The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Krone’s new GX trailer kicks up the versatility
Apart from sheer size and the introduction of “ejector” headboard unloading in place of tipping, little has changed in the design of farm trailers.
But Krone has taken a fresh look and come up with a design that the company reckons is about as versatile and useful as you can get. To an extent, the GX is a variation on the ejector theme in that it does not tip up to discharge its load – which has benefits for a largecapacity trailer in terms of stability on uneven ground and the ability to off-load in buildings with restricted height.
But instead of pushing the load out, it is conveyed by a heavy-duty plastic mat with a moving headboard attached.
The mat provides a soft landing surface when the trailer is used to haul potatoes from harvester to store, and there is no risk of crops being crushed, as Krone argues is the case with a pushing headboard.
There is a default unloading speed for the hydraulically-driven bed conveyor/headboard assembly, but this can be doubled for faster emptying when appropriate, such as offloading woodchip, sawdust and similar materials. And if the operator wants to spread the load evenly, that can be done, too – just enter the length of the area where the material is to be applied into a control terminal, and the system will automatically calculate the bed speed needed to achieve that.
Krone engineers have also thought about how operators might want to use the trailer to carry straw bales or palletised items, so they came up with a remote-control unit enabling the operator to place bales in the back, shunt the floor forwards, add more bales and so on.
The bed is reckoned to be grain proof, so can be used to off-take wheat, barley and oilseed rape from the combine, with a tailgate chute attachment available for discharge into a small hopper if required. And for grass and maize harvests, integral extensions telescopic upwards on hydraulic cylinders to provide extra bulk capacity.
All this will require a bit of care and attention when loading, but keep the various mechanisms in good shape and the GX appears to be a trailer for genuine all-round use.