Driving impression: Väderstad Spirit 600 universal drill While the proven Rapid drill (profi 6/2005) remains Väderstad’s preferred seeder option for medium to heavy soils, the Swedish manufacturer now reckons that its new Spirit design merits serious consideration by those farmers growing crops on lighter land. We were able to try out the 6m wide Spirit last spring.
Big red seed hopper, small diameter discs, yellow wheels? It would seem to be pretty much the standard Väderstad fare. Rapid or Spirit? Take your seeder variant pick. What’s the difference?
The reality, of course, is that there are some key points of separation – along with one absolutely fundamental difference: Whereas the Rapid places the seed into worked ground and only consolidates afterwards at the rear, the Spirit presses both before and after drilling the seed. On the Spirit, the disc coulters run behind rather than in front of the tyre packer and are suspended on their own individual leaf springs, with the depth control taken care of by the following press wheels.
In basic terms, the Spirit comprises three distinct sections, each of which is responsible for its own specific task:
■ Cultivation by familiar Carrier compact, small-diameter discs
■ Consolidation by an offset tyre packer
■ Seed placement/covering by double-disc coulters, press wheels and the rear following tines.
Working from front to back through the machine, the 6m wide Spirit comes with a total of 48 discs in two rows, and these discs are mounted in usual Väderstad fashion – rubber cushioned on a square tube for impact protection. Depth is set from the tractor seat on a double-acting spool, with the three disc sections returning automatically to their hydraulically preset position when returning into work after a field headland turn. Some sort of guidance scale would help here.
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