Big hay bale stacker and method

Abstract

Embodiments of a big hay bale stacker apparatus and method are shown and described. The big hay bale stacker picks up a first big hay bale cross-wise, rotates the first bale 90.degree. about an axis parallel to the long dimension of the bale, and lifts the bale and places it on the front edge of a load table. The load table rotates to tip backwards so the first bale slides to the back of the load table when the pick-up mechanism releases the bale. The load table continues to rotate and tip backwards until it also has rotated 90.degree., and, by doing so, it rotates the first bale another 90.degree. and positions it on the front edge of a load bed. The load table and pick-up mechanism then reverse their travel, and in like fashion as for the first bale, pick up a second bale. The pick-up mechanism does not release the second bale until the load table has rotated 90.degree., resulting in the second bale being placed on top of the first bale on the front edge of the load bed to create a two-bale set of the first and second bales. A bale-set moving mechanism then slides the two-bale set across the load bed from the front edge towards the back, leaving space at the front edge of the load bed for another two-bale set. This process may be repeated to fill the load bed with two-bale sets, the latter sets pushing the earlier sets towards the back of the load bed until the bed is full. Then, the full load bed may itself be tipped backward to unload a stack of bales that is one bale wide, two bales deep, and as high as the number of two-bales sets loaded on the bed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.