New CLAAS Jaguar with 1000hp????

[CMunger]

I was in retail sales in the mid "80s" and was involved with a Hesston dealer. I worked with a custom operator for a year, trying to sell him two of those Hesston, I cannot remember the model number, but anyway it had an N14 Cummins and it articulated. He demoed one without a basket, or bunker as you call them across the pond, we flew to South Dakota and he drove one that belong to a farmer, that had the bunker on, along with some Hesston factory engineers that met us there. He decided he wanted to buy 2 of them and we were going to consummate the deal at the Ag Machinery show in February to received the two machines for the upcoming season. When this big meeting came together the Hesston general sales manager for the US opens the meeting by saying they are going to discontinue production of this machine and would not sell, or deliver any under any circumstances. They were selling for about 150,000 each at that time, so you can imagine how I felt. The reason given was that they had to many reliability problems with to small of a market potential

[eppie]

cmunger said:

The reason given was that they had to many reliability problems with to small of a market potential

I know quite a few contractors and farmers, who you cant convince on that one i bet....

[Josh A]

johnny2 said:

But then again, I've never been crazy with the bunker idea anyways. In grass or alfalfa, maybe. But in corn, I'm not sure its the ideal solution

Goes to show what I know about it, but I'm thinking the opposite. Well, for corn it would be nice to have the bunker mainly with the soft fields, and just having the one machine, and semi's at the road(ok on your small UK fields, a fair distance from home). For grass and alfalfa, simply the fact that the chopper can move so much faster, not having to worry about the tractor and trailer, and as Renze was saying about using a silage trailer with a pick-up on it, there is only one thing to be worrying about. It all depends on the person, the operation. Like I was saying before, with the combines. Some offload on the go, some at the edge of the field.

Another benefit of the FS version. If the trailer is 5 minutes late getting back, the chopper doesn't need to sit and wait. It can fill up the "bunker" or "basket" even if it just finishes up a row, etc. It's all in the price too, I don't even want to know how much more a FS version would cost, or cost to run it.

[eppie]

The contractor over here, ran the Hesston till they had worn everything till the bolt thread. They had cut out wheel arches in the frame, to mount 30,5x32 tires with very little clearance.

Even if the bunker is small, between 5 and 8 tons, it still saves a lot of time opening up a corn field, to make it into the head rows, you need to chamfer some rows off to be able to make the turn from headland rows into the straight rows. the manoevering at the corner, and adjusting the blowpipe at the same time, is allways either spilling a lot of silage, or taking way too many time. Maybe in different parts of the world they dont care for the last few bits, but the Dutch have a name to be tight on money, so they dont spill....

I have even seen them load a 6x6 truck with the Hesston, the truck would only drive straight, forward and reverse along one side of the field, they unloaded it from begin to end, then the hesston would load up its bunker on the drive back, while the truck would reverse to the begin of the (short) field. This saved them turning the truck on the headlands, it is allways a pain in the ass to turn a rigid truck tandem on soft fields, they tend to push the front wheels just straight ahead.

They also used it to open up corn fields and finished them with the Claas 860, which had a much bigger capacity. Actually the hesston i am speaking of was way too small for 90's operations and had its pants full with only a 4 row header, but the time they kept this underpowered machine, says something about how much they liked it. By the way, this contractor now runs 3 Claas 800 series machines.

Many people over here find it a shame that the Hesston is gone. It wasnt a million dollar machine, and it didnt have the capacity to buffer a full trailer load, but price vs. capacity/ handyness, this was just a great machine.

[CMunger]

The sale of the two Hesston's I was working with in 85-86 was for high moisture corn. The harvesters had a combine corn header that just took the ears into the machine and ran recutter screen to cut it into a mash, it was at the 45 to 55% moisture range, I think. Then taken to the dairy and was put into a bag. I think this was done at the time the compete with grains, for protein.

[CMunger]

I talked to a custom operator yesterday that has Claas machines, 900s I think, anyway he is using the new disc mower direct mount/cut headers from Claas, they are 17 1/2 feet wide, and he said in 20 ton "Winter Forage" he can cut up to 120 acres in a day with 3 machines.

[eppie]

In Holland, some companies are overhauling old NH 1900 and JD 5800 choppers, take out the (undersized for modern ideas) chopper drum and put mowers on them, sprayed in the same colour as the chopper so it looks like a factory unit.
Another one uses a reverse station Valmet with triple Claas mowers.
The other contractors are following with "just" a Fendt 514 or ZTS 14245 with 2x 3 meter Fella or Vicon mowers, which requires a lower investment and is more usefull on the fields of the horseowner that cuts half a hectare at a time.

