Bale handling apparatus

Claim 1

Apparatus to load hay bales upon the deck of a vehicle to form a longitudinally extended, horizontally disposed stack which consists of a longitudinal array of transversely disposed, vertical bale tiers, with each tier consisting of a vertical array of transversely disposed bale layers, the loading apparatus, in combination with the vehicle and a bale pick-up means at one side of the vehicle, being located at one end of the vehicle and comprising: a. a bale-shifting means at the base of the apparatus including a transverse plate means across the vehicle to receive bales from the bale pick-up means and shift the same to form a transversely disposed bale layer upon the plate means; b. an upright bale elevator above the plate means having a plurality of bale-height spaced, transverse, horizontallyextended, vertically-shiftable, bale-layer-holding groups of tines which will extend, vertically, at least to the height of a bale tier of the stack with the several groups of tines being shifted to be positioned with respect to the vehicle deck so that bale layers carried upon the groups of tines will form a tier at the vehicle deck level; c. a stepper means adapted to move each group of tines from the bottom of the bale elevator first horizontally and longitudinally from one side of the transverse bale holding plate means and underneath a bale layer upon said plate means and then upwardly a distance sufficient to permit another bale layer to be formed on the plate means and thereafter upwardly in a stepped sequence as other groups of tines move across the bale holding plate means; and d. a pusher means associated with the bale elevator to push a completed bale tier from the elevator and onto the deck when a bale tier is formed by repeated cycles of forming bale layers on the plate means and moving the layers upwardly on the elevator by repeated operation on the stepper means.