High performance and user-friendliness are key features of Kverneland’s latest U-Drill, which will be shown at Lamma 2015. With a 6m working width, the U-Drill 6000 is the first of a new range of universal seed drills that will include hydraulic folding models from 3m to 6m.
A host of new features now include a fully-programmable management system. Using one button, the U-Drill operator can initiate a headland sequence with wheels, discs and coulter bar all capable of automatic operation in timed stages. As a result, the drill needs only one double-acting spool to operate.
This new style of drill offers a reduction in overall weight, but without compromising its strength or integrity, and there is a new chassis arrangement offering a simpler layout with fewer moving parts.
The U-Drill 6000 has a central heavy-duty box section chassis and a bolted frame construction. Hopper capacity is 4,350 litres and this feeds two seed metering units, offering half-width shut off.
GEOcontrol becomes part of the drill’s standard specification, which also includes variable seed rate and section control as part of the software package. Optional weigh cells can be installed beneath the seed hopper to give a live weight of seed remaining in the hopper.
Meeting the Isobus 11783 standard, the ability to control all main elements of the drill individually and from the IsoMatch Tellus screen (or other Iso 11783 compatible screens) will be a considerable advantage.
New transducer technology integrated into hydraulic rams allows an infinite, on-the-move depth adjustment of all aspects of the drill through the in-cab control screen.
Up to six working zones are available on the U-Drill. These include an 800mm diameter front wheel packer to level soil. Two rows of aggressively pitched, 450mm conical discs taken from the Qualidisc cultivator, then follow in zone two.
Packing prior to seeding defines the third zone, with a large offset wheel packer of 900mm reconsolidating the soil and reducing the draft requirement.
The heart of drill is zone four, the coulters. A new coulter development – the CD coulter – uses two steel discs with 12.5cm row spacings. Gently profiled, the CD coulter requires less pressure to penetrate soils and leaves more of the available 100kg coulter pressure to be transferred to depth guidance and press wheels, which are located in the fifth zone.
Completing the drill’s elements in zone six is a choice of S-type or finger following harrow – you decide which is best for your soils. The U-Drill 6000 is priced from £82,440 (correct at November 2014).
For more information visit: www.kvernelandgroup.com.
