For a combination drill to be a pleasure to use, its calibration should be simple and adjustments easy to make. So for the third and final part of this six-drill comparison, we put power harrow and drill together and work with them
Parts I and II of this test (profi 11/11 and 12/11) concentrated on each manufacturer’s power harrow and drill as two separate units. Of course the main point of a combo is to use the two together, and here the ease of altering the combo’s settings takes priority. If adjustments are hard to make, the chances are that the user won’t bother.
We’ll start at the top with the hopper. Seed comes in big bags and small ones, so we used both. The Pöttinger/Rabe drills (built within the same factory and largely identical) were the easiest to fill using small bags. Switching to big versions saw Kuhn’s Integra shine: its folding lid sticks out minimally when left open so is far less likely to be damaged. Having said that, folding lid designs tend to drop dust and debris into the hopper as they hinge.
Internal baffle plates strengthen a hopper and stop seed from migrating to one side when working across a slope. If not designed with filling in mind, they can hinder the incoming flow of seed and interfere with its movement as the hopper empties. All six drill brands had baffles close to the hopper centre; Kuhn, Kverneland and Lemken put extra versions towards the sides, and these need to be taken into account.
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