Best Way to Carry the Max Amount of Hay Bales in a Short Bed Truck  

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Expert Reply:

As someone who has thrown quite a bit of hay in his lifetime I can say that all you really need to transport a lot of hay is quality ratchet straps and proper stacking techniques. And for straps, all you really need is 2 of them. If you try an build a cage around the truck bed you will actually limit the amount of bales you can transport since having the overhang the bed rails a bit is the best way to maximize how many you can carry.

Since you have a short bed what you will want to do is stack bales on edge on the first layer in the truck bed with the bales running the same direction as the vehicle travels. It's best to put your tie-down straps in the stake pockets of your truck now before they get covered by the hay bales. The part # 58510 would be what I would recommend as the hooks will easily attach to your stake pockets or tie-down points already in the bed of your truck. Pick the four corners of the bed for attaching the tie-downs.

You should be able to fit 3 bales in the section closest to the truck cab facing the same direction as the travel because of the wheel wells, have one bale facing perpendicular to travel behind the front section, and then with the tailgate down fit 4 more in the same orientation as the front section for the back section. We'll call this the floor section.

Next, you will want to stack the second layer flat (with the strings of the bales up), perpendicular to the direction of travel, running two bales wide from the front to the back with the center of the truck bed where the two bales meet. The bales will overhang the bed rails at this point slightly but it won't matter. You should be able to fit 10 bales on this layer for a total of 18 so far.

Next layer the bales will run the opposite direction so that they are crisscrossing the previous layer. This pattern will repeat each layer up until you reach the total amount of hay you want to carry. For the last layer you will want it to end up with the bales running the same direction of travel so that the straps you have can be just thrown over the top of the stacks of hay and they will be secured. Tighten them as much as you can.

expert reply by: Jameson C

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