Agritechnica is the world’s largest trade fair for agricultural equipment. This year, New Holland used it to launch improvements to its range of combine harvesters. The New Holland CR combine harvester with Twin Rotor technology is claimed to be one of the highest-output machines in the world. To make full use of this power, New Holland has increased the width of its widest Varifeed grain header from 10,7m to 12,5m. This larger size suits large farms that use 36m tramlines. With controlled traffic being increasingly adopted, this combination optimises the machine’s capacity while providing the tolerance demanded by controlled traffic systems.
New Varifeed grain header
The new Varifeed header’s 12,5m working width required outstanding engineering to be robust and effective, and special attention was paid to all the components – chassis, knives, auger, reels and drive units. It is driven by two driveshafts, with a wobble box at each end of the head powering the dual sickles (above right). Two strong knife drives with torsion dampers, driven by belts with an automatic tensioning feature, move the harvester knives, which have a slight overlap at midpoint.
The two-piece auger is supported in the centre by a bearing and the augers are timed to provide smooth feeding, with a single-piece reel ensuring a continuous feed and excellent visibility of the header. The blade can be adjusted electro-hydraulically fore and aft by 575mm from the cab. This allows the header to be adjusted to suit all harvesting conditions. The Varifeed is also equipped with four wide Autofloat sensing pads that adjust the header’s height and inclination automatically.
Dynamic feed roll technology
Dynamic Feed Roll technology will be an option for the CR8000 and CR9000, New Holland’s powerful twin-rotor combine harvesters. The feed roll, with its new dynamic stone protection system, is aligned tangentially across the two longitudinal rotors in the harvester. It delivers the harvested grain uniformly to the twin rotors and provides an effective method for stone protection on the move – by way of a stone catcher beneath the feed rotor.
New suspended tracks
Tracks provide better traction in adverse conditions, reduce compaction and enable the machine to have a road-legal width. New Holland’s Triangle Concept tracked drive-train (below) is well-proven and, for the new season, CX7000 and CX8000 combines can also be factory-fitted with tracks.
For more demanding requirements, the new SmartTrax with Terraglide system increases load-bearing capacity to 43t and maximum transport width to 3,5m. This ‘footprint’ spreads the weight, allowing better adaptation to ground conditions and improved durability. Better suspension also gives greater ride comfort. When fitted to CR8000 models, a SmartTrax unit with Terraglide tracked chassis and tracks 725mm wide gives the combine a transport width of 3,49m.
