Bale carrier

A bale carrier of elongated character for three-point hitch counting on a tractor so as to extend transversely to the direction of travel by the tractor, comprising

• a unitary elongated mainframe having a rectangular perimeter the longer of which are formed by a lower horizontal base bar which has an upper inwardly facing surface of generally plate-like character and an upper header bar which has a lower inwardly facing surface of generally plate-like character, and the shorter members of which are formed by end plates lying in planes perpendicular to the base and header bars, the members of said rectangular perimeter having opposing transversely outward surfaces characterized as a face side surface on one side and a far side surface on the other,
• said elongated mainframe having an interior frame structure comprising two interior plates spaced from each other and from the end plates, with said interior plates lying in planes parallel to the planes of the end plates and united to the base and header bars, and two x braces of substantially equal configuration, with a said x brace between each end plate and the interior plate most adjacent thereto and having the lower arms of the x brace united at their termini to the base bar at intersections formed by a said plate with the base bar, and having the upper arms of the x brace united at their termimi to the header bar at intersections formed by a said plate with the header bar, the central portion of the elongated mainframe embracing the two interior plates being characterized as the medial portion thereof,
• three-point means for receiving a three-point hitch of a tractor, said three-point means being located medially on the mainframe, the three-point means consisting essentially of an upper bracket means medially located on the header bar for receiving the upper link of a three-point hitch and a pair of spaced lower bracket means united to the base bar for receiving the pair of lower links of a three-point hitch, and
• bale-supporting teeth mounted on the base bar and extending perpendicularly outward from the face side surface of the mainframe, said teeth being adapted to carry more than one bale with the bales carried in laterally spaced relationship with respect to each other, said teeth being characterized further in that they extend perpendicularly outward from a location below the base bar, are pivotally mounted on the base bar at a location below but proximate to the face side surface of the base bar for floating action in a vertical plane, with each tooth having a heel continuation thereof extending underneath the base bar within a pivot-limiting frame depending downwardly at a location proximate to the far side surface of the base bar.