Clash of Titans

A massive tracked tractor testing titled Clash of the Titans has been held in the fields of Studenetskiy Flour Mill OJSC. Penza branch of AgroCentreZakharovo has taken part in the contest and won it.

Service department technicians Konstantin Karnaukhov and Evgeniy Mikulich representing the company drove a Challenger 865 E tractor. The machine was tested coupled to a 12-body reversible plough with a finger body on the first day and to a disc cultivator on the second one. According to Artyom Simbulatov, Head of Penza Branch of AgroCentreZakharovo, the two field plots which the contestants had drawn at random offered practically equal competition conditions, except for the first being somewhat more sloping. This did not prevent them from demonstrating brilliant results, though: the tractor delivered the best performance among the rivals: 4.20 ha/h with the 12-body reversible plough and 6.59 ha/h with the disc cultivator. A total of 77.63 ha was cultivated with the machine over the testing period. An average fuel consumption amounted to 21.5 l/ha with the plough and to 14.41 l/ha with the disc cultivator.

‘It should be noted that the Challenger tractor ploughed with an engine load staying below 80% all the time’, comments Artyom Simbulatov, ‘which is a very good performance. The progress was measured using a GPS-navigator.’

‘It was a pitched battle, but we gained the lead virtually on the outset’, shares his impressions Konstantin Karnaukhov, Service Department Technician of AgroCentreZakharovo. ‘It was tricky to maintain the order in the queue at the headlands at first, but then we got the hang of it.’

‘Along a straight line, the GPS-navigated tractor ran without any issues: you simply sat and watched’, adds Evgeniy Mikulich, assisting operator. ‘At headland turns, we had to operate the tractor manually: the machine was massive, and so were the implements. But, overall, everything went without a hitch.’