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What Bale bed is the best? Besler, Hydra Bed or Connon Ball

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tenbach79

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I am thinking about putting a bale bed on my pickup and was wandering if anyone has any info on the beds that are out there. Which one is the best for the money?

Also I am looking for some Fall calving Angus cows either hfrs or 3-6 year old cows. Would perfer if they where in Colorado, Kansas or Nebraska.
 
tenbach79 said:
I am thinking about putting a bale bed on my pickup and was wandering if anyone has any info on the beds that are out there. Which one is the best for the money?

Also I am looking for some Fall calving Angus cows either hfrs or 3-6 year old cows. Would perfer if they where in Colorado, Kansas or Nebraska.
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My recommendation would be a Hydra-Bed. We have two that are in use every day. They perform well with vey little maintenance or attention. They are built heavy-duty to stand a lot of use, and are priced similarily to the other brands that you mention.

I don't have any fall pairs for sale, but do have 45 young cows that are being bred to calve in the fall of 2009. We turned two bulls with these cows on November 12th and will probably pull the bulls about January 1st. These good young cows are for sale.
 
Soapweed said:
tenbach79 said:
I am thinking about putting a bale bed on my pickup and was wandering if anyone has any info on the beds that are out there. Which one is the best for the money?

Also I am looking for some Fall calving Angus cows either hfrs or 3-6 year old cows. Would perfer if they where in Colorado, Kansas or Nebraska.
Click to expand...

My recommendation would be a Hydra-Bed. We have two that are in use every day. They perform well with vey little maintenance or attention. They are built heavy-duty to stand a lot of use, and are priced similarily to the other brands that you mention.

I don't have any fall pairs for sale, but do have 45 young cows that are being bred to calve in the fall of 2009. We turned two bulls with these cows on November 12th and will probably pull the bulls about January 1st. These good young cows are for sale.
Click to expand...

I would like to see how they hinge the arms and attach the cylyders on the hydrabed.I've got enough cash to build one but not the $9000 they want for the one sitting in Valentine.
 
One thing I like about the Hydra-Bed is that the same company makes cakers that are compatible with the bale bed. A disadvantage with Hydra-Bed is that when the arms are in the down postion, there is no ledge to help hold items on the flatbed. Both the Besler and the Dew-Eze have ledges in place which are formed from the arms being in the down position. I have heard that the Cannonball has a tendancy to wear out the pins that hold the dumpbox in place. There is a lot of jiggling and vibration that takes place when using the dump truck as a regular ground covering pickup.
 
I have an older HydraBed-the new ones have two lift cylinders which is probably a good idea. We bolted a couple tires together to feed pellets with during the drought-you could feed 250 cows in about five minutes with it. We haven't used it for years-was a pretty good workout filling it though lol. The hydraulics on the balebed work alot better than a tractors in this bitter cold.
 
Thanks for the input that you all have givin me. I also seen that hydra bed and besler sell a square bale feeder that mounts on the flat bed. Has anyone ever used this before?
 
tenbach79 said:
Thanks for the input that you all have givin me. I also seen that hydra bed and besler sell a square bale feeder that mounts on the flat bed. Has anyone ever used this before?
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I have a Hydrabed with the bale FLKR. I put up 4x4x8 large square bales and it works real well with them. Like any piece of equipment it takes some practice, to get the bales to flake off the way you want. It's versatile as well, you can feed off in the field or drive along a feed bunk and flake off a bale. I made some large square bale feeders a few years ago and it's easy to drive up to one of these and use the flaker to fill one of the feeders.

One suggestion I would make is that you put your bed on a pretty decent pickup, for the simple reason they are so handy you'll be using it all the time. It'd be kinda like pulling a brand new baler with a break down prone tractor, you'll lose the advantages of your new equipment.

Best of Luck
 
I used to live halfway between Hydrabed and DewEze and this was one of my ornry friends favorite "discussions" to start when everyone was consuming adult refreshment. Then he'd giggle all week about the haybed war. Hydrabeds are cheaper. The HB controls are PTO cables where the DE uses electric switches - even wireless now. Lots of ranch country mechanics work on DewEze controls - not a big deal, but a menace. My Hydrabed has wornout several pickups. Hydrabed pivots the arms at the bed which unrolls better than DewEze. Price $100/ton 20% alfalfa against 20% cake and unrolling becomes an issue.
 
