Bringing a new tractor to market is a big expense, which manufacturers don’t take lightly or do often.
Three years ago, Versatile saw that upcoming Tier 4 interim standards would force major changes to their big tractors.
“When Cummins changed up to Tier 4 interim, it affected the intake and exhaust plus required more cooling capacity with bigger radiators up front,” said Ryan Shust, tractor project manager at Versatile.
“Once we figured out how to handle that, we saw it was a big enough change that we’d might as well go ahead and change the other things we’d been considering. Basically, we took advantage of the opportunity to incorporate features farmers had been asking for.”
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Shust said the new tractors have the same drive train components as they used to, including outboard planetariums, axles, drive shafts and transmissions.
As with previous Versatile 4×4 tractors, the three lower powered platforms have the narrow chassis and the three high horsepower platforms have the wide chassis. However, Versatile wanted to use the same radiators, grills, hoods and front battery boxes on narrow and wide models.
Rather than complicate the issue, the engineers simply added an eight-inch wider section to the front left and front right of the narrow chassis. The front of both chassis are now equal width.
Access to both sides of the engine is the same, but the entire hood assembly can now be removed in less than 10 minutes.
The tractors have a larger 40-gallon hydraulic reservoir, now located high on the tractor so gravity feeds the pump. Shust said the positive supply layout creates a better pump flow in all conditions.
The standard hydraulic system has been bumped up to 58 g.p.m. with four circuits. The optional high capacity system puts out 115 g.p.m., and has six circuits and two independent pumps plumbed in parallel.
The tractors are now available with Group 49 tires, giving a longer and thus larger footprint on the soil.
Sound of silence
The tractor is quiet. Shust said the Cummins diesel particulate filter (DPF) helps. A regular tractor muffler is just a hollow chamber with perforated tubing inside. It doesn’t do much to muffle the sound.
The DPF muffler is different. Shust said it’s like a catalytic converter on a car. It has a filter inside to pick out particles, but the filter also takes out a lot of the noise.
“The other silencing factor is the combustion chamber. That’s where all the noise originates. Diesel engines used to have one injection of fuel into the cylinder per stroke. That single injection creates a single explosion in there. One big loud bang per stroke. The new QSX injects fuel at five intervals per stroke cycle. The sound originating from the combustion chamber is more of a whoosh. The noise from each explosion is spread out over a longer period of time.”
Shust said the headland super button is another feature farmers have been requesting. The operator programs the computer to perform the headland turn functions.
He punches the super button when he reaches the headland and then steers the tractor until he’s set up for the next pass. The program automatically lifts hydraulics, changes gears, regulates engine r.p.m. and controls the seeding system.
Once he’s pointed in the right direction, he punches the button again and it’s back to business as usual.
The cab is new from the frame up. View-from-the-seat, ergonomically correct controls and overall operator comfort have become increasingly important in the big tractor arena.
The new Versatile cab is the biggest in the industry. It’s 20 percent larger with 35 percent more forward visibility than the previous cab.
It incorporates curved glass to give a better view and has 89.5 sq. feet of window glass.
The big 575 will still be manufactured and sold under the old Tier 3 standard. It cannot meet Tier 4 interim standards, but Versatile is using credits from the new tractors to support the 575. Shust said upgrading the current 575 tractor and engine is on the agenda.
“When the 575 gets the more powerful engine, it will also get the new platform we just introduced,” he said.
“The QSX15 has a big displacement, so Cummins has a lot of untapped power in reserve in that engine. And we’ve put a lot of thought into the new platform, and it also has a lot of potential. So putting a really powerful engine into that new 550 platform may not be as onerous as you might think.”
For more information, contact Shust at 477-2328 or
