Strapping bales of silage

I used to draw 14 hesstons In straw in England on short draws two High. First eight lengthways, two crossways over the axle, 4 lengthways at the back. Two straps at the front. One strap on the middle lengthways one, two straps at the back. Longer draws (more than 6 or 7 miles) id go 3 high, only one wide at the top as opposed to two, 17 bales. Still 5 straps. The way I looked at it was when I had straps on, I had them mule tight. Then, I could drive as hard as I wanted, (50 k 6130r or 6155r) and never lose them. Silage may be different with big loads.
 
Much the same as everyone else we drew 14 bales of silage on trailers for years and years with no straps and never lost one, 10 on the floor and 4 on the top down the middle, a rack front and back. We had a lend of a trailer one day and it sheared the right hand wheels studs when a cousin of mine was going fairly hard down a hill with a load, it went down with some slap but the bales never stirred. However the law these days is fairly clear, whether the bales are going to fall off or not if the Traffic Corps catch you with a load not tied then you'll be prosecuted. I wouldn't put 3 rows of hay or straw on a trailer anymore either, one branch down on top of a car would make it an expensive trip and again if the wrong law enforcement type stopped you then it would be more hassle than it's worth whether you're right or wrong.
 
Often wonder is there a market for curtain siders to draw bales?

Or would they need strapping inside??
Except in the case of bulk loads in a chip liner a curtain sider is only to protect the load from the elements.
Some new trailers have load bearing curtains that you only have to strap the back pallets but the majority as you say are only for protection purposes.
 
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I strap 500KG seed bags in the curtain sider but the odd time I bring Fertiliser on pallets that are shrink wrapped I would not strap them . I do not like seeing bales leaving the place not properly strapped because if they fell on a neighbour they would be considered our bales .
And you will most likely be getting the phone call to re load them.
 
Some new trailers have load bearing curtains that you only have to strap the back pallets but the majority as you say are only for protection purposes.

Chip liners are a load bearing curtain but I'm fairly sure the RSA still want palleted goods strapped down inside them as loose pallets could still break out in the event of a accident or roll over, I could be wrong on that though
 
Chip liners are a load bearing curtain but I'm fairly sure the RSA still want palleted goods strapped down inside them as loose pallets could still break out in the event of a accident or roll over, I could be wrong on that though
Chipliners are load bearing yes but some normal curtainsiders have the same curtains so they can technically get away with just having the back curtains strapped as the curtains are rated to take the side impact.
 
Chipliners are load bearing yes but some normal curtainsiders have the same curtains so they can technically get away with just having the back curtains strapped as the curtains are rated to take the side impact.

Are the load bearing curtains only recognised as being suitable for restraining lightish enough goods and not considered suitable for the likes of fertilizer bags whether they be 50 or 500 kg?
 
Well that load wasn’t strapped . Only loads that were strapped this year were a few loads of bales that were hauled off land on the dock road in limerick.
What’s the rsa / guards response to the trailer below. Is it just the maker of that style of trailer presuming there’ll be no issue . As there’s no check valves on the rams holding the frame up . Hose bursts down the frames will come .
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Well that load wasn’t strapped . Only loads that were strapped this year were a few loads of bales that were hauled off land on the dock road in limerick.

What’s the rsa / guards response to the trailer below. Is it just the maker of that style of trailer presuming there’ll be no issue . As there’s no check valves on the rams holding the frame up . Hose bursts down the frames will come .
View attachment 61199

I was thinking the same.
Would surely need a load rating to be proper??

But then a local concrete block producer just has flimsy mesh sides on their wagons.
VOSA has told them that is fine as stacks of blocks can't be strapped. So surely any kind of side would do for bales?
 
I'm a fan of curtain sides because you wouldn't know what was inside,I can't see a reason why load bearing curtains couldn't be used,I'd certainly argue my case in court,but generally if it looks right your less likely to get stopped.
 
With The Curtainsider they do not know what you have on board and if they ask me I will say refugees .
 
It would be law here for any thing inside a curtain sides to be restrained, same on an ag trailer u go up the road with no straps the VOSA are so n ya, , feck me they'll have y here for not having a flashing light behind a trailer,
 
I passed both of these within a short distance on the road this morning. If the owner of either load is reading this I'm not having a go at anyone, and I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong because we've all done it, I'm not even suggesting either is dangerous, I'm just using them as an example to ask the following question - if you were a guard and you met these loads on the road, which one would you stop?


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Bring brutally honest I think I’d rather be behind the first than the second.. atleast if the top bale was going to go anywhere it would be out into the ditch, the second load the straps are way to close to the centre imo.. I’d be happier behind it if they were out on the outer third of each bale.

Personally we don’t tend to bother strapping silage bales, but it’s a single row up the middle and the draw is under a mile, if going longer or if bales are badly out of shape I normally would throw a few across it. Drawing straw tends to be a double top row and strapped either every second bale or every bale depending on the distance.
 
The one in the first picture the bale in the bottom left looks very soft.
I would have put that on top and the one on the bottom on top it wouldn’t stand out half as much
 
We drew hay for a local farmer this year he bought it.
The bales were very soft we tried them in different orders but they would start leaning Every couple of miles.
In the picture the far side of the trailer was about 4 inches off the ground.
It was fair dangerous unstrapping them. There’s a strap on every row and two across the top.
Racks on the trailer.
In the end we drew them single row on top with no straps0C39300B-D77B-40A4-899F-41C8CA1AB9E4.jpeg
 
The
I passed both of these within a short distance on the road this morning. If the owner of either load is reading this I'm not having a go at anyone, and I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong because we've all done it, I'm not even suggesting either is dangerous, I'm just using them as an example to ask the following question - if you were a guard and you met these loads on the road, which one would you stop?


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The first load probably wouldn’t move but still doesn’t look the best , the second one is well strapped.
We are drawing a lot of bales at the minute and there are being moved around 130km each load , most of the runs are on bad roads. two rows top and bottom and strap the bejesus out of them ,have around 800 moved and no issues so far , both trailers have passed numerous guards both on normal roads and on the motorway and all seems ok . As long as it looks right , being well strapped and a nice square load you should not get any hassle.
 
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