How Many Will Fit?

Hi all! I am planning on putting up 5 acres of oat hay next year in a neighbors field, I will at least have my Chevy running by then (maybe restored) and am planning on hauling hay with it, so, how many bales can I get on the flat bed? Anyone have a guess or estimate?

It is a 7 x 12 deck, no front rack, just the flat bed.. Hoping I can at least get 1 ton on it? Have to haul it about 2 miles back home, then go back for another load, will be using a pop up pulled along side of the truck to load.

What do ya think?!?! Thanks! Bryce

Well, we easily put 100 bales on our 8x14 wagons, 112 sq ft. Your 7x12 truck bed would be 84 sq ft. So, using round numbers I'd say 75 bales on your truck should be easy enough. 75 bales at 50 lbs each would be 3750 lbs of hay.

I'd say closer to 100. I don't have far to go but I can get that many if I go high. Problem with those old trucks is the stiff springs. They heave around so much they pitch the edge ones off when you hit a little hole. Your truck is about the age of mine. Pile her high - she can pull it.

An 8x16' rack stacked 5 high is 100 bales so you should be around 75 at 5 high. You should be able to go 6 or 7 high if you can keep them on.

If you have repainted the truck I would make a rack for the front, or you will get the rear of the cab scratched up. Plus having the rack to stack against will make the load more stable than if it is just free standing.

Right on...

I was thinking if I stacked them right, then I could just run two of our big 4 inch ratchet straps from the back edge of the deck, up and over the bales, and then hook on the front edge of the deck right behind the cab. Would be really nice if I could do the math on it real quick and figure that I could easily haul 1 1/2 ton on it, would make it real easy for delivering the hay if need be...

Not worried at all about the truck, will probably pull my hay wagon behind it, that is going to be a 7 x 12 deck as well...

That is true... When I restore the truck, I am going to really do a nice job on it, but I want to be able to use it and keep it looking nice... Might look kind of sharp with a stained pine bang board on it huh??

I used to put 45-50 bales on a LWB pickup fairly easy. I would think you could stack 75 on a flatbed with no problem and maybe 90 or so if you went higher.

My 14' Obeco grain/cattle body, same width as yours likely, will hold just over 100 bales, level with the top rack folded out. At the time this old body that was on the truck was perfect for my needs, and it was nice for hauling hay 30 miles or so. I would bet there are more than one of these in a salvage yards, I have seen photos of them, in yards where people posted photos of old trucks.

Yep, that looks just the same as mine! I am 99% sure mine is a 12 foot deck, but I should maybe go measure again...

If it helps, my Farmall C will fit on it perfectly...

Sounds to me that if I really put my skills to the test I should be able to get 100 onto my truck... Thanks!

Bales 36" long load for 5 bales per teir and length would be correct for 4 tiers long so 4 teirs high of the 5 bales on a 14" bale would be 6' 2' load height for 4 bales high then a tie on top of those 2 wide and half overlaping would be 7 bales per side or 14 total ther would be 25 per stack times 4 stacks equal a hundred plus those 14 on top to tie together is 114 bale and at 50$ per bale that is 5,700 pounds and would make your total load height 7'4" and with a bed 3' off ground that should be high enough for a lot of doors and the like, low branches and things. You are tall (for short person you would not want that extra height) so loading a layer higher if you have the overhead clearance might work and that would add 20 more bales or anouther 1,000 pounds. So that would make 6,700# or over 3 and a quarter ton. Your truck is rated ot what 1 1/2 ton or is it 2 ton. Either way it should hold that much but it will be a full load on it. The 2 straps lengthwise are good but also add 4 more crosswise over the load so it doesn't shift sideways as it can with just the 2 straps lengthwise. In my 71 years I have seen too many loads lost because of not being tied down good enough. And make that front end for the bed and make places on it to fasten those straps to toward the top of the load.

I think the best policy is to load what fits safely, numbers take 2nd fiddle to that. Contained, 100 bales is a nice load for this truck, though I could go another tier or 2 higher, I just kept it level.

This one has hauled one of our tractors, worked fine for that, tying down was not possible with the racks in the way, so I chocked the wheels but good and locked the loader bucket cutting edge into the rear of the body at the steel frame, you can see that in the photo. Sure DOT may not have approved, and or no need to got there for the purpose of this post. I did run lowboy and know how to safely chain down very large pieces of equipment. I needed this tractor to get serviced and turned around quickly, only way to get it done was to haul it myself, and I did so, took the non highway roads, off peak to my house and dropped er off the next morning for service.

As you can see, there is a GM product in the background, an '80 K10, nicely rebuilt late 60's or early vintage 350, which I installed in 19 hours straight and drove home immediately after. What a long day, drove in on the old worn out motor friday morning and left early sat morning. The trans was an auto, I converted it to a 4 spd, 30,000 miles on the trans and drive train, all new universals, 270 gears though, still was a beast in low gear, and I have to say compared to the F150 next to it, one thing it did do better was traverse deep snow, and I tested that theory on the back hill here, went too far into the bank, could not back out, so I just went further in, kept at it, 24" of snow or about, might have been more as it was rubbing the rocker panels hard. Got all the way down the back hill and worked my way out around the old farmstead, at the time the NYSP barracks was still in use, the back side faced this field and when I got close, one of them came out and asked what the heck I was doing??? LOL ! I had to explain, he got a good laugh, was wondering what was going on as there were no tracks in, and me coming out. I had gone in where you could not see from there, had to clear some with the blade, but got out of it completely. She still sits in the same place and I need to finish some work on it.

60 bales on here I think I could fit more if the bales were tighter

Most we had put on a 1ton with that size deck was 150 sm. squares(40-50 lbs) average load about 110- 120. Rounds 3x3 put 8 on, 5x5(6)? was three. Put 190(6 layers), average "full" load is 165(5 layers), on a 8x18ft wagon and that is off baler stacked on wagon (right to 4 in from front edge) moving down field.

While you are figuring don't forget to multiply the weight per bale x number of bales. 100 ea. 65# bales works out to 6500# in my thinking. A bit much even for a 1 ton.

Mark

How do you stack? We get 150 to a load on 8ftx16ft wagon in 5 layers. 6 bales to layer, 5 layers to pile, 5 piles to load (plus a layer or two up top if needed(170+).