There is plenty of choice on the telehandler attachment market but, for those after something specific and bespoke, it often means building it in the workshop.

Some of the inventive ideas submitted by our readers can be seen below – including a backward-facing telehandler bucket, a tree stump shaver and a slurry gantry nicknamed the Giraffe.

Philip Warters’ triple bale spike

An extending bale spike has revolutionised round bale handling for Philip Warters from Weaverthorpe, North Yorkshire.

With 2,000 round bales to shift and store on his 115ha farm, he reckoned he could speed up proceedings by increasing the capacity of his single bale spike.

He sketched out his design for a triple-bale tool and gave it to local fabricator Richard Dent Services.

The attachment is roughly 1.8m wide when closed, but can extend to double that width using a spool valve, allowing Mr Warters to quickly line his round bales in long, single columns a foot apart for storing outside.

It mounts via euro brackets to his Valtra N111, which he says copes perfectly well with the weight of dry bales. However, corners have to be taken gingerly when moving wet ones.

The three-bale capacity has also seriously sped up field clearance at harvest, says Mr Warters. Next on his list is an accumulator for the baler.

See also: What to look for when buying a used JCB telehandler

Niall Murphy’s slurry gantry

Niall Murphy from County Armagh returned to the Inventions Competition with his “Giraffe” ­– a gantry system for routing umbilical pipes across roads.

The 800kg gantry saves laying ramps to allow traffic to pass, avoiding the risk of damage to both cars and pipes.

In order to make the gantry as versatile as possible, he decided to design it to be carried on pallet tines rather than having its own designated headstock bracket.

This means it can be used with his customers’ tractors and telehandlers, saving him having to transport his JCB TM310S to every job.

The main section was made using 7in channel which leaves space for 6in pipe. This can be folded in half so it doesn’t have to be permanently set at its full 7.9m reach when only crossing small lanes using a loader tractor.

An arced 90cm extension at the far end eliminates kinks and, on the near side, another curved section directs the pipe away from the telehandler to avoid any problems with it rubbing against the mudguards.

Both extensions can be mounted above the pallet tines during transport. There is also a cone and sign holder ready to set up on the roadside.

Allan Sheldrake’s folding bale spike 

Baling contractor Allan Sheldrake built a smart bale spike that features a folding arrangement for the prongs so he can pivot them out of the way when travelling between fields around his base near Chelmsford, Essex.

He also designed the solid frame to help release the spikes when the top of the attachment is crowded towards the bale. This makes stacking safer and takes the pressure off the tines. He gave it a lick of bright yellow paint so it can be easily spotted.

George Smith’s bale spike pusher 

Easing spikes out of bales when stacking at height can be a precarious job, so George Smith built a bale fork with a full-width pusher to help safely eject them.

He thought of the design when unloading bales in a lean-to on the farm where vision was limited. The simple frame is narrower than a 5ft round bale, which means it can work in tight spaces.

Mr Smith says the hardest part was working out the pivot angle for the arm. 

Tom Wyatt’s JCB 3CX pickup hitch

Running only one tractor and a JCB 3CX meant Warwick farmer Tom Wyatt needed a means of towing a trailer with his backhoe digger to move seed and fertiliser around.

He used the rear pick-up hitch from a trailed forager, to which he welded two hooks that allow it to slot into the existing rails used to carry the digging arm. 

A pair of bolts hold it in place on the rails and can be loosened to shift it to one side when the backhoe is required.

Costs were limited to a couple of hydraulic pipes that connect the hitch to one of the rear leg feeds, with a diverter switch in the cab allowing him to flick between the two. It has proved invaluable lifting IBC water drums, seed or fertiliser to wherever the tractor needs it, he says. 

Paul Yates’ backward bucket

Derbyshire farmer Paul Yates converted a sturdy second-hand bucket so that it can be used in reverse for clearing ditches with his compact JCB 527-55.

The addition of a second set of brackets mounted in the opposite direction to the standard assembly allows Mr Yates to face the bucket towards him and drop it deeper into ditches.

He says the hardest part was getting the right height for the new hooks so the reach was sufficient. He left the original brackets in place, so it can still be used in the conventional fashion.

The beauty of the system is the extra width compared with an excavator-mounted grading bucket, allowing him to cover considerably more ground with one scoop. 