[RmarkV]

www.farmersjournal.ie/2006/1125/farmmanagement/machinery/equipment.shtml

[Aidan31]

Are we talking about the Hesston FieldQueen here? Contractor relation of mine used to run two of them, they were exported to France (I think) after a few years in Ireland. He had a pair of Dodge trucks and a pair of Massey 1200s hauling away. I remember sitting in the driving seat as they were parked up waiting for the trucks to take them away to the ferry. Must have been around 1983.

They looked like these ...
www.farmphoto.com/fpv2/message.aspx?mid=290821

Think they were sold because they never had the output in grass silage. They were replaced with a single Hesston forager (the one with the small wheels at the front) and then by a 7725. Same guy (or his son) now uses a Claas 890. Has Massey tractors now again, after 20 years running Fiats and Sames. RMarkV will know who he is.

[eppie]

the one i talk about was an allmost equal wheeled Hesston with Fiatagri brown colour and badge.

[HL]

I think you are talking about the Hesston/Fiatagri 7730 Forage Harvester:

[CMunger]

You got it! That's it. built in France, had a 14L Cummins. Sold two, and Hesston canceled the orders, and the harvesters at the same time. Said they had to many problems with them and did not think the market was large enough to spend the R&D to get it right. That was 1985 era, I liked to die, had worked my ass off, and finally paid off, $300,000 sale, down the tubes.

[Mossey]

Get back to the Subject... 1000hp too much? NO is the answer... First of all the running costs off one big machine is a lot lower. Example labour only one harvester driver, Fuel burnt on the road, In terms of money for horsepower better value for money, End of season service for just one machine..etc Secondly there also alot less compaction in fields with the bigger the machine the wider the cutting width equaling less run up and down the field and less time the machine is on the headland turning. Thirdly if your Loader is big enough Such as a Volvo L110E with duals, a 15 foot folding rake and a good man on it you should have no problem. IT is a lot easier to deal big traliers coming in tipping at an even pace Then trailers coming in from 2 harvester at the same time. As well as that it takes less trailers to keep one big harvester going then two small ones. Forthly exchanging the machine. the big machine will not be after losing as mush money as the two smaller ones together. Thats my case.

I have a 900 at moment looking to change but there no option here in southern Ireland for a higher HP harvester as Krone Dealer will not sell them and a machine is only as good as the service you get. Problem is our current 900 can only barely take 40foot swarths in heavy first cut. But we can make 50foot swarths and she can't take it I'd say she needs another 200hp and a pickup and feeding system. I know poeple for other countries might not belive this but a frist heavy cut in Ireland is three times heavier.... DOES anyone know when this new Claas is on the market....

Theres only one advantage to having 2 smaller machines is

[eppie]

HL, that's exactly the one i was talking about !! only our local contractor cut out wheel arches in the frame to mount bigger and wider tires. They absolutely loved it.

Mossey a Claas SF 80 will take up that 40 ft swath as easy as your 900, if you match the driving speed properly.
If your harvester driver cant match drive speed to the swath with, its something else as having a 900 being to small for the swath.

Sorry but you wont be contracting on my land... If you make a 900 kneel on a grass swath, you must be racing like idiots and leaving no headland sods in place. Local contractors go 25 km/h with a NH FX450 but refuse to go faster because they will either spill grass or make a mess at the headlands.

Now if you were using it in corn, i can understand the thought but for chopping grass...

[adamL]

renze said:

HL, that's exactly the one i was talking about !! only our local contractor cut out wheel arches in the frame to mount bigger and wider tires. They absolutely loved it.

Mossey a Claas SF 80 will take up that 40 ft swath as easy as your 900, if you match the driving speed properly.
If your harvester driver cant match drive speed to the swath with, its something else as having a 900 being to small for the swath.

Sorry but you wont be contracting on my land... If you make a 900 kneel on a grass swath, you must be racing like idiots and leaving no headland sods in place. Local contractors go 25 km/h with a NH FX450 but refuse to go faster because they will either spill grass or make a mess at the headlands.

Now if you were using it in corn, i can understand the thought but for chopping grass...

I've not been to Ireland, but am going next may so I'll report back then. Anway it rains alot there so the grass grows quite well, hence loads of livestok farms. Ireland jutts out into the Atlantic and gets first pick of any warm wet front coming off the aforementioned ocean. As you travel east it get's drier. As Holland is a good way east of Ireland You won't get near the rain as most of it has been dumped across the British Isles before it gets to you.

As they say in motor sport "too much power is just about enough"