Combine owners say Versatile runs well under damp conditions
Saskatchewan farmer Kevin Horner said simplicity was a big factor in his decision to buy two Russian-built combines.
And he’s not alone.
Thirty other farmers have also plunked down their money for the big red machines in the past three years.
Simplicity and low technology ranked high on the list for all RT490 buyers, said Guennadi Ostrikov of Versatile.
“Kevin Horner is absolutely right. I’ve known him for many years and I know he likes simplicity and reliability,” said Ostrikov.
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The RT490 has fewer computers than any other combine in the market, and as a result, new owners and novice operators find it easy to operate.
“My understanding is the more computers, the more complicated the combine,” he said.
“If one computer goes down, your combine is down and you need the expert to come to fix it and re-program it. If it’s down for one or two days, that’s lost harvest time.”
Ostrikov said the Versatile has one computer to look after engine oil, temperature and other engine functions. If it sees a problem, it shuts the Cummins down. He said it’s the only computer that can halt the combine.
Ostrikov said performance in tough conditions is the other reason producers have signed up for the RT490 because the combine is virtually impossible to plug.
“Plugging? No, we don’t plug the rotor. We have so much power and so much threshing capacity that you can’t plug it. Some guys can question me on this, but in the field, the fact is lots of farmers will never plug it as long as they live, and that’s a big order,” he said.
“I just got back from Montana and they had a really good crop last year. A heavy, heavy crop. I never heard of anybody plug their combine in Montana. Of all the customers, I think we have just one or two guys who maybe can plug the rotor, that’s all.”
He said the combine is good in damp conditions because the concave cage turns at a constant seven r.p.m. opposite to the rotor.
“We thresh 360 degrees around. Other combines thresh just what’s on the bottom of the concave, let’s say 180 degrees, maybe a little more, but not all the way around. That’s the big difference.”
He said the rotor has two gears that can be shifted from the cab. The first one runs the rotor from 250 to 500 r.p.m., while the second one runs it from 500 to 1,000 r.p.m. All speeds within each gear are infinitely variable and controlled from within the cab. As an example, he said operators run at about 350 r.p.m. for peas and 800 for wheat.
Operators have to adjust the rotor and concave gap, which takes one wrench and about 10 minutes.
“We don’t yet have automatic adjustment from the cab,” he said.
“I tell people you don’t have to stop many times to adjust this because most times you make the same gap for wheat, barley and oats. That’s 12 millimetres. Instead of stopping to change the gap, you can adjust rotor speed in the cab. Most times that’s enough to make a good sample.”
For canola a bigger concave clearance is needed and adjustment can be made by hand.
The four-stage feeder system uses retractable fingers on the small diameter front beater.
Ostrikov said the drum grabs the material to ensure it goes to the next two larger drums, which turn the material into a smooth uniform layer and accelerate the mass. The velocity of the material increases until the small diameter fourth drum shoots it into the threshing chamber.
“In this system, we have three pinch points,” he said. “The grain gets threshed three times in every rotation. We have no dead zone in the concave.”
Ostrikov said the RT490 wears the Versatile badge, but it is purely a Rostselmash design and is built at a Rostselmash factory in Russia. Early units had a Claas drive system. Only the front axle is now German, but it is no longer Claas.
“We put on rims and tires in Canada. We install the Raven yield monitor in Canada and a few more little things like that, but not much. The new models have changes in the cab. They’re more comfortable and they have better insulation.”
For more information, contact Guennadi Ostrikov at 306-737-5570 or visit www.versatile-ag.com.
