Irish manufacturer Samco’s new CTS 1600 round bale chaser enables 16 round bales to be picked up in as little as eight minutes. This significantly reduces the labour and extra machinery traditionally needed to gather bales, as well as reducing soil compaction.
Built at Samco’s manufacturing facility at Adare, County Limerick, the CTS 1600 features a hydraulically operated soft hand bale squeeze that lifts and rotates the bales onto the chaser with just one joystick click from the operator.
“This handling method allows both netted and wrapped bales to be gathered without damaging them,” Samco director Matthew Shine said. “The new chaser will load itself automatically, by stacking two bales side by side at double height, before moving the stack down its length on floor rollers.”
Once full, the 16 bales are secured by the chaser’s caged sides, which move inwards to hold the bales in place; built-in sensors fine-tune the position of the sides to the size of bales, while gripping bars along the top and rear of the chaser prevent any movement during transport. A Danfoss load-sensing hydraulic system controls the main functions of the machine.
Unloading times are kept to a minimum as the CTS 1600 can simultaneously offload eight bales (in four stacks of two on their ends). The operator then moves the trailer forward to unload the remaining eight bales. This quick turnaround time allows for a speedier return to the field to continue loading. Its 7.3m length helps the CTS 1600 unload in tighter areas, allowing more bales to be stacked on a smaller footprint.
“During demonstrations we were surprised at just how manoeuvrable the chaser was,” Mr Shine added. “The operator was able to travel down narrow lanes and negotiate small yards that would previously only have been accessible with a loader. The chaser’s manoeuvrability is further enhanced as only the rear half of the chaser tips, enabling bales to be unloaded where height restrictions are an issue.”
The CTS 1600 runs on a pair of air-brake equipped ADR axles and features a choice of three 710/40R22.5 tyres, and a steering axle if required. There’s an in-cab colour screen for fine-tuning settings and monitoring bale numbers along with a manual mode that lets the operator stack the chaser with odd-sized loads. A rear-facing camera gives excellent vision and helps keep bale stacks tight when unloading.
