Juiceman, the Rankins that made the one wheeler attachment for the baler was Everett Rankins of Manteca CA he ran a custom Baling and roadsiding Service in the south Delta. For years he had a shop next door to Arnaudo on Tracy Blvd on Union island, then had a shop out on Byron highway in what is now Mountain House.

In addition to the one wheeler he also used the same drive system and made his own self propelled rake, in the 1950’s he had a competing design to the automatic bale wagon that Gordon Grey was putting out with Harobed manufacturing, Rankins design was far more complex as the bales would interlock on alternating layers. The original harobed had all of the bales going all the same direction. Then made a squeeze to move these blocks of hay bales.

In addition to the one wheeler that he would primarily on the 500 - 515 NH he also had a quick release kit for the knotters and redesigned the feed on those balers as well. Make good uniform density tight bales was the reason for the above so the roadsider the squeeze man and the trucker had a full load that didn’t fall over. The old adage was if you had to touch a bale you the baler man did something wrong.

www.mantecahalloffame.com/index.php/cour.../326-everett-rankins

www.ttownmedia.com/tracy_press/our_town/...f8-5f91be48557b.html

That is some really neat history CR. Many say the art of hauling hay was lost when the squeeze was introduced too! Any idiot (almost) could haul hay then.
It never ceases to amaze me the ingenuity of many, making life less difficult in our lives.
Thanks for sharing, especially because it clarifies things. JM