New F5 balers from McHale
Irish grassland machinery manufacturer McHale has unveiled the new four-model range of F5 fixed chamber balers.
The Terra Drive driven axle, shown on a Fusion 4 baler, has been in development for over two years, because of demand from users who work on sloping or hilly terrain.
While driven axles are nothing new (think of ground wheel drives often found on lime spreaders of the 1970s and ‘80s), it‘s not simply a case of bolting the axle on and plugging it into the rear of the tractor; special consideration needs to be given to overall control.
The drive units being used are made by the Finnish company Black Briun, who are known for equipping logging trailers with powered axles, used extensively throughout the Nordic countries.
The twin stub axle units are fed by the same hydraulic feed that operates the baler functions and can be operated in three different modes, controlled by ISOBUS and tractor implement interface TIM.
One mode allows the driver to engage the axle drive via the ISOBUS screen, although this manual control is supplemented by two further cues from the tractor. When encountering a slope and detecting that the tractor is having to increase RPM, the system cuts in, while another is the system sensing that tractor wheel slip is exceeding a pre-set threshold, allowing oil flow to be directed to the drive units.
For safety purposes, the system cuts out altogether when forward speed exceeds 12km/h, such as when returning to the road for transport. In addition to the drive units, McHale has increased the tyre size options available on the Fusion 4 baler to include 710/25 section Vredestein items. The company designed a specific tread pattern for hilly regions and soft soil conditions, which have become extremely popular with operators over standard fitments.
