Practical test: Vicon LB12200 OC big baler Parcel express Along with Hesston, Vicon was one of the pioneering companies in the modern big baler sector back in the 1970s and 80s. But crop material packaging technology has moved on apace since those early days, and there’s considerably more competition, too. profi operates Vicon’s latest LB baler offering, the LB12200 OC, complete with Integral Rotor and Power Density feeding system
What represents big baling Utopia? Arguably, the ideal would be a machine that pumped out a colossal number of perfectly shaped and densely packaged bales in a day. It would never go wrong, never miss a knot, tread lightly across the ground and require minimal tractor muscle up front. And, of course, it would be completely maintenance-free.
Clearly none of today’s manufacturers are quite there yet, although it would be fair to say that most are heading in the right direction. Big baler technology is well past its infancy so that, for the most part, new developments are now in the phase of tweaking what’s already there.
Tested here, the Vicon LB12200 OC is a case in point. Main developments on this machine are to its rotor and packer, and it’s these items that we focus heavily on in this article – but not until later.
For now, though, let’s commence this LB tour from the front. Coupling up to the tractor on our Continental-spec machine was through a top-mount drawbar, but it’s a design that can easily be reversed for UK-type operation.
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