Quick Pick Bale Carrier Designed for Speed Designed to be Gentle Designed to Last About the Product: The Quick Pick is a 10* (large round) bale accumulator. The unit was originally designed to gather the bales in the hay field and place them in semi-load clusters around the field or at the road approach to be picked up later by truck and trailers. Due to the Quick Picks size and speed of loading and unloading it has been found that the hauling hay up to 4 miles can be done very efficiently. (*- Based on bales 60 in length) Features: The Quick Pick has two larger chambers which in the field position are down on each side of the trailer. In the hauling position both chambers are hydraulically folded up on top of the trailer. The chamber is designed with an adjustable size opening at its bottom which allows the bale to enter the chamber. The adjustable opening gives the unit the capability of picking up bales from 52 to 72 in diameter. (The ideal size is 69 ~70 diameter bales...this size are quick to load) The chamber s No-Snag designed all but eliminates the chance of damaging strings or net wrap on the bales. Each chamber has its own Rear Gate which can be pinned closed or hydraulically operated to allow for drive through unloading. The rear gate prevents bales from escaping the rear of the chamber. The unit also has front bale stops to keep the bales from coming out the front of the chamber in the loaded position. The Quick Pick is designed with four 4-1/2 x 20 custom engineered welded hydraulic cylinders specifically designed for the unit. Poly Lube Bushings on chrome shafts are located at all the hinge points and in the hydraulic cylinder sleeves. Nylatron GS bushing stock is used at most of the remaining wear points making it so that on the 2012 Quick Picks there are only six (6) grease points on the machine. The grease points remaining on the unit only require weekly to bi-seasonal greasing depending on the amount of use. The four large flotation - 13.5 F1 highway implement tires (Titans 12 ply rating) are on walking axles and allow the Quick Pick to be used on soft or wet ground. The 8-11 hubs and wheels have a 5500 lbs load rating. The spindles are made from high grade 4140 steel. The unit comes standard with a West-Bar lighting package Top of the Line Series (signal lights, clearance lights and brake lights), safety chain and a drop leg 10,000 lbs. jack stand. 1 of 5
The unit is designed with steel twine guards to protect wheel bearings from bale strings. The Quick Picks chambers are designed using floatation springs which make the chambers some what weightless when they come in contact with the ground. The chambers are designed to float free of the hydraulic cylinders when the chambers are fully down which allows them to follow the contour of the ground when picking and unloading bales. The suspension reduces the stress on the chambers and keeps them from digging in in poor field conditions. The Quick Pick is designed to be gentle on the bales, on itself and on the hayfield. When bales are being hauled they are captured in the chambers making it virtually impossible for a bale escape when transported on the road. Safety First! Adjustments The Quick Pick has only three basic adjustments: The height of the hitch: For the unit to work properly the bottom of the hitch has to be 11 off the ground. To adjust the hitch height crank the jack stand up or down to the 11 and then adjust the adjustable hitch tongue on the Quick Pick to the proper location to work with your tractor drawbar. The speed of the hydraulics: Adjust the flow control vale on your tractor so that the time taken for a chamber to fold from the ground to fully up is 10 second or more. The width between the runners (on chamber): The bottom runners on the chambers are adjustable for large and smaller bales. The factory setting is for bales 64 to 72 in diameter. The narrower setting is for 52 to 62 diameter bales. If the runners are set to wide apart for the bale; the bale will want to fall through when the chamber is lifted when going from bale to bale. If you have to lift the chamber to high in order to get the bale off the ground will slow you down and make it more difficult to load the bales. Power Requirements: A 100 Hp tractor is required to safely pull the Quick Pick. The tractor must have hydraulic pressure of 2300 psi or greater to comfortably lift bales of 1,500 lbs. Most modern tractors put out about 2,850 psi of hydraulic pressure. Each chamber requires a separate hydraulic remote and a third remote is required if the hydraulic rear gate option is selected. To Operate: Loading the Bale: The Quick Pick is user friendly and simple to operate. To pick the bales both chambers are lowered to approximately 14 off the ground. The Quick Pick has height indicators to show the operator picking height and carrying height. On a good field the bales can be picked at speeds up to 4 mph and from bale to bale at 6 mph plus. At this speed the indicators help eliminate the guess work and allow even the novice operator to easily pick the bales. 2 of 5
As the Quick Pick approaches a bale the operator will lower the appropriate chamber to the pre-load position. Just as the bale begins to enter the chamber the operator will lower the chamber to the ground. When the loading bale is fully into the front of the chamber the operator will raise the chamber to the carrying position (approximately 14 off the ground, high enough that the bales will not rub on the ground plus a little bit more). The bales while loading should never skid on the ground. As the second bale enters the chamber the operator will lower the chamber again to the ground. The first bale being carried will be set back down on the ground and the chamber will slide over top of the first and second bale. Again when the bale being loaded is fully in the front section of the chamber the operator will raise the chamber to the carry position and be off to the next bale. When done properly as the fifth bales fully enters the chamber the first bale loaded will come up against the rear gate at the back