The new, wider Speed-Forma CG2000XL has been designed to work quicker while conserving as much topsoil as possible.
 |
|
The new Speed-Forma CG2000XL can finish grade and regrade over 10 hectares per hour
|
Released earlier this year at the Henty Machinery Field Days, the new, wider Speed-Forma CG2000XL has been designed to work quicker while conserving as much topsoil as possible.
Measuring 6.2m-wide and with a 3.5m transport width, the CG2000XL finishing machine has a carrying capacity of 11 cubic metres and weighs 12,500kg empty – needing a machine of more than 300 horsepower (224kW) to tow it.
Its new design can finish grade and regrade over 10 hectares per hour, using its 24 rippers and scarifiers positioned in front of the blade that can be used while levelling.
Speed-Forma manager Troy Litchfield says the company had aimed to create a wider machine with a lower storage capacity – meaning the machine could cover more ground more quickly.
“Basically we are reducing the earthworks volumes and making it so you can shift the dirt in the most efficient way possible, to keep your paddocks cropping at their optimum performance level,” he says.
While the Speed-Forma can work with most GPS systems, the company has been working with Australian mapping software group LevelGuide to help progress both technologies.
The controller can use LevelGuide to load a preferred field design surface, be it flat, curved or a combination of planes, into a PC for the Speed-Forma blade to follow in the field – maintaining 10–15mm accuracy up to 4km from the base.
An operator can use the LevelGuide program to map runlines over the landscape, recording terrain heights before and after each run and showing all areas covered.
“There are some other machines out there that will do the wide brushing, but can’t pick it up and carry it, and there are some out there that can pick it up but aren’t very wide,” he says.
“What we have done is come up with a machine that is superior for this type of application on all those fronts.”
“We know where we’re shifting the dirt and we know we won’t leave it scalped,” he says.