Tractor shopping and moving round bales up and down hills

[FatCatFarm]

Looking to replace our 92 JD 870 28HP tractor. This deere thing has been a great little tractor. It is currently DOA or rather DITB (dead in the barn with an electrical issue) and Mr. FCF and I are contemplating replacement - either another JD or Kubota. We have 17.5 acres with rolling hills pasture. Current tractor carries a hay spike via the 3 pt hitch, but has to be backed up the driveway, which is uphill from the pasture, to get in the top gate, in order to put a round bale out in this particular pasture.

He is concerned that if we get, say a L3901 Kubota with bucket, and put the hay spike on the bucket, he would still have to have the 3pt hitch spike on the rear and go up the hill backwards to put a bale out in the one pasture due to topography. Meaning, the weight of the round bale spiked on to the bucket at the front of the tractor, would cause the tractor to lift behind due to be over-weighted at the front. I think he may be right.

Anyone with similar experience dealing with tractoring round bales up and down hills?

[mmeqcenter]

I guess that would depend on the steepness of the hill, but usually you can just put a counter-weight on the back of the tractor and it works fine.

I just pushed/rolled mine up the hills on my 20 acres with the front bucket. Had a little 22hp tractor.

[luvmyhackney]

Just leave a heavy attachment on the back to add counter weight. You can also roll round bales or pull them depending on how steep the hill is.

[fordtraktor]

You can buy counterweights as well. Or do what I do and have someone stand on the back!

[walktrot]

@FatCatFarm

He is concerned that if we get, say a L3901 Kubota with bucket, and put the hay spike on the bucket, he would still have to have the 3pt hitch spike on the rear and go up the hill backwards to put a bale out in the one pasture due to topography. Meaning, the weight of the round bale spiked on to the bucket at the front of the tractor, would cause the tractor to lift behind due to be over-weighted at the front. I think he may be right.

BO couldn’t afford the JD (25 yrs ago) so she got the smallest Kubota that could be used for haying. There was a spike for the bucket, and a weight of some sort on the back end. No problems getting up and down hills.

[LCDR]

My Deere dealership recommends a 4 series, minimal 4044 or a larger engine for safely moving round hay bales with a loader mounted hay spear. And proper rear ballast, of course.

The key is safety. I expect someone will likely post “well, I’ve used a 2 series Deere for years to move round bales and never had a problem.”

[FitToBeTied]

I wouldn’t use a spear attached to the bucket. I have a separate attachment that can have pallet forks or a bale spear. You can damage the bucket attaching spears to it.

[LCDR]

You will have a suitably weighted ballast box on the 3 point when you have the hay spear on the loader, right? Plus fluid filled tires and maybe rear wheel weights too?

[NancyM]

I move our round bales with our 35 horse Kubota tractor. But it will depend on the weight of the round bales you are moving, as they can vary a lot. Ours are about 625 lbs. I use the bucket of the tractor, and a cargo strap to move them. I don’t like the bale spear, our big tractor has one and the DH likes it… but I don’t like it around the horses. The cargo strap works fine. I don’t have huge hills to go up/down though, fairly flat most of the time.

[Equibrit]

These are the BEST; (even if you just buy it for the 3 point hitch)

Kubota L Series Overview

VERY BEST;
https://www.kubotausa.com/products/tractors/compact/grand-l60

[endlessclimb]

No matter what you need ballast on a tractor when moving that kind of weight around.

[Djones]

Drop the bucket off of the front end and replace it with either a hay spike or pallet forks. put the round bale on that. Leave your bushhog attachment on the back for ballast. That might work.

Do not try to put a spike on the bucket. Too dangerous.

[gradytb]

Agree on not putting hay spear on bucket. If you have the easy-attach (not sure what the real name is) setup on the front arms, you just swap the bucket for the spear or forks or whatever else. I have a 50HP JD and do that to move 1000+ lb round bales BUT I also keep the 7’ shredder on the back for the counterweight. And not sure how steep your hills are either, but I’m in TX Hill Country and am careful to go straight up and straight down hills, never parallel to the hill to maximize stability.

[FatCatFarm]

Thank you for all of the replies. Very helpful!

[LCDR]

I spend loads of time on Deere tractor forums and have had ballast requirements drilled into me. Each tractor’s manual includes rear ballast weight recommendations for using the front end loader. These are in a table that gives combinations of added rear wheel weights, fluid filled rear tires, and weight hanging on the 3 point hitch.

The rear ballast weights recommended are usually quite substantial. I don’t have rear wheel weights or fluid filled tires, so the table for my tractor says I need ballast that is almost as much weight as the three point can lift off the ground, and actually exceeds the rated weight that the loader can handle.

I bought a ballast box with my tractor, and at first filled it with sand. Then later when I bought my horse scale I was able to get its actual weight, and it was far less than I thought. Now I have the ballast box packed to the brim with steel suitcase weights to achieve what Deere recommends for rear ballast, and the tractor is way more stable feeling to me. None of my rear implements, including my rotary cutter and box blade and arena groomer come close to enough rear ballast weight. Each is better than nothing, but none weighs enough for maximum lifting with the loader.

My local Deere dealer, for liability reasons, will not sell a new tractor to a rookie without a ballast box included in the sale.

[FatCatFarm]

We purchased a 2021 Kubota 4701 with QA bucket and only 76 hours on it. It is gear driven not HST. We bought a QA long double hay spear to change out with the bucket. Will look into getting a ballast box. But shld be the last tractor we ever buy.

[eightpondfarm]

@FitToBeTied

I wouldn’t use a spear attached to the bucket. I have a separate attachment that can have pallet forks or a bale spear. You can damage the bucket attaching spears to it.

I agree. Spikes added to bucket puts weight way too far forward. newer tractors have a quick-attach for front loaders. If the tractor is older (i used to have an older Kubota 50hp) without the quick-attach you can get one added. Then it’s really easy to drop bucket, add spike (we call ours “Vlad”) and drop off that and put on pallet forks…

When i had the 50hp i usually took two bales at once, one on back one on front. The lift mechanism for rear wasn’t quite up-to-par and i sometimes had trouble going across a creek and it not dragging and getting pulled off!..in which case i found i could do as you have to, back up across the ditch/creek, then i could turn around and drive forward.