USED MACHINERY: Claas Lexion 580 combine harvester: The Claas Lexion 580 was launched in 2003 before eventually being superseded by the current 580+ model three years later in 2006. The earlier machine remains a top performer, however, with an average throughput of 40-42t/hr in a heavy crop of late wheat. Such a capacity should help the 580 remain an attractive used purchase in the years ahead, as James de Havilland reports
The Lexion harvester brand name has been around now for well over a decade, with Claas reserving this globally knownmoniker for its higher capacity combine models – both rotary and walker types.
As it turns out, this shared badging has proven to be a shrewd marketing move by Claas, and probably assisted, albeit in a subtle way, in the more rapid uptake of the company’s twin-rotor design, which debuted back in the mid-1990s. Though firmly established by the time the 580 came along, it is easy to forget that the earlier 480 and 480 Evo had quite a task to perform when it came to convincing the more sceptical cereal producers that ‘twin-rotor’ technology was the harvest- ing way to go. Of course, the 480 and 480 Evo subsequently went on to be big sales hits throughout the UK and Europe, laying the base foundations for future Lexion successes. Yet at the time of the 480’s debut, such a successful outcome was far from certain.
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