With its Diamant 18, Lemken is offering a semi-mounted plough with a rear wheel and integrated press option. We’ve had the chance to work this gem.
KEEPING IT BRIEF
- The new Diamant 18 is rated for up to 600hp with six to eight furrows.
- Rear land wheel improves soil penetration at the rear and reduces the turnover forces. An additional steering system improves its manoeuvrability.
- Even the auto-reset plough can be equipped with the integrated FlexPack press. For now it cannot be used with the on-land version.
On the familiar Diamant 16, the transport wheel is positioned to the side of the plough, allowing you to work right up to the field boundary while still being manoeuvrable when turning on the headland. The downer is the high centre of gravity as the plough turns over, or when in its transport position. Past experience also shows that this layout results in poorer penetration, especially in dry, hard conditions.
Rear wheel
All of this has led Lemken to developing the new semi-mounted plough, the Diamant 18 with a substantially beefed-up main beam that has increased from 160x160x10mm to 180×180 x12.5mm and has its wheel sited at the rear.
In the field, our initial experience was that this not only improved how the plough entered the ground, but it was also a lot more stable when turning over on the field headland.
Integral packer for the first time
This new layout has opened up another option for the engineers in Alpen: Lemken is now the first manufacturer to offer an integrated press for a single-wheel, semi-mounted plough.
Just like on the fully-mounted Jewel units, the integrated FlexPack is beneficial in smaller fields or if there are lots of obstacles. And it is less of a logistical challenge when moving between sites. The integrated press is also far easier to handle when ploughing headlands and awkward corners.
All of this said, there are also downsides compared to a pulled double press. The FlexPack is not as heavy, so there is a bit less consolidation; but it also has a lot more moving parts so that it can adapt to changes in the working width, being able to move with the plough as it turns over and not having to compromise the plough during transport between locations.
Not only can it be used on a vari-width plough, but this latest version of the press, with modification to the leaf springs that attach to each pair of rings, can be worked with the auto-reset (OptiStone) ploughs. This wasn’t possible on the first version introduced in 2019 on the Juwel 10 fully mounted reversible.
On our featured seven-furrow Diamant 18, the press had 28 x 60cm diameter rings. On its maximum work width setting of 3.85m, this results in a ring consolidating the soil nearly every 14cm.
Lemken states the unladen weight of the press is just under 850kg. Tack on to this the hydraulic plough-to-press weight transfer system, which can add around 750kg. This ensures good consolidation, especially on lighter soils, to help minimise moisture loss. We would like it if Lemken could also come up with a “clod breaker” for heavier soils.
Support wheel with separate steering
To compensate for the inevitably poorer manoeuvrability with a rear-mounted wheel, Lemken also had a bit of a head scratch. Not only is steering controlled by the position of the plough as it turns over, but there’s also an option of adding an extra hydraulic steering system. This is controlled via a double-acting spool — independently of the current turnover ram — and increases the steering angle from 15° to up to 30°. This easily saves 3m on the headland and also makes getting into corners that bit easier, too. To simplify operation, the additional steering automatically centres when you move the support wheel once towards “lift” — brilliant!
To reduce the total number of double-acting spools needed, Lemken uses two diverter valves. Via a small control box, you switch between altering working depth and lift on the headland as well as between adjusting the front furrow and additional steering. Additional double-acting spools are needed for the turnover and extras such as the vari-width and the FlexPack (or a press arm).
Given the number of functions, a Power Beyond set-up with ISObus controls would certainly make a lot of sense in the future.
Further details in a nutshell
- Diamant 18 is available with six to eight furrows, with hydraulic vari-width as well as an on-land version. However, on-land it can’t have the FlexPack press.
- The under beam height is 80, 85 or — with stronger leg holder — and even 90cm. The seven-furrow plough can be hitched to tractors up to 525hp.
- Inter-body spacing is 100cm; 120cm is also possible on six- and seven-furrow ploughs, although you must then forego the OptiStone breakback system and the FlexPack press.
Last, the prices
According to the list price, the seven-furrow Diamant 18 “without anything” costs around £40,579.
With hydraulic vari-width the price goes up to £45,972; add the non-stop breakback system and your invoice reads £52,332. But there are still plenty of other options from the still long list: manure skimmers (£3,783), traction booster (£1,770), hydraulic depth control (£945) and front furrow width at (£1,650).
Then there’s FlexPack. Cost for preparing the plough for fitting the packer is £3,775, whilst the press itself adds another £13,675. So, all in you are looking at a hefty £86,500..
Hubert Wilmer
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