REGINA – North America’s largest combine was unveiled to the public at the Western Canadian Farm Progress Show in Regina last week.
The New Holland CR9080 is the company’s new rotary line and drew a lot of attention at the three-day event.
Producer Jim Thompson of Edmonton said the features that give the machine its capacity also help produce “a clean sample.”
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“I’ve had three of the TRs (the former twin rotor New Holland combine line) and twice I bought other brands and traded after a season or two. Those big twin rotors give you capacity, but lots of combines can do that. I need capacity and I want as little damage to the crop as I can get. I like the New Holland for that. This one’s a little big for me, but for lots of guys it’ll be what they need.”
The combine can deliver up to 535 horsepower, but normally operates at 483, and has 6.5 sq. metres of sieve that can be reached by fan driven air.
Farmers at the show said the machine would be a good fit for the single combine farming operation with a large land base. They also said its larger capacity has a place in the short Canadian harvest window.
Thompson, 58, said he is average in age and farm size and could see the big machine paying off for many growers.
“The Prairies aren’t very forgiving for grain producers and gaining a grade or two on the last 1,000 acres because you are done ahead of the fall weather will help make the payments.”
Ed Barry of New Holland in Pennsylvania said the company is meeting customer demand.
“We’ve been building twin rotor combines since 1975. The farming world wants bigger and that is what we’re giving them.”
He said designing combines is about matching capacities: feeder-house to rotors, rotors to engine, grain pan and sieve system to rotors, clean grain and chopper and spreader to the cleaning area.
“If you don’t get it right, you have problems. More horsepower won’t make you harvest any more if there are bottlenecks within the machine.”
The CR9080 is powered by a Cursor (Fiat), a 12.9 litre engine built in France. All CX conventional and CRs are using the Cursor overhead cam engines.
The machine relies on a pair of 27-inch rotors to drop the grain onto a slightly domed grain pan that lacks dividers to keep grain balanced across the cleaning area during threshing on slopes.
To keep grain from collecting in one area, the cleaning system can shift up to 15 degrees from one side to the other depending on field slope.
“It uses the whole cleaning area, and under those rotors we need it,” Barry said.
Rotor clearance no longer needs to be adjusted on the side of the unit.
The machine, like the TR line, relies mainly on belts to transfer threshing power. The company said the large hydrostatic system is still in place, with refinements.
“Belts are actually more efficient than hydraulics,” Barry said about parasitic power losses.
When it comes to maintenance, the worst case scenario is replacing a belt that requires the removal of two others, but that requires only a 19 mm wrench and the release of spring loaded idlers.
Gearboxes have sight glasses for easy morning inspection. All belt and chain tension idlers have gauges to prevent over or under tightening. Most grease points are rated for 50 hours, with only the rotors requiring more lube after 10.
A draper belt at the back end feeds out the straw either to the chopper, or onto the ground. Producers can select whether to spread chaff or drop it along with straw if they are windrowing it.
An offset king pin that adds additional throw to the steering axle gives the combine a turning radius of 4.39 metres, shorter than a TR despite being 35 centimetres longer.
The computer system that manages the threshing automatically drops fan speed and opens the sieves when the header is lifted during turns. This reduces grain losses when the machine is running under capacity.
The cab is larger than on previous models, at 3.12 sq. metres, and has nearly six metres of glass for operator viewing behind the header. The same heated, leather seat is available as found in New Holland’s tractors.
An increase in the grain tank to 350 bushels and fuel capacity of 1,000 litres rounds out the package.
The 9070 model shares the large frame of the 9080 with fewer features and 420 nominal h.p. Two smaller machines use a narrower chassis: the 9040 with 322 h.p. and the 9060 with 360 h.p.
If this isn’t big enough, the company also makes a CR9090, but farmers will need to move to Europe because New Holland doesn’t market it in North America.
