DRIVING IMPRESSION: Strautmann is looking to meet the needs of farms wanting a shorter chop length from a forage wagon. The new Magnon 11 has an 84-knife chopping unit with just 22mm between the blades. We have a look to see what it’s capable of.
Strautmann has extended its Magnon forage wagon family, not with bigger capacities but with extra knives to produce a much shorter chop. While the three-model Magnon 10 has 48 blades to give a theoretical chop length of 35mm, the Magnon 11 is kitted out with 84 knives for a shorter 22mm chop. To shoehorn in the extra chopping power, a number of changes had to be made.
More torque
Shorter cutting demands more power. To handle the extra required grunt, Strautmann reinforced the familiar, proven driveline so that the Röglberg gearbox now transmits up to 3,000Nm to the rotor. The rotor has eight rows of tines arranged in a helical formation. The tines are made of Hardox and are only 6mm thick with a 10mm wide leading edge plus hard-faced tips to ensure a lengthy service life. The scrapers are now 8mm wide compared to 14mm on the Magnon 10 due to the closer spacing. The rotor measures 1.89m wide and comes with integrated scrapers on the outer edges that direct the crop within the reach of the chopping unit. As on other Strautmann wagons, the tine rings are welded to the rotor core, with the latter measuring 84cm in diameter.
The designers have been able to cram 84 knives into the now wider crop flow channel, which also helps minimise the extra power needed for the shorter chop. As on its other wagons, each blade is protected by a spring loaded knee-over mechanism; however, the knife holders have been redesigned to make them slimmer, creating the additional space required.
The blades themselves are 1mm thinner (now 4mm), but they are still reversible. According to Strautmann, the entire unit (rotor, knife bank and scrapers) weighs in at around 500kg more than the otherwise identical 42m³ to 52m³ Magnon 10.
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