Top Gear Dominator
Combine World will be fully prepared in the event of unseasonal snow falling at this year’s Cereals, as on their stand will be the perfect answer for cereal farmers looking to make better use of their combine – the famous DOMINATOR Snow-Bine.
As viewers of Top Gear will have seen earlier this year, the Snow-Bine was created as part of a challenge to create a machine for clearing snow from Britain’s roads.
Naturally the obvious solution was to fit a snow-plough onto the front of a combine – and hence the Snow-Bine was born.
The Snow-bine is built around a 23 year-old CLAAS DOMINATOR 108S that was sourced by the programme through COMBINE WORLD. Like all combines sold by the company, the DOMINATOR was put through a thorough 165 point inspection to ensure it was mechanically sound before delivery, which was just as well considering the alien conditions it would be working in.
As visitors to Cereals will see, apart from being fitted with a tailor-made, 3.0 metre wide V-Plough, the DOMINATOR Snow-bine was also equipped with a flame-thrower on the back for melting ice, and the spout was converted to spread salt, and of course the Bovril dispenser in the cab.
Ironically, due to the lack of snow in the UK when filming took place in January, the DOMINATOR Snow-bine was transported to Norway where it successfully cleared a landing strip on a lake, and was then used to snow-plough a 10km stretch of road up to an isolated village.
Having completed its task and shown that a combine can be used to clear snow, the DOMINATOR Snow-bine is now on display at Beaulieu, home of the National Motor Museum’s ’World of Top Gear’ Exhibition in Hampshire.
The DOMINATOR Snow-bine was one of nearly 500 combines sold by Combine World last year, with a total value of around £35 million. Of these, about 60% were sold within the UK, whilst the rest were exported to countries around the world, including Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic States, Ukraine, Russia, New Zealand, Australia and South America.
Combine World is a joint venture between 16 dealerships throughout the UK, who between them cover 45 retail outlets, and carry up to 200 used combines, ensuring that whatever a customer’s requirements, there will in all probability be a machine to meet their needs and budget.