At the beginning of December 2023 and after six weeks of what felt like it nearly permanently raining, the last of the grain maize crop seemed to be a write-off … and similarly any potatoes or beet still in the ground. So, we were more than a little surprised when Franz Rathmer called us up one morning: “We’re combining the last crop of grain maize this afternoon.”

No footprint

Brimming with anticipation, we travelled to the scene of the action where we heard the unmistakable sound of the Commandor 115 working at full chat. With our camera at the ready we ran out to snap the photos for this article. But the field was so wet you couldn’t walk where the combine, sitting on its 4.5m² Caterpillar tracks, was powering its way along. Franz grinned when he spotted us staggering through the mud.

“The Commandor has no footprint,” explains the resourceful contractor from Münsterland, who has owned the exotic combine since 1998. What makes this machine so special is that Franz equipped the former wheeled 115 CS with a track system that was developed jointly by Claas and Caterpillar at the time. At the beginning of December 2023 and after six weeks of what felt like it nearly permanently raining, the last of the grain maize crop seemed to be a write-off … and similarly any potatoes or beet still in the ground. So, we were more than a little surprised when Franz Rathmer called us up one morning: “We’re combining the last crop of grain maize this afternoon.” Franz actually wanted to purchase the newly introduced Lexion 460 Terra Trac at that time, but it wasn’t readily available in the wet fall of 1998. After his good experience with a wheeled machine, a Commandor 116 CS, the resourceful entrepreneur dared to take the plunge.

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