Driving impression: The Quadrant is dead; long live the Quadrant. After 10 years’ loyal service, Claas has finally laid its long serving 1200 big baler to rest and replaced it with the similarly liveried 2200 model. Last summer, profi put a tandem-axle Quadrant 2200 through its paces in a crop of wheat straw.
So, the Quadrant’s changed a digit on its decal and gained some snazzy new panelwork. Not really sufficient to ruffle Claas’s rivals in the highly competitive big baler sector.
If that was the sum of it, then the other manufacturers could possibly justify some complacency. The reality, however, is that the Quadrant 2200 is a very different machine to its 1200 predecessor. In fact, underneath those now curvy panels, the 70cm high by 120cm wide bale chamber appears to be the only feature shared by these two green and white balers. Almost, but not quite.
Starting up at the nose, the latest spec 2200s come with a longer drawbar for improved manoeuvrability and to reduce the amount of tyre scrub on metal beam. Up above, a wide-angle pto shaft directs drive from tractor rear-end back and into a right-angle gearbox, to which the baler’s oil pump is attached. From gearbox, drive then runs directly into the flywheel, a unit which is 40kg heavier – 10% more inertia – than the same item on the 1200.
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