PRACTICAL TEST: Courtesy of its compact design and hydraulic suspension system, the 2.4m wide Kuhn FC 243 Lift Control mounted mower conditioner is said to be capable of cutting under a broad range of conditions – without fuss or complaint. We put the French-built mower to the test.
Launched at last year’s Kemira Grassland event, the Kuhn FC 243 and FC 283 models were heralded as the next generation of mounted mower conditioners. The reason? Lift Control.
So what makes Lift Control special? Well, the rationale is relatively simple. Lift Control uses hydropneumatics, rather than more conventional coil suspension springs, to tailor the mower pressure applied on the ground according to the prevailing field conditions. In addition, the system also reduces the amount of lateral drag on the powering tractor.
In terms of technological sophistication, again the design is relatively simple, the tractor requiring just the one double-acting
spool to supply oil to the mower’s two rams. One ram switches the mower between its transport and work positions, while the other sets the ground pressure.
With one spool supplying the oil, a three-way valve is used to dictate where that oil is sent – either to sort the transport/work mode or the ground pressure. To alter the ground pressure in work, the valve is set to a different control setting with a spanner.
In normal operation that setting is about 105 bar, a figure that we worked at for most of the time in our test. To see what would happen, we tweaked the setting up to 115 bar: The pressure increased in the accumulator, which reduced the pressure on the mower, hence the drag on the tractor.
