Five big hay bales

Saturday I got the rest of my big hay bales from Tim.  He wanted me to get them sooner than later as he was getting lots of calls asking to buy hay from him.

I borrowed Dan's trailer to haul the bales.  I can fit three of the bales on the trailer.

The trailer hitch normally isn't this close to the ground.  The ground where the pickup and trailer is located in the photo is kind of a "V" at this location.

For the first load I easily pushed the first bale off the trailer onto a wooden pallet on the ground.  My neighbor was outside and he offered to come over and help me push the rest of the bales off the trailer.

The second load was two bales.  Tim had more bales and I offered to buy an extra one to make three bales but he had promised the rest of the bales to others who needed the hay.

I strap the bales down to make sure they don't roll off the trailer as I drive. With only two bales I had an extra amount strap to ratchet in.  For the load with the two bales my strap jammed when starting to tighten it.   I fiddled and fiddled with the strap's latch but couldn't get the strap loose or to tighten it further.  I had also brought a log and another large board and used them to wedge under the hay bales.  I decided to drive home this way.

A few miles down the road I remembered my route had a hill.  I also noticed the hay bales looked like they bounced slightly as I drove over bumps in he road - or was it my imagination?  I pulled off the road to again work on the strap.  Braking and pulling down off the road caused the first bale to roll forward.  It did stay on the trailer.  *whew!*

I still was unable to loosen the strap.  I was able to fasten it a different way on the trailer to take up the extra slack.  The strap wasn't really tight but did add extra protection.

I made it home safely without losing either bale.  *whew*

Tomorrow I will work on fixing the strap and latch.