Pre-season service on a Väderstad Rapid drill: Preparation and success go hand-in-hand. So why not set up your drill with a stiff bout of pre-season maintenance? Tips and tricks for Väderstad Rapid care come from the firm’s Eastern Area Manager, Ian Hale, by way of Andrew Pearce
Väderstad’s Rapid RDA air drills have their roots planted back in the early 1990s. Today’s machines have moved on a long way: Boasting radar-linked automatic seed rate control and hydraulic drive for the fan and metering sections, these substantial Swedes weigh up to 11.5t and call for 120-320hp at the drawbar. Working widths span 4m to 8m, claimed work rate is up to about 8ha/hr; combo fertiliser and big-hopper (6,200-litre) versions are also on offer.
Discs or tines are the order of the day, depending on the land and cultivation system. The most popular set-up for mintill, or for trashy/cloddy ploughed ground, sees a bank of mainly conically shaped discs followed by levelling tines and plain disc coulters. Backing these are a row of pneumatic press wheels (staggered on later examples) and a levelling harrow. Metering heads live inside the hopper. As with any sizeable machine, thorough preparation takes a little time. Allow half a day for basic checks, more if discs need to be changed. And while the work itself is straightforward, there are wrinkles along the way that, when straightened out, will maximise the drill’s reliability and accuracy. Pictured at work below is a two-year-old 6m RDA 600S, while the accompanying detailed shots are of a third-season 8m RDA 800S model that has been pulled by a 325hp Challenger tracked tractor over heavy Suffolk clays.
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