# Tales of a hay hauler...



## PaCustomBaler

Thought I'd get a thread going from some of your guys' best stuck moments hauling hay/straw.

Hauled a small load Sunday morning to southern MD...200 bales. Been delivering there for about 2 years now. I was there before the customer arrived to help unload so unstrapped the load and got ready to back in next to the barn. The ground was barely frosted so I knew I was going to punch throw into mud but thought I'd give it a try backing in anyways. Welp...I gunned it back and hit the mud hole...and that's where I stopped. Called the customer and told them to bring a truck along. Unfortunately I had to get pryed out with a Toyota pickup once it was empty...that knocked my pride down a little lol. Guess I should've thrown the mudders on that morning.

Fire away on your stories!


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## Rodney R

I don't have a picture, but I delivered a load of mulch hay to a jobsite, and where I unloaded had been a house foundation. So the ground that was used to fill the basement in was real soft, especially given the rain the night before. Anyway, as I was backing across the tire scrubber stones the back of the truck sank right in to the axle. That was a straight truck 33kgvw...... First and only time that I've been pulled out by a track loader. It was then that I learned how good tow straps are. The strap was only 20-30ft long, and he drove another 10-15ft, and about the time I was thinking it was useless, the truck jumped out of the hole - and I was loaded yet.

Rodney


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## endrow

Took Amish a load of hay . Kids helped unload, there parents were at a funeral. I was stuck . There Grandpa supervised the 2 girls hitched up the horses . Yep got pulled out by a 10 year old girl with a team of six horses.


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## FarmerCline

endrow said:


> Took Amish a load of hay . Kids helped unload, there parents were at a funeral. I was stuck . There Grandpa supervised the 2 girls hitched up the horses . Yep got pulled out by a 10 year old girl with a team of six horses.


 We need to see a picture of that!


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## central va farmer

I took tractor trailer load of 6×5 bales down to Southwest va near Wytheville and was told it was no low bridges, turned on a 2 lane blacktop highway headed to Speedwell va and there was a low bridge. I had to back a 100 miles it seemed ( probably 1/2 mile max) into a carwash. That's fun with a 10 ft wide load behind you 53 ft long on a 2 lane road. Called the police for alternative route and they said the didn't live around there they didn't know lol. A local farmer happened to be coming by and asked if we needed to go around bridge. We said yes and followed him. On the route he took us a man on his front porch started waving and I told my father who was with me "damn they sure are friendly around here"

We got to where we were going and got home this was a sunday. Next day my phone rings and guy from Wytheville calls wanting a 100 round bales. I tell him I was just down there yesterday delivering hay, he asked was I in a blue ford 9000, I said yes. He says I saw you and was waving at you on my front porch to stop but you kept going lol what are the odds of that


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## SVFHAY

October 17th, 1989 the night of san Francisco earthquake I had a ih loadstar stuck in a pasture outside Lynchburg va. This made the owner quite happy because it gave him an excuse to break out his 60's vintage dodge power wagon with a winch on the front. It worked very well to drag the dodge into the mud with me.

1997, Clarksville Md, nice woman's yard and t-shirt wet from all day rain. Her husband, bmw driving office type, suggests laying these old 1" boards in front of the tires. I am thinking no way this works, but we try it and 200' later it's out by relaying 8' boards.

Twice on mulch deliveries bulldozers pulled us up grades well beyond both power and traction of loaded trucks. One was in Huntingdon Wv. with a tandem truck and tag trailer. If that chain broke, it was a long backwards ride to the bottom.

Same tandem Mack, just outside D.C. I was stuck and landowner called tow company. I was worried about the bill. No problem, when the driver of that huge polished recovery truck with all the booms and outriggers saw how far off the road I was he just turned around and left. Anybody have an old board?


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## central va farmer

Dec 2012 or Jan 2013 was taking a gooseneck load of round bales to Salisbury md. Va state police stopped me out side of Washington dc. He was giving me a bunch of sh#t about farm tag on gooseneck trailer(real barney fife type) I told him the state cdl book let's you go 150 or 200 air miles from farm. He looked it up and said there was a gray area but to keep on. Went on to say va is farm friendly ( I though why did you stop me then) he grew up on farm etc. I asked where at he says Speedwell, did I know where that was. I said yes have taken hay there. His whole personality changed, he knew the farm I went to knew the low bridge ect. He walked around to passenger side of truck and talked for 15-20 min. I 95 was in rush hour traffic so I asked him how in the hell was I going to get back on 95? He responds "I'll shut down several lanes of traffic for you" he whips state police car onto 95 lights on and blocks 2 lanes of i95 for us and we pull out like we are the governor with police escort lol and across the bridge into Maryland we go lol its all who you know in this life I reckon


