Monday, Jul 25, 2016 at 12:07
Andrew, we don't know the full story of what the bloke had planned, so it's somewhat pointless to speculate on the loading method, without talking to the ute owner and getting his input.
However, I'll
hazard a wild-arse guess, that as the
pic was taken in Warialda, the bloke had picked up a cheap single bale locally for his daughters hayburner - he wasn't planning on taking it too far, or too fast - and the weight positioning wasn't having any major effect on handling or steering.
I'd also guess it's a fairly light bale, probably 500 kgs, rather than 900kgs.
The two major problems presented with the load are ...
1. Any heavy load placed behind the rear axle acts as a lever to lift the front end.
In addition, this type of loading acts as a lever to initiate serious oversteer, in the event of sharp steering movements. It really does affect handling to a substantial degree. If the owner didn't have far to go and wasn't getting up to highway speeds, then the loading method is acceptable for the planned journey.
2. The large frontal area of the bale provides a great deal of wind resistance that will flip the bale off if not
well secured, and if highway speeds are reached. A strong headwind exacerbates the problem. If the journey planned is short and speed is kept to say 80kmh, there shouldn't be any major problem with his bale loading.
I'd suggest he loaded the bale in the manner shown, because he planned for easy unloading, by merely kicking it off the back of the tray when he arrived at his destination.
It's possible he's a hobby farmer, and he might have minimal heavy-bale-handling equipment, as many hobby farmers don't have too much by way of substantial bale-handling machinery.
Cheers, Ron.
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