]

CountryDriven

I too would not want to cut the axle. In the pic the pipe rotates on the axle and is firmly attached to the lifting section as I see it.
Since you have a concept of how you want to design your bale carrier let me make a suggestion. Go to a salvage yard, something like a Pick-a-Parts and look for a front wheel drive vehicle and start looking at the rear wheel sections until you find one that has a similar design to the Rockwell axle. You should be able to buy an almost ready made portion that you can use for the wheels, tires, axle, and hubs and possibly a near ready made support that you can modify to hold the bale carrier section. This should be cheap.
If I were making the bale carrier I would try to incorporate a bale spear on the carrier so that I could lift the bale a few inches off the "forks" so that I could rotate the round bale in order to unwind the hay and using a pitch fork get small amount of hay off the bale. A spear and the mounting sleeve and nut,#44119 , can be had for $50 from www.AgriSupply.com

[DaleK]

I'd just reverse the way he has the pivot attached. Attach your larger pipe to the axle and have the smaller one on the carrier part. You'll have to have the pivot raised a bit to get your angle right, just experiment a bit before you do anything that can't be undone to make sure you have enough range of motion.

[Wyobuckaroo]

You should be able to weld a bracket sticking out above and below where you want the axle to ride on the pivoting bale holder... Simply capture the axle in that place with a bolt to pin between the brackets on either side of the axle at both ends of the axle...

I will also recommend welding a chain link to the side of each fork very near the end of the fork... That will not be in the way as you push the fork under the bale, or roll the bale onto the forks... But will give you a hook up point to strap the bale to the frame...

Good luck...

[SpaceCadet12364]

Around here the use old mobile home axles. They have to be shortened anyway. Local shop teacher has started making them with a removable hay spear. and small electric winch.