SIMON Replaces An Icon
SIMON, the leading French vegetable harvester manufacturer has announced details of an all new 2-row top lifting harvester to replace its iconic T2-R model. More than 50 of its T2-R machines have been sold to British growers during past 20 years, making it by far the most popular top lifting vegetable harvester in the UK.
The new R2-B5 model features an all new chassis offering greater strength and carrying capacity, improved access for maintenance and adjustments, and reduced transport width. A bigger tank (10.5 cubic metres) with a capacity around 5.0 tonnes of carrots, longer pick-up arms, wider cross conveyor and tank feed conveyor all combine to offer greatly increased harvesting capacity. A revised design allows the 'ACROBAT' tank to be hydraulically angled for gentler unloading; it can even discharge at ground level! As the tank fills, a 'sliding-gate' option gradually moves along inside automatically to enable complete loading, preventing losses from the end of the tank at the same time.
Cross conveyor and tank feed elevator are now 85cm and 1.0 metre wide respectively. Direct elevator discharge to a trailer up to 3.60m high, running alongside is made possible be a pivoting tank feed elevator, SIMON was first to offer this facility in 1985. Discharging into either the tank (maximum drop 40cm) or a trailer is made gentler by the addition of a hydraulic adjustable 'swan neck', another new R2-B5 feature.
New, longer, low angle pick-up rails (6.72m) feature notched belts and SIMON's new 'J' type pulleys; mountings are now on the underside of the pulleys, soil ingress is virtually eliminated, dramatically reducing wear and running costs. Lifter rails for the R2-B5 can be specified in-line, or staggered formation for closer row widths (less than 35cm rows) at no extra cost. Pick-up belts, toppers, and all webs can be adjusted for speed, or stopped/reversed from the cab mounted control console as standard.
Usefully, the machine's transport width is reduced to 3.30 metres, against 3.60 metres for the older model; wheel equipment has been significantly upgraded for better flotation on wet and soft soils. Right wheel is 620/75 x R30 (60cm wide x 1.71m diameter), left wheel -18.4 x R34 (47cm wide x 1.64m diameter) as standard. Track width is adjustable up to 3.0 metres.
Powerful hydraulic oil pumps (Load-Sensing), an oil cooler and accurate flow control valves (PVG type) provide a totally independent supply for the harvester. Only the optional wheel brakes are powered from the tractor's oil supply, helping to reduce concerns over oil contamination when coupling and de-coupling in the field.
With so many useful improvements, the R2-B5 is indeed a worthy replacement for the iconic SIMON T2-R, a familiar sight on so many UK carrot growing farms today. R2-B5 incorporates many recent developments and latest thinking from SIMON, with useful performance and handling enhancing features. STANDEN-REFLEX has gained considerable experience with SIMON parts and technical support, and is able to offer a very competitive service to UK growers with increased stocks of SIMON parts.
The new SIMON R2-5B 2-row top lifting 5.0 tonne tanker model is priced as £63,422.00