of the chamber. Loading the Quick Pick evenly is important. An operator can load a couple more on one side than the other and get away with it but it is possible to tip the unit if the load is not balanced properly. Unloading the Bales: There are two ways of unloading the bales. The most common is to lower both chambers to the ground and back away from the bales. With the second load you will drive the tractor between the first rows of bales with the chambers in the pre-load position until the bales of the second load touch the bales from the first load. The operator will fully lower chambers to the ground and again back away. The second option for unloading is using the hydraulic rear gate. This works great when the operator is grouping the bales for truck load quantities in the field. To unload the operator will lower the chambers fully to the ground and open the rear gates and drive ahead leaving a short row of a double five. This is very fast. How does the Quick Pick Compare: The Quick Pick is fast at picking, fast at unloading and very gentle on the bales. More so than the conventional bale movers that use the chains to drag the bales back or the plunger system type where the operator has to make sure the plunger is all the way to the front before loading the next bale or he will be looking for a front end loader to free the lodge bale. The Quick Pick has no chains to snag the bale strings or net wrap. Unloading is as quick and simple as drop and go. The operator does no have to tip the trailer, slide the clutch on the tractor to save the chains and winch the bales off. Another advantage of the Quick Pick which may surprise you is it size. Designed to agile, quick and maneuverable the Quick Pick in a good hay field is like a small sports car on an obstacle course. The conventional 14 bale machine or worse yet a 16 bale machine can be like trying to maneuver a city bus in a small parking lot. 3 of 5
Maintenance: Quick Pick verses Conventional Movers The Quick Pick has four tires (all easy to get at), and four hydraulic cylinders (six if the hydraulic gate option is selected) that are doing the work. Tires are tires and hydraulic cylinders are for the most part maintenance free. Now compare that to the hydraulic motors, gear boxes, shafts, bearings, bearing housings, chains, chain tighteners, eight sets of wheel bearings, eight tires (some not so easy to get at) and what about the electric over hydraulic valves and control box required to run the conventional bale hauler. A real down time bonanza in a couple years. Another great feature about the Quick Pick is that when handling the bales it will pick the bales up and set them back down on the exact same spot. The advantage being that only one spot on the bale becomes soiled and also the flat spot of the bale is always on the bottom which is very nice when loading trailers. Bales loaded with the bottoms down make a better safer load on a semi trailer. The conventional bale haulers will never place a bale down on the same spot it was picked up from and they will always have two spoiled spots on every bale they pick. Another comparison can be the space left between the rows of bales when they are placed in the field. When rowing up bales in the field with the Quick Pick there is enough room between the rows for the sunlight to reach the growing plants. Once the bales are moved the plants will eventually grow back in the 40 wide spots the bales sat on. The conventional haulers which leave no room or maybe a foot between the rows will end up with an area nine or more feet wide as long as the row of dead plants. The perfect place for the weeds to grow for years to come. When using the Quick Pick to haul to the hay yard the first two rows will be a little over eleven feet apart. Between row two and three as little as thirty inches. Between row three and row four there will be the eleven feet again. There are advantages to having the rows separated for reasons such as fire. If room is a problem a single row of bales can be placed between the wide rows making for approximately thirty inches between each row. Thirty inches is enough room for air movement, make for easy picking with a bale processor and keeps unwanted animals from living in your hay stack. What the Quick Pick can do that the other bale movers can t do: By design the Quick Pick is capable of gathering bales, unloading them in seconds and then reloading them again in seconds. This feature works very well for the hay grower who wants to get the bales off the field quickly to allow the hay to continue to grow. The operator will gather the bales and drop them along side a road or in a place where hay is not growing (on alkali or fox tail patches). With the Quick Pick the hay grower has the option to come back at a later date, reload 10 bales in seconds and move them to the hay yard or to where the trucks will load. Summers are busy. Especially if there is more than one cut of hay. On irrigated hay land it is important to get the water back on as soon as possible. Moving hay from the hayfield to the yard with a Quick Pick is a very nice job when the weather is miserable and cold in the late fall. 4 of 5
Pasture feeding is quick and easy with the Quick Pick. The bales can be reloaded in seconds then hauled to the pasture where they can be drop on the go one at a time to feed the cattle. Another bonus is with the chambers loaded and folded up it is easy for a person to walk along and cut the strings or wrap from the bottom of the bales. The Quick Pick will also allow the operator to sort bales in the field. It is not uncommon to have different quality of bales in the same field. Sometime weed areas are baled separately. With the Quick Pick the operator can sort the load if need be just by dropping the bales a few at a time in different locations. Limitations: - Articulating and bi-directional tractors and tractors with dual wheels are not recommended. - Oversized and poorly made bales. 5 of 5
Picture shows hay yard made with Quick Pick. The tractor rows have been filled in with a spike and front end loader.