Trike running gear and a 9.0t hopper are genuine novelties on the new Grimme harvester. But there are still bits that haven’t yet fully evolved to the point where they work in the field … as our test reveals
At Agritechnica 2017, Grimme unveiled the Evo 290 two-row trailed harvester complete with 9.0t bunker wrapped in some snazzy bodywork. Keen to see how the new design would perform out in the field we tested one of the firm’s 50 pre-production machines last autumn in Germany.
We operated the harvester behind a Fendt Vario 724. The Evo 290 has a short drawbar and K80 ball hitch, which is all good. Also needing to be attached are three load-sensing hoses, one double-acting line for the parking stand and the standard ISObus connector. The hose rack can be adjusted to suit the towing tractor, but the sides of the rack can chafe the pipes. Occasionally some of the hoses are quite difficult to attach in the roofed rack. The Bondioli and Pavesi drive shaft was a disappointment, the universal joints showing heavy wear after only lifting 100ha due to the grease nipples not passing the grease on to the joints. Not so good
The on-board gearbox was powered by the 1,000rpm pto so we were able to operate the tractor’s pto at an easy-going 700rpm to drive the self-contained hydraulic system and digging web. Whenever the pto speed dropped too much the harvester terminal would issue a warning. Very good.
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