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## treymo

Went underneath the underpass of Interstate 70 at Russel, Ks. Supposedly was 15'2" of clearance, but it ripped off most of the net wrap off the top rows of bales. Either the advertised height was way off or I was way to tall.. Ha

Trey


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## bensbales

Well i could probably write a novel on this subject having owed single axel hay truck since i was 22 now I'm 37, ill just write about 1. oddly enough my best stories come from my early 20's  So i was working a reg job and running hay on nights and weekends i ended up making a sale for a about hundred 2 yr old rd bales that my grand father hadn't been able to sell. I sold them cheep "just to get of them" they had to be delivered about a 75 mile south of us.This farm was an "investment farm" where a rich investor had built a new facility to milk water buffalo so the could make "authentic Italian mozzarella" This was in the winter time, on this particular trip i was delayed a little bit and didn't get down to this farm till 7pm and being an "investment farm" there wasn't any one there. They wanted this hay put in a specific area which was on this little nob of a hill with very little room to turn around. So i get there, park the truck undo my straps then walk down the hill a quarter mile get their tractor, unload the hay then put the tractor back, being 22 I ran back up the hill jump into my truck and looked at my watch It was 7:30 pm.(key part of the story here my cell phone is my watch nowadays but this was back in the "dark ages") Being only 7:30 pm i thought to my self hell all i got to do is turn this truck around and i'll be home by 9 that would leave plenty of time to get cleaned up and go see this new girlfriend who had invited me over for a dinner at 8pm, get a couple hrs of sleep then head into work for 5am. Well we had bout 2 ft snow since the last delivery, the area had been plowed off and had about inch or 2 of hard packed snow which gives good traction but since i had unloaded the hay with the tractor i had turned that into 2 inches of mealy snow which doesn't provide much TRACTION. Through a series of youthful applications of throttle i ended up in a position where i couldn't move forward an inch but i could back up. Problem with backing up was the trailer was pointed down over this little side hill where it wasn't plowed out but it leveled off and about a 100 feet away from a plowed road. Most of the snow had been blown off the side hill and was only 6 inches deep but the flat are had about 1.5 to 2 feet of snow.It was now 8pm and i was highly irritated. There wasn't anyone around to help pull me with the tractor i had no cell phone to call for help what other choice does a highly irritated 22 year old do? You guessed it, he makes another poor decision. Having watched every episode of Dukes of Hazard multiple times, I thought hell i just gun it in reverse down this hill through the 2 feet of snow with so much momentum that ill blow right on through the snow bank onto the plowed rd then i'll be sure to be on my way to see the girlfriend. After millisecond review or my youthful plan i pushed the clutch in and put her in reverse, till this day i swore i heard the General Lee's horn blast, I let the clutch out. With images of how my girlfriend might look like in Daisy duke cut off jeans come summer, i added the throttle, FULL THROTTLE. How far do you think i made it? Surprisingly enough the trailer being 42 ft long was the spear head of this mission and entered the flat area where the snow was deeper, it continued on its trajectory and was head dead straight toward the plowed rd. I was even picking up a little momentum , hell my plan might just work! My tuck and trailer was 65 ft long and this flat are was only about 100 ft so I thought that once the truck and trailer was completely down onto the flat area the back of the trailer would only 35 ft from the plowed rd, of course my momentum should carry me the rest of the way, right? I had built up a whopping 5mph's worth of momentum which carried me exactly 5 ft past the bottom of the hill which left the end of my trailer was within 30 feet of the "end zone"i.e. plowed rd. As the General Lees horn blast faded of into the distance it thought, now what? Well i went to the barn got their tractor and plowed out the remaining snow behind the trailer, took a chain hitched the trailer to the tractor and thought i should be able to pull it out un till the truck was onto the plowed rd way. The tractor was a brand new jd 6420 4wd with loader. Heck this tractor will just pull that truck and trailer right out and ill be on my way, its on level ground i can do this myself. Well..... being that it wasn't my tractor i was very gentile with it and couldn't get my truck to move more than a foot. Probably if i had horsed it a little i could have gotten it but i didn't want to damage someone else equipment. So My last option was to find a shovel.It was now 8:45 pm I was lucky enough to find a shovel in the barn. What i had to do was shovel out the path for the truck that the trailer had made. When the trailer had gone through the 2 ft of snow it had pushed about a foot of it of to the side and rode over the remaining foot. So my trailer is 42 ft long i ended up shoveling a 2 -2'wide paths that were 42' long in 2' of snow. How long do you think takes a P.ssed off Vermonter to shove 84' of snow thats 2 feet deep and under a drop deck trailer? Bout 30 mins. I was so mad at myself that I'm surprised that the the snow didn't just melt from under my feet! Finally headed for home about 9pm took and hr and a half to get home, took a shower headed over to see the girl friend around 11pm. Got to thinking heck she might be a sleep or at least mad, i had told her i would "be there eventually" but should be back around 8. My previous girlfriends would have been mad.But when i knocked on her door she opened the door with a smile and a nice warm hug. I appoligized for being late she decided to wait for me since i told her i would "be there eventually ". All that effort and time for $300 dollars, But the lessons i learned that night are priceless plus i found a women who would stay up for me no matter how badly my day went when others in the past would have been mad or just blown me off.That my Hay hauler story


