Driving impression: Lemken VariTansanit plough Hybrid plough exhibits extra vigour There’s nothing too revolutionary with the view that two contrasting machine configurations invariably have their respective good points and bad points. But if, somehow, a designer is able to marry these two into one, keeping the good bits and ditching the bad, then that’s real progress. With this in mind, meet the new Lemken VariTansanit – a semi-mounted plough with ‘mounted’ aspirations.
In the six- and seven-furrow classes, today’s ploughmen tend to fall into one of two configuration camps – ‘mounted’ or ‘semi-mounted’.
As set out in profi int 02/97, both of these design arguments have their merits, the ‘semi’ outfit placing less load strain on the tractor, while the mounted provides a more manoeuvrable combination. This is clearly an over-simplistic analysis, but what if a manufacturer could come up with a design that incorporated the most desirable elements of each into the one machine? Intrigued? Then stick with us.
For Lemken reckons to have developed such a plough – its so-called Tansanit, which debuted at last year’s Agritechnica show. Prompt for the work was the semi-mounted plough’s predisposition to slip in sticky going – or rather its inability, when compared to a mounted model, to transfer as much weight to the lugging tractor’s rear wheels. Popular solution is simply to stack more countering ballast on the tractor, but is it really necessary to carry all of that additional weight? Lemken’s challenge to its designers was to develop a semi-mounted alternative.
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