I had a dew eze and got rid of it. when we went to big square bales, they would not open up enough to grab them long wise, and would not clamp tight enough to hold them narrow wise....

made it useless... I like the "elbow pivot' of the besler and hydra bed, so I may have to get another bale bed sometime.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
With the Dew Eze I squeeze a 2x6 between the arms to make a tail gate to hold fencing supplies ect. on.
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With my Bessler I bolted a couple of short 2 X 4's to one that fits across the bed. They fit in the slot at the back of the bed and keep fencing stuff from coming off. That is the biggest disadvantage of the Hydra-Bed, keeping stuff on the bed. I use a Trip-Hopper cake feeder mounted across the front of the bed.
 
Cedarcreek said:
Big Muddy rancher said:
With the Dew Eze I squeeze a 2x6 between the arms to make a tail gate to hold fencing supplies ect. on.
Click to expand...

With my Bessler I bolted a couple of short 2 X 4's to one that fits across the bed. They fit in the slot at the back of the bed and keep fencing stuff from coming off. That is the biggest disadvantage of the Hydra-Bed, keeping stuff on the bed. I use a Trip-Hopper cake feeder mounted across the front of the bed.
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I have a 200 gal. heater oil tank with an auger layed in the bottom strapped to the head ache rack or i use a 3 pt hitch feed box chained down to the deck. It sits a little high so a bit tippy in the hills. :eek:
 
You all have been great help with this question. :D I just came along this site and thought that I would give it a try and with all this help I just love this site!!

Me and Dad have a Bale King prosser that we feed our round bales with its nice but the cows waste so much of the hay. We put up most of our hay into 3x3 that we sell to horse people around the front range of Denver. Last year we had 800 bales of our first cutting rained on, we had about 7 inches of rain on the hay that was baled out in the field not covered and with those 3x3 they soak up alot of water when their not covered. It took the horse quailty right out of it and the price also :) . So we sold some for cow hay but we feed the rest for our own cows. We made a trailer that we could put up to 10 square bales on it and feed by hand. That sure put me back in shape by the end of the winter. :D We came across a guy in Oregon that makes a bale wagon that has a square bale feeder that you can put on a old Hesston lose hay stacker, but for the money I think we could put a hay bed on a pickup cheaper and get more use out of it than just during the winter with the feeder.

Well thanks again for all the help, just got done feeding the cows and now its time to go feed myself for christmas, I hope everyone has a safe and happy christmas and a profitable new year!! :D .

Theres somethings about Cattlemen that most city people don't understand or don't get to see. They put their animals before them. They get up before the sun to make sure their cattle have made it through the night on a cold winter night, or stay up all night checking on them through a blizzard to make sure that a cow and her newborn calf will make it to the next morning, they get them feed all before they can go inside and rest or eat no matter what time of year it is. So hats off to all the cattlemen and women that sacrifice so everyone can have great quailtiy beef on their table for the holidays. BEEF its what's for dinner.
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Jigs,

It was nice to read the comments form someone who has owned/used several brands. When I opened the thread, I suspected that most guys had bought one of any brand and loved it. Kinda like going from a headgate to a squeeze chute. Any of them seem great until you have used enough to see the differences,


PPRM
 
that was the only flaw I found...and the elect over hydraulic stuff has weaknesses, but I did like the quick couplers at the back of the bed...drilled alfalfa with the pickup on some drown out spots......neighbors thought I was crazy! but the field was 20 miles away, and it was way too cold to run the tractor the drill was on....
 
jigs, what weakness does the electirc over hyd. have? Has anyone put it on a automatic pickup or does that really matter? Do you lose any lifting power with the bed if its on a automatic? Which I guess wouldn't have a real effect on it probaly more just a convience factor with it on a pickup with a manual trans. I know a neighbor has it on a Chevy Duramax, and thats what I would put it on but I never talked to him about it much if he likes it or not.
 
My Besler bed is on an automatic- and I actually like it better especially for picking bales out of the field where you have so much backing and moving to do....Mines on a 97 Dodge 2500- and I did have to replace the tranny at about 90,000 miles-- but that was after several years- and hauling and/or feeding about 10,000 bales......

I've used all three- and prefer the Beslers and Hydrabeds over the Dew-Eze-- and went with the Besler because of the good local service we had when I bought it...
 

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