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## JD3430

Well???? 
Don't leave us hangin.....
Did ya marry her????


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## bensbales

JD3430 said:


> Well????
> Don't leave us hangin.....
> Did ya marry her????


Hell yes i did! We dated for 5 years. We will have been married for 10 years this fall. As far as how she looked in Her daisy dukes that summer i'll have to leave that up to your imagination


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## treymo

bensbales said:


> Well i could probably write a novel on this subject having owed single axel hay truck since i was 22 now I'm 37, ill just write about 1. oddly enough my best stories come from my early 20's  So i was working a reg job and running hay on nights and weekends i ended up making a sale for a about hundred 2 yr old rd bales that my grand father hadn't been able to sell. I sold them cheep "just to get of them" they had to be delivered about a 75 mile south of us.This farm was an "investment farm" where a rich investor had built a new facility to milk water buffalo so the could make "authentic Italian mozzarella" This was in the winter time, on this particular trip i was delayed a little bit and didn't get down to this farm till 7pm and being an "investment farm" there wasn't any one there. They wanted this hay put in a specific area which was on this little nob of a hill with very little room to turn around. So i get there, park the truck undo my straps then walk down the hill a quarter mile get their tractor, unload the hay then put the tractor back, being 22 I ran back up the hill jump into my truck and looked at my watch It was 7:30 pm.(key part of the story here my cell phone is my watch nowadays but this was back in the "dark ages") Being only 7:30 pm i thought to my self hell all i got to do is turn this truck around and i'll be home by 9 that would leave plenty of time to get cleaned up and go see this new girlfriend who had invited me over for a dinner at 8pm, get a couple hrs of sleep then head into work for 5am. Well we had bout 2 ft snow since the last delivery, the area had been plowed off and had about inch or 2 of hard packed snow which gives good traction but since i had unloaded the hay with the tractor i had turned that into 2 inches of mealy snow which doesn't provide much TRACTION. Through a series of youthful applications of throttle i ended up in a position where i couldn't move forward an inch but i could back up. Problem with backing up was the trailer was pointed down over this little side hill where it wasn't plowed out but it leveled off and about a 100 feet away from a plowed road. Most of the snow had been blown off the side hill and was only 6 inches deep but the flat are had about 1.5 to 2 feet of snow.It was now 8pm and i was highly irritated. There wasn't anyone around to help pull me with the tractor i had no cell phone to call for help what other choice does a highly irritated 22 year old do? You guessed it, he makes another poor decision. Having watched every episode of Dukes of Hazard multiple times, I thought hell i just gun it in reverse down this hill through the 2 feet of snow with so much momentum that ill blow right on through the snow bank onto the plowed rd then i'll be sure to be on my way to see the girlfriend. After millisecond review or my youthful plan i pushed the clutch in and put her in reverse, till this day i swore i heard the General Lee's horn blast, I let the clutch out. With images of how my girlfriend might look like in Daisy duke cut off jeans come summer, i added the throttle, FULL THROTTLE. How far do you think i made it? Surprisingly enough the trailer being 42 ft long was the spear head of this mission and entered the flat area where the snow was deeper, it continued on its trajectory and was head dead straight toward the plowed rd. I was even picking up a little momentum , hell my plan might just work! My tuck and trailer was 65 ft long and this flat are was only about 100 ft so I thought that once the truck and trailer was completely down onto the flat area the back of the trailer would only 35 ft from the plowed rd, of course my momentum should carry me the rest of the way, right? I had built up a whopping 5mph's worth of momentum which carried me exactly 5 ft past the bottom of the hill which left the end of my trailer was within 30 feet of the "end zone"i.e. plowed rd. As the General Lees horn blast faded of into the distance it thought, now what? Well i went to the barn got their tractor and plowed out the remaining snow behind the trailer, took a chain hitched the trailer to the tractor and thought i should be able to pull it out un till the truck was onto the plowed rd way. The tractor was a brand new jd 6420 4wd with loader. Heck this tractor will just pull that truck and trailer right out and ill be on my way, its on level ground i can do this myself. Well..... being that it wasn't my tractor i was very gentile with it and couldn't get my truck to move more than a foot. Probably if i had horsed it a little i could have gotten it but i didn't want to damage someone else equipment. So My last option was to find a shovel.It was now 8:45 pm I was lucky enough to find a shovel in the barn. What i had to do was shovel out the path for the truck that the trailer had made. When the trailer had gone through the 2 ft of snow it had pushed about a foot of it of to the side and rode over the remaining foot. So my trailer is 42 ft long i ended up shoveling a 2 -2'wide paths that were 42' long in 2' of snow. How long do you think takes a P.ssed off Vermonter to shove 84' of snow thats 2 feet deep and under a drop deck trailer? Bout 30 mins. I was so mad at myself that I'm surprised that the the snow didn't just melt from under my feet! Finally headed for home about 9pm took and hr and a half to get home, took a shower headed over to see the girl friend around 11pm. Got to thinking heck she might be a sleep or at least mad, i had told her i would "be there eventually" but should be back around 8. My previous girlfriends would have been mad.But when i knocked on her door she opened the door with a smile and a nice warm hug. I appoligized for being late she decided to wait for me since i told her i would "be there eventually ". All that effort and time for $300 dollars, But the lessons i learned that night are priceless plus i found a women who would stay up for me no matter how badly my day went when others in the past would have been mad or just blown me off.That my Hay hauler story


