Standing outside one of the halls at Agritechnica was a combine harvester from Fendt that looked as if it had suffered the attentions of the design department after a good night out celebrating the new year.
Branded as a Fendt 5275C SL, the machine was anything but straight and level; it stood with its rear in the air and the table sloping sharply to the left, as did the front axle, yet all was to a purpose.
This is Fendt’s hillside model and is designed to cope with cross slopes, climbs and descents.
The hydraulic levelling system can correct up to 38% horizontally, 35% on the vertical uphill and up to 8% on the vertical downhill.
The reason for this ability to tilt is to keep the grain sieves and straw walkers as level as possible in a bid to maintain their efficiency, rotary combines are not as susceptible to side slopes and gradients and so it is mainly conventional machines that benefit from being fitted with a degree of levelling ability.
This particular model is based on the company’s C series machines although it is listed as a separate range, of just one machine, on Fendt’s website.
The C series machines are powered by either a 360hp or 306hp AGCO Power engine.
Other C series variants include adaptations for rice which centre around hard wearing parts to cope with the extra quantities of dirt that are ingested as part of harvesting the crop.
Laverda combine connection
Fendt’s C series of combines is produced in what was the Lavarda factory at St. Breganze, northern Italy, which has become AGCO’s main combine harvester facility after the corporation purchased it in 2011.
The German company is a relative newcomer to the combine market having introduced its first models, the 5000 range, in 1989, two years after its purchase by AGCO.
As already noted on Agriland, AGCO has big ambitions for Fendt and this extends back 25 years when it was decided that Fendt should become more than just a maker of tractors.
Combine harvesters were to feature in the portfolio as well, and these have since been joined by self-propelled forage harvesters and grass equipment.
The original combine harvesters were Dronningborg designs, using Deutz engines, built in the Laverda factory which was then owned by New Holland, a complex mix from a time of consolidation in the machinery industry.
However, it has since settled down with re-badged Laverda combines replacing the Dronningborg machines in 2004 and AGCO fully assimilating the Italian factory into its corporate structure, using the knowledge and experience of the staff to develop its European combine range, alongside factories in Brazil, China and North America.