RED DEER — The most obvious change to New Holland’s latest model of Guardian Front Boom sprayer, the SP310F, is the redesigned cab.
“This is the first time that New Holland has built a cab for their sprayers,” said Don Keller of New Holland during Agri-Trade in Red Deer.
“You won’t find this cab on any other piece of equipment.”
An extra five sq. feet of glass improves visibility from the cab, and the top of the glass, or headliner, has been raised to help larger operators.
Read Also
Growing garlic by the thousands in Manitoba
Grower holds a planting party day every fall as a crowd gathers to help put 28,000 plants, and sometimes more, into theground
“The glass has been increased on the top side,” Keller said.
“That way if you’re a tall operator it doesn’t feel like you’re trying to look underneath the headliner.”
A new light bar on the headliner shows information from the product rinse sumps, boom sections, an indication light for autosteer engagement and four-wheel steer.
“The multi-function handle is a carry-over from what they used to have, but the screen above it is different,” Keller said.
The top display shows engine vitals such as engine r.p.m., speed and temperatures. The screen below the top display shows field data from the computer, and the lowest screen just above the multi-function handle shows product data.
Producers familiar with New Holland combines will likely recognize the steering column in the sprayer.
“We went ahead and have taken something good out of the combine and put it in here,” Keller said.
“It has two tilts in it and is telescoping as well.”
Wider boom arms in the front also improve visibility.
“There are no obstacles in front. It’s a really nice driving and riding machine because of the sight.”
The sprayer comes with either a 1,000 or 12,000 gallon stainless steel solution tank.
“If you choose the 1,000 gallon you have the option to get 200 gallons of chemical injection in four tanks, which (have) 50 gallons in each tank,” Keller said.
Chemical injection is an option on other models.
For the chemical injection, producers can have their sprayer factory fit with one, two or three extra pumps that inject chemicals into the main product stream.
“If you have the four tank option you can go with three different chemicals and either do variable rate through the field at the injection point, or do spot spraying,” he said. “So if you have a resistant weed in your field that is not part of your main mix, you can inject into the field and cover in a small spot and not have to mix it into your main tank.”
The SP310F comes with a 150 gallon rinse tank and has an auto-rinse feature.
“You can rinse your product tank, your eductor as well as all your boom plumbing from the touch screen in the cab, so it can truly be a one touch rinse system.”
The Guardian front boom sprayer can be used to apply liquid fertilizer with the NutraBoss dual fertilizer application system.
The redesigned suspension is in-cab adjustable and achieves 72 to 78 inches of ground clearance.
The cylinders in the suspension are placed between the leg and the frame and have close-coupled accumulators that enable a faster response rate than with previous models.
“There is a fully redesigned chassis and suspension, which includes an active suspension, so it’s constantly adjusting the pressure in the cylinders dependent on their length,” Keller said.
“So it’s trying to put down equal ground pressure on each tire, and it’s constantly monitoring and changing as you drive through the field.”
The sprayer’s suspension can be completely lowered down to the frame from the cab to give 65 inches of under body clearance for transport and storage and to get under low obstacles.
In this configuration the sprayer is about 12 feet high. The maximum boom width for the Guardian is 120 feet, and there is individual nozzle control with Raven Viper 4+.
The eductor door under the machine has been updated.
“We used to have to pull down a panel or bring our snorkel down, so now our snorkel arm and our chemical eductor mount will go up together, and that pan comes standard on every machine,” Keller said.
The SP310F now comes with a 285 horsepower (peaks at 310 h.p.) FPT engine that provides increased torque over previous models. The new engine combined with the new electronically controlled planetary drive system enables the sprayer to reach road speeds up to 35 m.p.h.
“It is now equipped with an Iveco engine instead of a Cummins engine,” he said. “It’s a great thing for our dealers and our customers. It’s something that they can service in house much easier.”
The fuel tank has a 150 gallon capacity.
A new push button start allows operators to turn the machine off when loading yet leave the computer up and running so its operation isn’t interrupted.
“You don’t have to be running the machine if you’re pushing it on,” he said.
“You can shut the engine off and it records your data.”
The Guardian SP310F and its sister machine, the Miller Nitro 7310, are the first to be engineered and built as a result of New Holland’s acquisition of the Miller-St. Nazianz company in 2014.
