# bale bandit



## Dale (Feb 3, 2012)

looking for info on a bale bandit good the bad and the ugly


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## Barry Bowen (Nov 16, 2009)

Bale Bandits are very expensive and complicated, look at an accumulator instead. Much simpler and more reliable. Kuhns makes a very simple reliable one, and they make a grabber that ties a twine around the block when you pick it up. You can get the whole set up for less than 20k, check it out.

Kuhns Mfg Hay Accumulators


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I've got friends that have both Bandits and Barons. The Bandit handles longer bales than the Baron and the steel bands won't break when you handle them. However, the Bandit has a lot of optical sensors that you have to keep clean or it does weird things. Like anything else, once you learn to use them along with their idiosyncracies, they both work as advertised......and they are expensive. If you've got the volume, either will do a good job and they are a lot easier for the customer to unload than loose bales. With the Baron they need a tractor with pallet forks, but you can use a bale spear with the Bandit's package.

Personally, I agree with Barry and prefer an accumulator/grapple. Except I use a Hoelscher.


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## makinghayCO (Jan 30, 2012)

you can use a pallet fork or bale spear on the bale baron bundles too.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

I am very biased so take this for what it is worth. I have used a bandit for 11 seasons.

The Good: No more fingerprints on idiot blocks

The Bad: Another complication to an already too short/busy summer day.

The Ugly: My machine on it's side after 3/4 of a roll down a hill.

Expanding on issue #1. Harvest/store/deliver or ship 45-50k bale per year with help of only 81 year young father and occasional help from wife's father. Of equal importance the bundle becomes a marketing tool, more so every year customers who use the handling downstream to their advantage seek these packages.

Expanding on #2: There is a learning curve on operation. Early machines were problematic. Very little local support so you must observe/diagnose/communicate problems for telephone support to help.

Expanding on #3: Operator error (me). Baled the next day.


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## makinghayCO (Jan 30, 2012)

SVFHAY: Do you have a bale bandit with a pick up head or one that is right behind the baler?


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

How much do bale bandits and bale barons cost? I did a search and it is suggested they are about $65,000-$75,000. Some say that is expensive. Sure it is, but a New NH self propelled hay stacker is about $140,000. The MF self propelled disc swathers are about $130,000 also. A new 3X3 MF baler is $85,000. All new equipment is expensive and will not be getting cheaper ever. The Kuhn accumulators and grapples seem to be the most affordable, but I personally don't like the idea of an accumulator. It seems like it would be still very slow to stack them compared to a NH hay stacker. But for the price they are great! They would pay for themselves in a year or two of even a smaller operation. Bale Bandits and Bale Barons I only see the advantage of is for loading onto trucks with a minimum of labor and transportation. I will stick with my 2001 NH 1089 to stack the small bales as it's running great and paid for and the large advantage of it is you don't need another truck or tractor to take the hay to storage. Though I suspect I could sell it for the same price of new bale bandit.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

makinghayCO said:


> SVFHAY: Do you have a bale bandit with a pick up head or one that is right behind the baler?


Trailed. I have seen a few with pick up head, never ran one. It would be great to run multiple balers but it does not fit here. If I had 500 FLAT acres in Large, regular shaped fields in a location that didn't get showers every other day I wouldn't sweat a few thousand smalls on the dirt. If I had that situation and the right storage I might even go back to a stackwagon if the only concern was clearing the field and someone else had to figure out the loading.

Cost. I believe a model 200 bandit is maybe 63k? Add about 17 more for a baron. Some nice used ones for less.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Teslan said:


> The Kuhn accumulators and grapples seem to be the most affordable, but I personally don't like the idea of an accumulator. It seems like it would be still very slow to stack them compared to a NH hay stacker. But for the price they are great! They would pay for themselves in a year or two of even a smaller operation. Bale Bandits and Bale Barons I only see the advantage of is for loading onto trucks with a minimum of labor and transportation.


I ran an old NH Stcker Wagon before I got my Hoelscher. It worked fine at our old place. When I built this place I configured the hay sheds differently and we just unloaded in front and then hand stacked. I was baling less, tired of constantly fixing the worn out Stacker Wagon, and coudn't get help to handle hay. I looked at Kuhns but got a better deal on the Hoelscher. Suddenly my haying life was easier than it had been in years and I could do everything by myself. Unfortunately, I wasn't growing enough then and still had to buy hay on occasion. This year because of the drought, I bought a hell of a lot. The grapple made unloading a lot easier. Even better was when I got Bandit or Baron truck loads. I could unload the trucks in 20% of the time it took me on a hand stacked load.

What works best depends on a whole lot of factors. A stacker wagon will only pickup and unload, but it does it well. If you have to load a truck you do it by hand or get a grapple. The accumulator/grapple allows you to load the truck in the field without touching a bale. The Bandit/Baron approach lets you do the same only faster. More importantly though, it's a heck of a lot easier for the customer. I won't pay more for the hay, but if I have to buy, I'll buy Bandit/Baron packages before I'll buy loose bales and I know a lot of barn owners who feel the same way. Hopefully, it will be a long time before I have to buy any more. Feeding other folk's hay is expensive!!!!!!!


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## cmsc (Feb 14, 2010)

I have a holescher and wouldn't trade it for anything different when everything works right which is 99% of the time. A stack wagon would not work for use due to i could stack and unload more by hand then i could with a stack wagon by the time i run from field to barn and back. I dont like the kuhn because if you got to do alot of turning looks like it could bend alot of bales. Another thing about it i dont like is having to push the bales up that chute i think puts that much more stress on your baler especially the plunger. I like my holescher just sometimes when my dad runs it doesnlt pay attention tol the windrows that much and he pushes it too hard. I can push it hard with out getting a bale under the arm. our holescher is 14 years old and on its 3rd new holland 575 baler.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

cmsc said:


> I dont like the kuhn because if you got to do alot of turning looks like it could bend alot of bales.


Nahhhh....they straighten right up going up the chute.....not a problem.

Regards, Mike


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## DKFarms (Aug 11, 2008)

Finished my first season with the Bandit. Bought a used model 100. It was still expensive but I just couldn't get reliable pickup help anymore. One helluva learning curve, let me tell you. Still learning but this season will be much smoother now that I know the idiosyncrocies of the machine. Now I can bale and load the barn with a 1000 bales a day instead of 4 to 600. The best part is doing it with 2 people instead of 10. Bale Bandit factory support is outstanding plus. If you're intimidated by electro-hydraulics and programmable controllers, then you will be talking to the factory alot.


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