New combine options for the North American market
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Case IH, AGCO and Canada's Versatile are all coming out with new offerings, including a fresh cab design, and everyone is paying attention to seating
by MIKE MULHERN
The evolution of the combine continues with a Russian-Canadian model being sold in the North American market and others emerging with big and small innovations to tempt the farm buyer.
Canada's Versatile is getting into the combine business with a Russian-made entry that sports lots of global content, starting with its North American-built Cummins engine.
The Versatile RT490 is a 490-h.p. Class 8 combine built by Rostselmash Ltd., the Russian combine manufacturer which bought 80 per cent of Versatile's parent company, Manitoba-based Buhler Industries, in 2007. The combine is being offered for sale in Canada this year after two years of testing.
Versatile's director of marketing, Adam Reid, says his company understands that breaking into the North American market will not be easy, but he says the RT490 has features that stand out from the crowd.
"The threshing system," he says, "is unique to the North American market." According to the Versatile website, "the RT490 separates itself from traditional rotary combines by utilizing a Rotating Concave Rotary system. A 360-degree concave counter rotates to the rotor at eight r.p.m. The moving concave eliminates the traditional 'dead zone' found in typical rotary systems. The grain is threshed three times in each rotation, which increases throughput and provides a cleaner grain sample."
Reid says the machine was impressive in corn, soybean, cereal grain and rice testing.
In the two years of North American testing and evaluation, a few things changed before the machine was brought to market. It started with a 430-h.p. engine from Cummins (the engines are installed at the factory). Though this was considered adequate, it was decided to move up to the larger engine.
"Some might argue it's overkill for this size of combine," Reid says, "but we'd much rather have too much power than not enough." He says they tested a number of horsepower options and found that "the 490 was best in terms of fuel economy but still powerful enough to run the threshing system and everything through mud and wet conditions and really heavy crops."
The combine comes in two- or four-wheel-drive configurations and is equipped with an on-board CANbus system that monitors most of the combine functions. Versatile is also offering Raven yield monitoring and moisture testing systems and an auto-steer option.
Reid says Versatile is proud that RT490 components have been sourced globally. The hydrostat system is German and from the same company that supplies Claas combines. U.S.-based Cummins supplies the engines and Canadian-based MacDon supplies pickup and draper headers. The driver's seat, one of the first things that was changed, also comes from Versatile's North American seat supplier.
Speaking of seats, that's where Case IH started when it asked for customer input into the features and design of their new cab, coming out with their 2013 models.
"We had a basic, raw structure," combine product marketing manager Kelly Kravig says, describing the setting provided for input for Case combine owners and owners of competing brands. "We had the metal frame of the cab and we had a seat mounted in." Case also had a range of controls for farmers to try, along with current Case IH production models and competitive machines to benchmark.
"We had people tell us what they like, don't like, what they prefer, how they use their machines and what they're looking for as they move forward," he says. Interestingly, no matter where the customers came from – Latin America, Europe, Australia, Canada or the U.S. Midwest – they had a lot of demands in common. "They may speak a different language," Kravig says, "and they may have an accent, but they'll tell you a lot of the very same things they are looking for."
Adding it up, Case ended up with a roomy cab design with a seat that slides back and forth and is adjustable to handle a range of shapes, weights and sizes. There is a cell phone cradle, Bluetooth, a place for either a laptop or an iPad and the right-hand display moves on a rail so the operator can position it to the best advantage. There is also a portable fridge under the trainer seat about the size and weight of a medium cooler. At the end of the day, you can take it home to be cleaned and repacked for the next shift in the field.
"One comment that was fairly consistent," Kravig says, "was to let the combine act the way my new pickup does, because when I climb into my new pickup, the first thing it asks me is, 'Do I want to connect via Bluetooth?' " Apparently, for both applications, the answer is yes.
Another new feature for Case in 2013 is a pivoting grain spout that the operator can turn one way up to 45 degrees, adjusting the flow of grain about three feet off to the side of the spout to make unloading easier. There is also an option that allows the operator to fold the spout for easier transport and storage.
AGCO has announced a number of changes in its 2013 Gleaner S7 series combines. In a news release, the company says innovations include a new, deeper clean-grain cross-auger trough. The eight-inch cross auger has been dropped lower, below centre line, to provide greater movement of grain to the elevator and help increase overall harvesting rates. Thicker elevator paddles also contribute to a 30 per cent increase in clean-grain elevator capacity.
The company also says "a new rear feed-conveyor drive eliminates slipping and offers 50 per cent more drive capability, plus a 10 per cent differential in rear-to-front feed conveyor speed eliminates any pinch point."
The combines come "guidance-ready" as a standard feature. And, there is a new "Premier" seat that is both heated and cooled. BF