Bale Beds — Sales, Installation, Repair & Modification in Iowa

A bale bed is the best money a cow-calf operation spends on a pickup — and it’s also two hydraulic arms, a pump, a valve, and a bed full of pivots bolted to a truck that works outside all winter. Ames Hydraulics sells, installs, repairs, and modifies bale beds in central Iowa: DewEze, Hydrabed, Butler, Cannonball, Besler, and the rest, serviced by a shop where hydraulics is the whole business rather than a sideline.

Why a Hydraulic Shop Is the Right Bale Bed Shop

Everything that goes wrong with a bale bed is hydraulic or structural, and both are home turf here. Arms that drift down overnight are cylinder seals or a leaking valve section — we rebuild both on our own bench instead of ordering parts and hoping. A bed that creeps slow in the cold is pump wear or the wrong oil. Arms that chatter under a wet 1,500-pound bale are air in the system or a failing pump. And the cracked arm weldments, worn pivot pins, and egged-out bushings that every hard-used bed develops are welding and machining work we do daily. The dealer sells you the bed; a hydraulic shop keeps it lifting for twenty years.

Sales and Installation

We supply and install new and used beds, and installation is where the quality shows. A proper install means the bed mounted square and shimmed right, hydraulic lines routed and clamped where they won’t chafe through in year two, the pump plumbed with the right oil and filtration, controls mounted where a gloved hand finds them in the dark, and wiring loomed instead of zip-tied to the frame. We also move beds truck-to-truck when you trade pickups — a half-day job done right, including the mounting adaptation for the new chassis and a function check under a real bale before it leaves. Buying the bed elsewhere? We’ll still install it, and you’ll still get the same standard.

Repair and the Winter Rebuild

• Cylinder rebuilds — lift and squeeze arm cylinders resealed and rods repaired on our bench
• Pump and valve work — electric-over-hydraulic power units and manual valves diagnosed and rebuilt, not just swapped
• Hoses and fittings — built while you wait, routed better than factory
• Arm and frame welding — cracked weldments repaired and gusseted, pins and bushings machined and replaced
• Controls — cab switches, wireless remotes added, and corroded wiring redone
• Deck and rail repair — worn decks re-skinned, rub rails and headache racks repaired

The smart schedule is the cattleman’s calendar in reverse: the bale bed works hardest December through March, so it comes in for its going-over in October — seals checked, pins greased and measured, pump pressure verified, every hose inspected at the bend points. An hour of shop time in the fall beats a dead bed during a February storm with forty cows bawling at the fence.

Modifications That Earn Their Keep

Half our bale bed work is making a good bed fit a real operation: flatbed integration with toolboxes built in (see our custom toolbox work), gooseneck hitches plated into the deck properly, arm extensions and squeeze modifications for net-wrapped or oversized bales, auxiliary hydraulic circuits added for a hoist or a post driver, and LED work lighting wired to see the bale at 6 AM in January. If the bed almost does what you need, the distance between almost and exactly is usually a week in our shop. Text photos of your truck and bed — or the truck that needs one — to 515-292-2599 and we’ll quote it straight. 210 Freel Dr, Ames — Monday through Friday, 7AM to 5PM.

Buying Used: the Inspection That Saves You

Used beds trade constantly around Iowa — and a used bale bed is either a bargain or somebody else’s deferred maintenance with paint on it. The ten-minute inspection tells you which: run both arms full travel and watch for chatter or uneven speed (pump or air problems); load the arms and let it sit ten minutes — drift means seals or valve; grab each arm at full extension and check pivot slop (pins and bushings, cheap now, expensive after the holes egg out); look at the underside welds where arms meet frame for cracks and old repairs; and check the pump reservoir for milky oil, which means water and a history of neglect. We’ll do this inspection on any bed you’re considering — before money changes hands is the cheap time to know. And if you’re selling a truck with a bed worth keeping, remember beds move: swapping your bale bed to the new truck is a routine job here and almost always beats selling it with the old one.

Common Bale Bed Questions

Which brand should I buy? They’re all serviceable iron with different personalities — we service every make, so our advice is about your bales, your truck, and your budget rather than a dealership quota. My arms drift down overnight — big problem? No: seals or a valve section, both routine bench work. Can you add a wireless remote to an older bed? Yes — one of the most popular upgrades we do, and worth it the first icy morning you don’t climb out of the cab twice. Flatbed and bed together? That’s the ideal build order — the flatbed gets built around the bed’s mounts and hydraulics instead of compromised after the fact.