The latest generation of New Holland’s big horsepower forage harvesters is challenging the high-end market.
Introduced in 2008, the FR9000 is a fresh design featuring a drive belt for better efficiency.
“The belt drive system is completely new for us,” says Dwight Shepherd with Mazur Equipment in Shoal Lake, Man.
“The previous FX models operated with gearboxes and drive shafts. On the FR, the gearboxes are located right at the point where the power is used. The big belt drives the gearboxes. It’s far more efficient than the old gearbox system. And all the new FR models have a higher capacity than the top two models in the old FX line.”
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Shepherd said forage harvesters are typically high maintenance machines because of the heavy work they do.
“I think this year we had just one service call on the machine all season,” said Shepherd, after two years with the FR.
“When it comes in for the annual winter service, we’re finding that the parts normally considered to be wear parts just aren’t wearing. I think it’s all a matter of a better design.”
Shepherd said that like most forage harvesters on the market, prices on the FR series are about $1,000 per horsepower.
Engines include inline six-cylinder Ivecos rated from 424 to 578 h.p. The one Cat in the bunch is an inline six rated at 684 h.p. The top engine is a 20 litre Iveco V8 rated at 823 h.p. for the FR9090 model.
A gearbox is mounted at the flywheel end of the crankshaft because the engines are positioned fore-aft in the chassis. It turns the power 90 degrees so it can turn the belt pulley.
At the harvesting end of the FR, the new VariFlow system lets the operator lower the accelerator closer to the cutter head when the crop processor isn’t in use. This keeps the blower speed up so the crop keeps moving in tough gummy conditions.
Width of the FR’s stainless steel feed rolls has increased to 34 inches. The cutter head has 16 knives, delivering 9,056 cuts per minute. The operator can vary the cut length from six to 33 millimetres with the HydroLoc and cutter head working together.
The MetaLoc system, located in the lower feed roll, protects the machine from damage caused by swallowing stray metal bits in the field. The system shows the operator exactly where the invasive metal is located, making it quicker to remove.
The FR has a new hydraulic drive sharpening system for fast, in-field reverse cutter head sharpening, which allows the operator to sharpen knives more frequently for better cutting.
With biomass renewable energy becoming popular, NH has developed a new wood header to fit the FR forage harvesters.
A pair of spinning blades saw through the trunks, which are then centered in the header by a pair of large vertical rollers with treads. Two horizontal rollers feed the wood into the compression rollers in the forage harvester, at which point the wood fibre is treated the same as any forage material fed into the machine.
The new FR series prompted New Holland to redesign its grass headers to match the higher capacity of the harvester. The wind guard opens hydraulically when the header is reversed, allowing easy crop removal.
For more information, contact Dwight Shepherd at 204-759-2126 or visit www.newholland.com.
