PRACTICAL TEST: Has Pöttinger managed to answer the demands of farmers wanting a short-chop forage wagon? We see if the extra knives in the Jumbo 8000 provide the answer.
Although average forage chop length has generally improved on modern forage wagons, it’s still not as short as you will get from a self-propelled (or even trailed) chopper. This is where Pöttinger’s Jumbo 8000 hopes to close the gap, quite literally. Extra knives have been slotted into the chopping system, which now has a theoretical cutting length of just 25mm compared with 34mm on the 48- knife Jumbo 7000. The extra chopping ability has also resulted in a beefed-up driveline, which is now rated at a considerable 3,500Nm, so it does seem all the prerequisites for maximum throughput are in place. Indeed, the Austrian heavyweight greedily devours over 215t of fresh forage every hour when you have sufficient power up front. But more on that later.
Our test machine was a Jumbo 8450, with the following spec:
● An actual total volume of 45m³ when the headboard is in its fully forward position.
● K80 spoon and tridem running gear with hydraulic suspension (£21,549), with the effective contactless active steering system for the front and rear axles (£5,537).
● Our German colleagues also wanted the two discharge rotors (£12,000). Without these, the 8450 becomes the 8470 because of the extra space.
● Autocut blade sharpening (£9,922), crop cover that folds over the grass for road transport (£7,323) and of course it had the standard ISObus system
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