Compaction concerns boost crawler sales in Europe
Friday, April 8, 2016
Kilometres of roadwork between farms and fields help maintain the dominance of wheeled tractors in Europe. But heavier machinery means crop growers are increasingly considering the advantages of tracks instead of tires
by NORMAN DUNN
The wet harvests in Western Europe this year have helped further establish the use of crawler tracks for combines. In the previous few years, a main argument was that the modern mighty harvesting machines were pretty heavy anyway and crawler units seemed a good buy for land where the soil was liable to compaction. But when the rains came, leaving combines sunk to their axles, if not even deeper, sales of crawler units for Claas, Case IH and all the other bigger models shot through the roof.
What's more, chaser bins and other grain collecting wagons were also sinking deep below the stubble in many areas. This lit a fire under sales of tracked grain collection systems that were quite unknown in Europe only a few years ago.
French manufacturer Perard, already well-known for its big wagons on as many as three axles with flotation tires, was one of the first to offer the lighter footprint approach with its giant Interbenne 46 chaser. This can haul 35 tons of wheat and is already selling well in the company's homeland.
As wet July merged into soggy August, a first model with optional 90 centimetre-wide Sly tracks was soon "floating" over English cereal fields during harvest. Quite apart from its soil-saving attributes, the attractions of the French model include a giant 70-centimetre diameter unloading auger that throws 35 tonnes of wheat from chaser to truck in just 90 seconds.
Where customers start to seek real acre-eating machinery for extra big performance, you can bet that German manufacturer Horsch is amongst the first to present the right tools for the job. So it was no surprise earlier this year when this family firm launched a tracked 28-tonne chaser bin appropriately called the Titan. This boasts a 60-centimetre diameter unloading auger for an awesome 18 tonnes per minute truck-filling capacity. The track system comes from Canadian manufacturer Elmer, featuring Camoplast belts with a soil-saving footprint of 91 centimetres wide and 2.56 metres long. Elmer claims its tracks offer three times the flotation of even 900/60/R32 tires.
Helping out a Scottish malting barley grower in the 1960s who pulled his plow with a TD-340 IH, I grew to like working with a metal-tracked crawler. These were absolute rarities in those days. Even earlier, between the wars, British farm advisers had openly backed crawlers, claiming they represented the way ahead for efficient traction and work capacity out on the fields.
To a certain extent, history seems to be repeating itself. Here, we're experiencing a real revival in track-laying tractors, for much the same reasons as for combines and chasers. Naturally, crawlers in the really large class are already very well established with Cat Challengers, Claas 55s and the now well-established "quads" from makers including Case.
Half-tracks, again a feature of farming in the 1950s and '60s with Fordson systems in Europe, have also made a strong comeback with a range of makes, including John Deere.
Without a doubt, the changeover from all-metal to rubber-type tracks restarted the crawler revolution many years ago. But the rubber tracks have never managed to achieve the solid grip (especially in clay soils, whether bone dry or heavily soaked) of the metal versions with their deep cleats. And, as long as the metal versions stayed away from hard surfaces, even the older styles of metal grips returned a longer life than the current rubber tracks.
Also working on such difficult terrain is a relative newcomer in the metal-tracked crawler league, the 350 HP Scaip Warrior. Reported soil pressure under the 54-centimetre wide Italian steel tracks: 492 g/cm2. Naturally, if road travel is involved, then rubber tracks still win. Otherwise, a lighter footprint for heavy land machinery means the crawler approach is right on track. BF