Is your brother Luke Strawwalker by any chance? ..that was windy. Ha

Trey


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## luke strawwalker

Oh foot...

That was a good story...

Pay no attention to folks that can't come up with more than two sentence replies and snipe from the peanut gallery, bensbales...

Later! OL JR


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## sethd11

Trey, I was thinking the same thing. Lol. 
Ben, that was a helluva story. I even read it to the wife, she couldn't stop laughing.


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## Bgriffin856

Good story bensbales. You'd make a great novelist, something I don't have the talent to do.

Lucky guy to have a lady like that


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## PaCustomBaler

Trey, great story. You're definitely well versed in telling a good story


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## bensbales

Bgriffin856 said:


> Good story bensbales. You'd make a great novelist, something I don't have the talent to do.
> 
> Lucky guy to have a lady like that


I alway admired the way you take pictures.We should team up! Lol


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## Bgriffin856

bensbales said:


> I alway admired the way you take pictures.We should team up! Lol


Thanks lol we could be sitting on a goldmine


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## bensbales

Bgriffin856 said:


> Thanks lol we could be sitting on a goldmine


Goldmines help feed farming habits!


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## MDill

How about vehicles of the hay hauler?
One of my buddies was helping me load round bales last summer, so we decided to put his $500 Chevy LUV to work. Got some funny looks on the way through town. Regardless the two round bales definitely made the manual steering lighter!


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## luke strawwalker

Reminds me of the "Don't laugh-- it's paid for!" bumper stickers...

Long as it works!  OL JR


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## JD3430

Ain't that the truth. Best feature of a truck is the title locked in your desk.


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## Uphayman

Yesterday being Good Friday, started out a little rough, but ended ok. On the way to my hay delivery, I stopped and had a pulpectomy. Finished my delivery, headed home, and after a few hours, could feel my face and stopped drooling. This is not something I would suggest having done during a planned delivery, but with the holiday ahead, my options were not pretty. So what the heck is a pulpectomy you ask.....clue : it pays to have a close relationship with your dentist !


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## Bgriffin856

MDill said:


> How about vehicles of the hay hauler?
> One of my buddies was helping me load round bales last summer, so we decided to put his $500 Chevy LUV to work. Got some funny looks on the way through town. Regardless the two round bales definitely made the manual steering lighter!


