Driving impression: Sulky DPA XLT trailed spreader One of the pioneers of bulk fertiliser application French maker Sulky debuted its DPA XLT trailed spreader complete with hopper capacities of 4,000 and 6,600 litres (plus extensions) at last year’s Cereals event. We give a brief ‘blue’ overview
Trailed fertiliser spreaders have come and gone over the years. But now their time would seem to be right. Arable farm sizes are still on the increase, and these businesses are keen to experiment with any kit that gives them the potential for more capacity per load, less time on the road – in short, higher overall daily outputs.
Hence the arrival of Sulky’s trailed DPA XLT spreader, featured here. Does ‘DPA’ ring any bells? Well, it should, because this is exactly the same label designation as used on a number of the company’s 12-36m spread mounted models, and means exactly the same in terms of spec, too – a twin-disc system that alters its spreading width by changing the point where the granules impact on the disc. Also in common with other Sulky mounted machines, the trailed model employs the firm’s Tribord border spreading system, for keeping fertiliser out of the hedge on the first time around the field headland. But that is where mounted/trailed similarities largely end. Unlike the slide down in the base of mounted machines, the XLT sets its application rate via a large outlet slide in the rear of the vertical hopper wall. This slide is divided into two halves so that the operator has the option of feeding on to one disc, with the amount that the slide opens set on an easy-to use adjuster wheel. As for the discs themselves, these are pto-driven and stand 1.10m off the dirt when the spreader is shod with 11.2R44s, and it is this latter lofty stat that makes the XLT capable of applying late fertiliser doses to tall cereals.
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