Immediately behind the tyres, Van Kempen fitted blue serrated discs with a diameter of 45 cm. These slightly roughen the soil after the wide tyre has passed over it. It is also suitable for other crops; for maize at 75 cm rows, each tyre would need to come in by 12.5 cm. There is enough space for that.
‘They can’t offer this capacity and won’t fit tyres this size. Seed drills are becoming heavier and larger but this comes with additional func- tionality such as GPS-based section control and the addition of granulate. Although the components have a higher build weight, they position the seed much more neatly.’ In a trial season last year, the contractor used the new tyres for sowing approximately 300 hectares of beets. ‘I was able to take the pres- sure down to 0.9 bar.’ Another major advantage is that wide tyres are able to cope much better with ruts, so that even the row crops tyres at the front have now been replaced with the wider VF 380/85 R34 inflated to 0.4 bar. Small wheels, especially those at the front, are much more susceptible to bouncing and this causes the GPS controller to continuously make ad- justments. The wide front tyres used by Mr van Kempen put paid to this issue. Better grip and reduced bouncing have allowed him to in- crease driving speeds. This is particularly true for loose soil, where he can now easily achieve previously impossible speeds of up to 8 km/h.
Suitable for a range of crops Mr van Kempen has applied for patents for his tyre and wants to sell it. He had plenty of inter- est at the 2018 Agrotechniek Holland fair, but has yet to make his first sale. The price tag for a set of two tyres is € 8,500. The tyres can also be used to harvest other crops, including maize and vegetables. The cur- rent tread width is 2.5m, which corresponds with a row distance of 50cm for beets. For maize in rows spaced 75cm apart, each tyre would need to come in by 12.5cm. There is plenty of space underneath the MF to accommodate this.
Specialised in beets
Jos van Kempen and his father Piet run a crop farm and a contracting business spe- cialised in beet cultivation. He works the soil using two Imants spaders and can also dig and sow in a single work step. He sows and harvests around 300 hectares of beets each year.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 24 May 2019 47
Mr van Kempen has now added an air pres- sure exchange system to the Massey Fergu- son, allowing him to drive on public roads at a maximum speed of 50 km/h, with his tyres inflated to 1.4 bar. Once he has reached the field, he takes the pressure down to 0.4 bar again. The disadvantage of this combination is that it is well over 3.5 metres wide, meaning he always requires a permit to transport it. And the fact that the air pressure exchange line runs around the outside makes the tyre wider still, which is why he fitted additional width markers.
PHOTO: HANS PRINSEN
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