Tractor test: Claas Xerion 3300 Back to the future The Claas Xerion is the consummate time traveller, a tractor concept that has been around for aeons and has only really now been brought to market. This, after all, is a machine that was way ahead of its time in the early 1990s, and even today, 12 years on, still carries a certain futuristic feel. So is the Xerion, at long last, ready to make a sales impression? Perhaps just as importantly, is the market ready for Xerion?
She’s a real big ‘un. Almost without exception, that’s the first driver reaction to Claas’s Xerion. Which is completely understandable, bearing in mind this green and white beast stands 3.7m tall, stretches to 6m in length, and measures 3m wide, depending on set-up. About 13t rests on four 43in tyres. Quite an animal.
Intimidating for first-time drivers? To a man. Justified? Possibly not – because once these same initially dumb-struck
drivers have negotiated the alpine climb up into Xerion’s towering cabin and then familiarised themselves with all of the various controls, this tractor is, in fact, both surprisingly simple to operate and a lot more manoeuvrable than its imposing stature might at first suggest. Much of the credit for this Xerion ‘driveability’ should go to the ZF Eccom 3.5 CVT transmission, developed for Claas and offering 40km/hr or 50km/hr top travel.
Other spec and driver-reassuring highlights are the permanent four-wheel drive, four-wheel steer and a relatively compact 13.6m turning circle. Visibility, albeit restricted to the rear, is reasonable to the front and side, while the main controls are all laid out in logical fashion. All in all then, concerns over size tend to evaporate after a few hours of familiarisation time – until, that is, the Xerion heads out onto the public highway, where the rest of the traffic seems scarily small, and rather vulnerable too. It’s more akin to sitting behind the wheel of a big truck – no ordinary tractor.
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