TECHNICAL: The Row Chipper, from Marolf, turns mounted implements into trailed units, and, with a little RTK-GNSS or camera magic, it can steer its axle so the implement reliably follows the tractor.
Anyone who has had to work across sloping fields will know that ground-engaging implements, be it a mower or cultivator, can start to slide away downhill. A skilful operator will try to keep the tractor on track by counter-steering; the implement will still be working at an angle, which, depending on the job in hand, such as mechanical weeding, can be less than ideal. Even nifty camera-controlled side-shifting tool headstocks cannot fully compensate for this drifting effect. One way to overcome this is to keep the hoeing tool farther away from the crop row, but then you risk leaving the weeds untouched. Swiss farmer Ruedi Emch has come up with his own solution. With the support of Bern-based contracting company Schneeberger and Berger, he built the first prototype of a steering tool carrier to which you can attach a mower or hoe, for instance.
Linkage and steering axle
To this end, he equipped the Row Chipper with its own three-point linkage as well as a load-sensing valve chest, extra hydraulic couplers, an electric power supply, an ISObus socket and auxiliary pto stub. The axle has Ackermann steering as well as a steered drawbar. From a joystick, the driver can manually operate both the axle and drawbar steering, operate the linkage or trigger one of the steering programs. Auto tracking, by comparison, requires an RTK-GNSS receiver sited on the tractor and a secondary unit on the Row Chipper.
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