[align=left]So, my grandpa has been having a hard time finding good hay in the small square bale size. I have a friend who farms with his Dad and was trying to sell some....so, I offered to haul a trailer load from Mankato, MN to Ashton, IA. (about 120-130 miles) I live about 100 miles from Mankato. Saturday morning we loaded the trailer, ate lunch, and then we hit the road. A ground came off on one of the tail lights, so we stopped at the bus shop my friend works at to get it fixed. (aprox. 8 miles down the road) While there we check the load and make sure everything is still tight, which it was. About 60 miles down the road we noticed the strap that we had going from the back of the trailer to the front was missing. We stopped, walked to the back of the trailer and about SH__ our pants! 20 bales were missing off the back. We took the straps that were dragging and re-tied the remaing load down and kept on going. We didn't know where the bales fell off, so we figured we would look for them on the way back. A couple of towns later I see a State Trooper, he flips his lights on and points at me. I stop, he asked if we had lost any bales. I said yes. He said, "I'm dissapointed you didn't pick them up" and "you know theres a law against having a leaky load". I told him we were going to look for them on the way back because we didn't know where they fell off at. He took my license and went back to his car. About 15 minutes later he comes walking back with his pad. I figured I was going to get a ticket. (I have a CDL and should know better) But, he hands me a warning and says, "as long as you pick the bales up on your way back, I won't mail you a ticket". I told him thank you and he left me go.
We found 6-7 broken bales on the way back.....someone else picked up the rest that didn't break. We took the broken bales and tossed them into an empty corn field.
This was the first load over about 3k that I have pulled with my truck. I figured the trailer and load weighed about 10,000-10,500 lbs. I loved the way the truck pulled it, I hardly noticed it was back there.

Here is a pic before I lost the bales.

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Some advice. Use a stock trailer. Its not the one we use but damn close. Little longer and triple axle. We had around 120+ bales stuffed in it and our 01 dually didnt even know it was back there. My pickup empty doesnt squat or know its back there

 

If I ever do that again, I hope I can get a hold of a trailer like that.
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wow that sucks. your lucky he didnt give you a ticket. I think that is one of my fears following loads like that...having it come apart in front of me.

 

We strapped and strapped and strapped the back end down and it still let go. We don't know if the bales loosened or if a strap broke. I wished the trailer would have had folding ramps on the rear instead of sliding under the trailer. Then we could have put a piece of plywood across the back.

The nicer tri axle trailer we wanted to use was being used by someone else.


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Mine too......I felt so bad after seeing the missing bales.

 

$3 X 20 would make you feel bad. Stack them tighter together and you'll have less problems

 

thats a shame but at least no one seem to have been hurted by those losts bales save ur wallet
ive been following a insulation truck and trailer last year whit my GMC3500,the doors of the trailer were left open and suddently about 8 bale of free flowing wool fall down right into my face ,they scaterred apart when they hit my truck,was pretty funny but the best part was when i passed the truck and honked on him,then he saw the wool coveing my truck cuz it was rainy,that was worting 100$

Steve05ram360,i agree whit u whit u,every time i follow a trailer full of timber i stay way behind or i pass it
as fast as i can,thoses are dangerous things

 

that sucks u lost the bales man...but u got lucky the cop was pretty nice about it!

 

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