Machines for wrapping large round bales of hay weighing in the order of 1500 pounds or more with layers of plastic film exist in the prior art. Some of these machines have the ability to pick up such a bale from a side position, deposit the bale on a bale wrapping turntable, wrapping the bale in plastic film, and then depositing the wrapped bale back onto the ground surface.
These side-loading bale wrapping machines have several shortcomings. First of all, a counter weight mechanism is required to be used on such machines opposite the bale lifting mechanism to counter the substantial weight of the bale as it is being lifted onto the turntable. Further, because of the sideloading mechanism, these machines cannot proceed down the windrow where the bales are deposited, but rather, must be moved at right angles to the windows to accommodate the side-loading mechanism. This requires additional time and inconvenience in positioning the machine adjacent the bales by crossing sequentially from one windrow to another.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a bale wrapping machine which can lift the bale to be wrapped over the forward edge of the machine rather than the side edge.
A further object of this invention is to provide a bale wrapping machine which can successfully sequentially wrap a plurality of bales deposited along an elongated windrow along which a plurality of bales are resting on the ground.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a bale wrapping machine which does not require any counter weights to balance the machine while the bale is being lifted onto the machine.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a bale wrapping machine which has an offset tongue for towing purposes to free the forward portion of the machine for the bale loading procedure.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.