The bucket cost about £150 a few years ago and the heavy-duty brackets set him back £100.

Jim Calcutt’s ‘Big Foot’ stump shaver 

Seasoned inventor Jim Calcutt developed a tree stump shaver attachment for his digger that can reduce stumps to below ground level.

Nicknamed “Big Foot”, the device was invented for lowering willow stumps on Mr Calcutt’s water meadow in preparation for planting new ones.

It is made from Hardox steel offcuts and has one large vertical leading tooth, with three stepped horizontal blades for removing the layers. These offcuts, which measure 50-100mm, can then be burned.

Mr Calcutt enlisted the help of Cherry Products to weld it and says he has lowered more than 100 stumps so far, avoiding the time and trouble of digging out whole root balls. It has also saved him plenty of money on new chainsaw chains, as there is no need to get so close to the ground.

David Throup’s muck grab

David Throup of Nun Monkton Estate, near York, built his own muck grab after getting sick of bending and breaking tines on his old version.

To make things as robust as possible, he used pallet forks as the lower tines, which he sourced from a local scrapyard for just £110.

Though they add a fair amount of weight, he says his JCB 530-70 and 536-60 handle it fine when mucking out cow sheds.

He continued the spirit of recycling with the front grab tines, which are old McConnel Shakaerator legs, and he salvaged the rams and JCB Q-Fit brackets from his retired grab.

The rest of the frame was fabricated predominantly from 100mm box section with 5mm and 8mm walls.

Billy Davies’ beet lifting bucket

This nifty, slatted bucket is the work of Billy Davies and he built it to dig up fodder beet and shake out soil in the field.

He uses it on his tractor’s front-end loader and drives into the crop with it at ground level. In light soil this pushes the beet out of the ground and the slats allow the remaining soil to fall through.

Max Harker’s pivoting excavator bucket

Ditching on gradients is now a simpler job for Max Harker from Cobley Lodge Farm, Northamptonshire, thanks to his version of a hydraulic tilting bucket.

He used some leftover steel plate to fabricate the carriage that links the excavator mounts to a ditching bucket, forming a pivot that allows the bucket to be angled via a hydraulic ram from a scrapped disc cultivator.

It is mounted to a 3t Kubota KX71-3 – which itself was tidied up and resprayed.

Jeremy Chamberlayne’s telehandler magnet 

Gloucester-based Jeremy Chamberlayne runs a Farm 2000 boiler fuelled by timber and pallets, but in order to spread the ash after burning, he developed a telehandler magnet that removes unwanted metal such as nails and screws.

The frame is made from 100mm aluminium box section. It’s about 2m wide and carries a series of magnets along its length, which are raised and lowered hydraulically.

In the lowered position the magnets attract about 30kg of metal when hovered over the ash heap. The operator then raises the magnets using the third service, causing all the metal to drop off.

Paul Oliver’s soil screener 

Paul Oliver took the frame from a redundant fertiliser spinner and mounted the drum from an old cement mixer inside it to form a neat topsoil screener. A digging edge was added to the front of the drum to make it easier to pick up soil.

The brackets match his Volvo 360deg excavator and its third service powers an hydraulic motor from a Ransomes lawnmower.

He also fitted Land Rover gearbox mounts between the drum and frame to allow a bit of movement and stop it shaking to bits. He has since modified it to accept extras screens and added a heavy-duty roller. Total cost was about £200.

Nigel Evans’ sheargrab bucket

With 250 cattle demanding a mixed ration three times a day, Nigel Evans found he was constantly switching between the sheargrab and bucket on his front loader.

That meant getting on and off the tractor every time to disconnect the hydraulic pipes and unlatch the attachment, so he came up with a system that now saves him the trouble.

By welding an eye to the back of the bucket, he can pick it up with the sheargrab and lock it in place using a modified trailer brake ram with a sprung return.

The ram is operated via a separate pipe that runs along the loader beam to the tractor’s spool valve, though he says it could also be done by fitting an electric splitter valve on the loader’s third service.

Edward Chapman’s side-tipping scoop

Mid-Wales-based Edward Chapman spared minimal time and expense in converting an old yard bucket into a handy side-tipping scoop for dribbling cement into narrow gaps along walls or down cavities.