Dual wheels a wet harvest solution, says Starco

July turned out to be gloriously warm and dry, yet some European farmers may still find themselves harvesting in the wet – especially in Northern Europe where the harvest is traditionally later. Whilst a few days of dry and windy weather can render the crop itself harvestable, the soil below remains wet and whereas the small combines of yesteryear could usually operate on wet terrain, modern, heavier machinery often becomes bogged down in the mud, reducing efficiency and causing potentially expensive delays in what could be a short window of opportunity for the year’s harvest.

Yet wet areas typically constitute only a part of a farmer’s land, and for this reason investing in an aftermarket belt or track-laying drive chain for a combine – which may cost up to £60,000 or €70,000 for a modern combine – is not financially viable in many cases. And whilst some combine manufacturers offer four-wheel drive versions of their combines, this solution is not usually retrofittable for the many otherwise modern combines working in Europe fields – and even four-wheel drive has its limitations as wet terrain often cannot support the weight and traction forces of a heavily loaded combine, where the majority of the weight is on the front wheels.

A more cost effective solution is dual wheels. Starco produces the Starco Schaad range and says these products can be fitted easily to any manufacturer’s machinery. For farmers and farm-contractors operating several combines, dual wheels can be shared between a pool of combines as the terrain requires. Starco states that Schaad dual wheels, which are manufactured from a single piece of metal and come with a stepped spacer ring to allow wheels of differing rim diameters to be paired, have the strength to carry a combine’s heavy load.