A brand new flexer front – said to be the world’s biggest – is expected to make its public debut at this month’s Mallee Machinery Field Days at Speed.
Never before seen on Australian soil, the GTS 60ft (18m) Flexer XS, made by GTS Do Brasil, will come first to Victoria before arriving in Western Australia in September.
The machine will be distributed by OzAG Machinery (formerly OzValue Ag), which has just relocated to an industrial and commercial precinct in Ballarat adjacent to the airport. The company has been selling GTS pull-behind graders for four years and its fronts for three years.
This new 60ft front offers a working width of 18.7m from a 19.1 total width, weight of 5520kg, and an aluminium front offering three steel reel sections, double-knife drives and cutter bar built on the Schumacher EasyCut system.
Three-speed rubber draper mats transport product smoothly, while the Springflex flotation system employs sensors directly under the cutter bar to optimise ground profiling.
A new side fairing allows for ready lubrication access to the knife box transmission, with an optional Australian-made custom comb trailer also available. OzAG Machinery national sales manager Mitch Blackmore said he believed the Brazilian machine could justifiably claim the mantle of world’s biggest.
“We call it a 60ft front, but it’s actually 62ft – the only rival to the MacDon when it comes to draper fronts of that kind,” Mr Blackmore said.
“Over the past two seasons we have brought in four 40ft (12m) models and one of 50ft (15m) and we’ve seen success with those, with our team testing a 40ft machine extensively in the Ballarat area and the Mallee.
“The flex is a major feature as opposed to a rigid deck – the 40ft has around 14 flex points, but this new model will have significantly more.
“On any undulating ground you’re trying to capture as much of the product as you can and it’s remarkable how something of this size does that.
“We have seen fantastic results from these in the Wimmera-Mallee, and in Queensland previously, but this year we have expanded into WA.”
Source: Colin Taylor, Crop Gear (Weekly Times)