Back in early February it had just got dark and was out putting rear tire chains on the 7405 and heard this vehicle just a screaming up the road. Stopped what I was doing to see what it was. It was a Ford ranger with about 30-40 small squares in the bed and a small trailer behind it with around 100 or so small squares on it

Also watched a fella make several trips with an old stationwagon and trailer hauling two 4x4 rounds at a time during the winter


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## bensbales

Forest Gump delivers Hay So 2 Sunday's ago i was delivering some 4x5 rd bales for a friend who was busy sugaring. I used a rd bale caddy, its just 2 tires with pipes that go cross ways and hold 6 bales then i put 2 bales in the bed of the truck. Being that he is a friend i told him i'd do it for $50 not really worth my time especially on a gorgeous Sunday morning that it was. To hold the bale on we used a ratchet strap that goes over the row of bales length ways, so theres two straps per side. This trailer is really made to fit 4x4 not 4x5 but it should work, mind you it's sugaring season in VT ^_^ There are two crops in early spring in Vt one is desirable syrup and the other one is undesirable frost heaves. Well being in a bit of a hurry i hit one of these undesirable crops a little to hard which resulted in the strap loosening up enough to come un hooked seeing the opportunity for escape one of the bales promptly jumped off in a bid for freedom. lucky enough no one else was coming the other way as it rolled to the other side of there rd where it stopped up against a snowbank. Crap why am i so dumb? first its Sunday, i should be home spending time with the family and i know better than to go that fast. So i turn around roll the bale back away from the snow bank then drive the rh side of the truck and trailer onto the snow bank and attempted to flip the bale back onto the trailer. Yeah right, back in my 20's when i could summon incredible hulk like strength fueled by anger that bale would have easily flipped back onto the trailer but i have to much grey hair on my chin for that today. I managed to get it close but i couldn't quite get it then luck showed up in the form of willing stranger. " need a hand he asked?' I sure do, i replied.We got the bale back on and tied it down with a spare rope that i had. I thanked him profusely and i said " I haven't had a bale fall of the truck in 15 years but i guess i deserve it for working on a Sunday  . He then told me he was just returning from a service call on a heating system. Hey do you have a card i asked my boiler could use a cleaning and just don't have the time anymore cause I'm busy farming and now logging and I've want to look for more land to rent. Well how Much are you paying he asked? Well I'm paying $50 an acre now but it's hard to move in on these big dairy farms but i'll take the small land that they don't want. He looked at me in the eyes for a minute at then asked for my card. Ok here you go. He then said "I'm headed home and i'll talk to my brother. I went on with my day without much thought as to what just happened because most people you meet nowadays say the'll call but never do. Well His Brother called me that night! He said that they were very interested in renting me some land. great but not really everything about this family i asked well how much land do you have available? He replied 200 acres. I just about dropped the phone, Whe whe when would you like to meet and maybe sign a lease?! How about Wednesday night at 6pm? Yup see ya then. Wednesday night came and i made them 2 offers one 5yrs for $50 or 10 yrs for $65 i was hopping for the 10 yr deal. They said they think it over and give me a decision on Saturday. Well lets just say we did some celebrating Saturday night! How can life be so random and be so rewarding here i was on the side of the road with a mess 2 weeks ago, just thankful that i didn't hurt anyone then end up with a prize like that. I definitely must be " Forest Gump" see chit chat post


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## JD3430

bensbales said:


