PRACTICAL TEST: After a summer’s work with McHale’s Fusion 3 Plus baler wrapper, we reckon it redefines the benchmark for this type of machine.
McHale has been making Fusion baler wrappers for more than a decade. While the basics stayed the same — a compact, manoeuvrable
machine sitting on a single axle, with its bale platform tightly integrated behind the chamber and a unique vertical wrapping mechanism — steady development brought the third generation to market a couple of years ago. Then last summer the Fusion Plus arrived, bringing (among other things) in chamber film wrapping, film stretch monitoring and an iTouch controller. The test machine was supplied on 650/50 R22.5 tyres, a £1,020 upgrade.
Apart from adding useful flotation to this 6.26t machine, their extra air volume cushions the ride and minimises the chance of any ground damage. Attachment to the baler tractor is straightforward via a drawbar or ball hitch, the pto is weighty thanks to its wide-angle joint and the manual stand is easy to use. The baler’s hydraulics are happy to work with open-centre, closed-centre or load-sensing tractor hydraulics. Minimum pto power requirement is listed as 80kW/107hp, minimum hydraulic requirement 45 litres/min at 180 bar.
A single gearbox splits power between the pick-up and rotor (offside) and the bale chamber (nearside). Main driveline protection is by cam clutch; a separate slip unit protects the pick-up, whose 1.86m effective width and five banks of cam-controlled tines made a very good job of clearing even short, brittle straw at speeds of up to 20km/hr. An option here is a crop roller to level the swath (£600), which on the test machine worked well in all conditions. Pick-up height is set by two wheels whose height is decided by pin-and-hole, and which swing easily up and back for road transport.
