Baler on tracks – a soft ground solution

Balers have contributed to significant damage to fields, both in terms of surface damage and lower level compaction. Heavy wet bales combined with soft ground conditions resulted in lots of field damage. This can take years to repair.

Baler manufacturers have offered bigger wheels as an option. But one farmer/engineer has come up with a solution for the ground conditions for his local area. Colin Conboy from Cloonboney, Mohill, south Leitrim, farms in an area where silage fields required extensive repairs after last year’s difficult harvest.

His solution was to put a set of tracks under his Welger RP200 baler. And the result is impressive, as I found during a recent visit to see the machine in action.

Colin is no stranger to engineering challenges. In the past he has put saw and flail hedgecutter heads onto a smaller hydraulic excavator to good effect. His workshop has always plenty of activity as he carries out repairs in his locality for round baler users.

Colin spent some time thinking out the concept of a track system for balers after carrying out field surface repairs following last year’s silage harvest. “Fields were rutted deeply and we left a lot of surface damage behind us when baling as the machines were simply not able for the soft ground conditions,” said Colin.

He set about designing a baler track system, having worked with similar track systems for turf machines in the area. He kept the idea in his head until some free time allowed him to move it to the workshop. He bought all of the materials over a period of months, based on what he expected would work.

He had some experience with steel tracks on soft ground and found that track shape used gave less damage to the ground surface. “For these conditions a steel track is better than a rubber one, even though the rubber one is more suited to use on the road,” said Colin.

He used 100mm x 50mm box section steel with a 5mm thickness to create the track pads. These were cut and welded with a curved end in his workshop. The track shoes are joined by a tubular connecting bar with a pin to lock it in place. The tracks are self-lubricating as there is always enough moisture in the grass meadow to keep it moving, said Colin.

The tracks are 1.2m (48in) long and 600mm (24in) wide, sloping to 700mm (28in). There are 23 track shoes on each side. They add to the overall width of the baler by about 500mm. Inside the tracks are four Ford Transit stub axles, each one carrying two wheels fitted with 184 x 14 tyres inflated to 50 psi pressure. Colin designed and built the track system so that it could be easily removed from his baler. Two bolts on each side allow the track to be removed and the existing baler axles to be reinstated. The design is very neat and flexible. The centre pivot of the axle allows the tracks to follow the ground conditions very smoothly.

In these soft ground conditions that are typical of so many farms in the West and north west, the track leaves little after it in terms of marks in the field. Apart from the ground shaking in the field while Colin baled, there was little evidence of the machine following baling. This compares with last year, where one year on, fields are still suffering. There is no noticeable extra effort to tow the baler with the tracks fitted. The track noise is barely noticeable in the field, and the baler takes corners with ease.