Hard on the heels of last month’s look at technicalities, Part II of our self-propelled sprayer comparison considers the practicalities of day-to-day use. Participants come from Agrifac, Amazone, Challenger and Dammann.
When it comes to assessing machinery, easy operation and cab comfort are just as important as tech spec…at least to the operator. As it turned out, the bare bones of these sprayers — the pumps, valves, agitators and so on — worked equally well. To tease out the differences it’s necessary to look a little closer at other elements of the machines.
Beyond the major SP sprayer waypoints like tank capacity, boom size, engine power etc, smaller variations and options will sway machine buying choice — things like touchscreen control of liquid distribution (Agrifac), automated engine speed control even while spraying (Amazone), variable underbody clearance (Challenger) or nozzle-bynozzle switching via GPS (Dammann). Or you might even need the extraordinary 2m underbody height of Agrifac’s ClearancePlus variant — enough to straddle a Mercedes panel van — or perhaps the Dammann’s hydraulically adjustable track width.
All four sprayers proved straightforward to operate. Each features two displays in the cab: one to control and monitor the selfpropelled, one to handle the spraying equipment. Agrifac also relies on the second unit for GPS-based steering. Use-wise, some of the key differences centre on the joysticks. Amazone, Challenger and Dammann have custom-made versions, with some buttons programmable with several functions. Agrifac borrows a similarly programmable joystick from Claas. All turned out to be easy to fathom and can be operated blindfold after a while.
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