> Forest Gump delivers Hay So 2 Sunday's ago i was delivering some 4x5 rd bales for a friend who was busy sugaring. I used a rd bale caddy, its just 2 tires with pipes that go cross ways and hold 6 bales then i put 2 bales in the bed of the truck. Being that he is a friend i told him i'd do it for $50 not really worth my time especially on a gorgeous Sunday morning that it was. To hold the bale on we used a ratchet strap that goes over the row of bales length ways, so theres two straps per side. This trailer is really made to fit 4x4 not 4x5 but it should work, mind you it's sugaring season in VT ^_^ There are two crops in early spring in Vt one is desirable syrup and the other one is undesirable frost heaves. Well being in a bit of a hurry i hit one of these undesirable crops a little to hard which resulted in the strap loosening up enough to come un hooked seeing the opportunity for escape one of the bales promptly jumped off in a bid for freedom. lucky enough no one else was coming the other way as it rolled to the other side of there rd where it stopped up against a snowbank. Crap why am i so dumb? first its Sunday, i should be home spending time with the family and i know better than to go that fast. So i turn around roll the bale back away from the snow bank then drive the rh side of the truck and trailer onto the snow bank and attempted to flip the bale back onto the trailer. Yeah right, back in my 20's when i could summon incredible hulk like strength fueled by anger that bale would have easily flipped back onto the trailer but i have to much grey hair on my chin for that today. I managed to get it close but i couldn't quite get it then luck showed up in the form of willing stranger. " need a hand he asked?' I sure do, i replied.We got the bale back on and tied it down with a spare rope that i had. I thanked him profusely and i said " I haven't had a bale fall of the truck in 15 years but i guess i deserve it for working on a Sunday  . He then told me he was just returning from a service call on a heating system. Hey do you have a card i asked my boiler could use a cleaning and just don't have the time anymore cause I'm busy farming and now logging and I've want to look for more land to rent. Well how Much are you paying he asked? Well I'm paying $50 an acre now but it's hard to move in on these big dairy farms but i'll take the small land that they don't want. He looked at me in the eyes for a minute at then asked for my card. Ok here you go. He then said "I'm headed home and i'll talk to my brother. I went on with my day without much thought as to what just happened because most people you meet nowadays say the'll call but never do. Well His Brother called me that night! He said that they were very interested in renting me some land. great but not really everything about this family i asked well how much land do you have available? He replied 200 acres. I just about dropped the phone, Whe whe when would you like to meet and maybe sign a lease?! How about Wednesday night at 6pm? Yup see ya then. Wednesday night came and i made them 2 offers one 5yrs for $50 or 10 yrs for $65 i was hopping for the 10 yr deal. They said they think it over and give me a decision on Saturday. Well lets just say we did some celebrating Saturday night! How can life be so random and be so rewarding here i was on the side of the road with a mess 2 weeks ago, just thankful that i didn't hurt anyone then end up with a prize like that. I definitely must be " Forest Gump" see chit chat post


Dayum, Forrest. Life is like a box of chocolates.....


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## bensbales

ah yup i'll even share my chocolates with strangers  .You know i was picked on by school bullies for having big ears, was in love with the girl next door who never took me seriously and was a decent ping pong player. I didn't serve in the army but i would love to meet boma so i could show him my a.s!


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## Bgriffin856

You tell very good detailed stories too lol


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## rob1971

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204061328601282&set=pcb.10204061328761286&type=1


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## Coondle

An early outing with my upgraded my hay hauler did not go the way intended. :angry:

I will let you do the conversions. 1000kg equals about 2.200 lbs.

My hay hauler is a Japanese truck 4,300 kg tare, 10400 kg gross and 16,000 kg combination, which I coupled to a 4,500 kg two-axle trailer. The truck has a 6 metre (20 foot) flat bed and the trailer a 5 metre (16 foot) flat bed. The truck holds 5 bale bandit bundles per layer and the trailer 4 bundles per layer. Double decked means about 350 bales per load.

Loaded up and me grossing about 14,000 kg and tooling down the highway going to collect the much needed cash at the end of the delivery.

Slow up through the hills , moved over for a Freightliner Argosy big-rig grossing some 67,000 kg carting clay to a brickworks, he disappeared down the hill once we reached the top.

Going down that hill I heard a bit of a noise  , but nothing alarming so kept on trucking, saw some cars behind but they faded into the distance in my rear view mirror and there was me really proud catching up to and shadowing the big rig.

We rolled down the highway for about 20 miles

Then a long steady up-grade and there was me overhauling the big rig  and in the race of the snails up that hill I got level with the Argosy and began drawing ahead and that is when all hell broke loose .

Big rig driver waving (me surprised because he didn't know me) him blowing his horn, flashing his lights and still I didn't know him, but his frantic pointing down caused me a little concern.

I backed off the loud pedal, and pulled over for an inspection.

OOPS only 3 wheels on the trailer, but there had been all 4 when I left home  .

Caused me to scratch head in wonderment and confusion about where the wheeled gone.

Problem that had dawned in my mind was soon solved.

Long haired, 60-something greying hippie stopped and told me the wheel had come off while going down the hill where I had heard the unconcerning noise earlier, and the wheel had come to rest on an embankment next to the road.

He said he had flashed his lights, but why he had not chased me down I do not know.

Hauled my three-legged trailer to a safe area in a nearby sports ground, and unhitched.

Back up the highway to retrieve the errant wheel. Something of a struggle to get the wheel into the cab :wub: - remember the flatbed is full of hay.

Then 40 miles to trailer parts supply company. New hub, brakes and bearings.

Back to the wounded trailer, fitted the parts, re-coupled the trailer and onto the client arriving about 3 hours late,


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