USED MACHINERY: Even the hardest of worked combines can be made to look pretty respectable after a quick clean, a point many used combine buyers have discovered to their subsequent cost. You have to delve deeper into the machines before you can begin to see their real condition. To highlight some critical areas, we have closely examined a seven- and an eight-year old Claas Dominator 108 SL, with our own first impressions proving to be pretty unreliable on closer inspection!
The Claas Dominator 108 SL has long been a popular combine, this popularity being reflected in the used market by the machine’s strong residual values. Particularly in demand among farmers who need a high performance machine, the Dominator 108 series are also well liked for their overall simplicity and ease of maintenance when compared with more contemporary machines.
The first of the two Dominators we inspected was built in 1988 and had been used in eight harvests. The second combine left the factory in Harsewinkel in 1989, and had seven seasons behind it. The first guide to actual usage, however, is engine hours, with the eight-year old combine showing 2,300 hours. The younger machine only had 800 hours on the clock, which is low for a machine of this age. Hour meter readings can be a guide, but always take these readings in context with other factors. This can include onboard information systems, although these are again not always that accurate either. But at least taking threshing hours indicated with the engine hours on the clock can be a useful pointer.
On both of the Dominators we looked at, the recorded hours and threshing data proved to be incorrect. The seven year old 108 had no threshing hours recorded, with 1,382 hours clocked on the older machine.
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