Viking vertical harrow by Rostselmash
A year ago, we added a Viking, a vertical harrow manufactured by Klever, a Rostselmash division, to our fleet of tillage equipment.
“We have tough land, there’s never enough moisture, plus soil is prone to erosion. That’s why we use subsurface tillage technique. We are looking to disturb the soil as little as possible to keep all that is in it, but at the same time to mix the top layer well to incorporate stubble residues. So we bought a Viking V-560/870 (8.7m wide).
By the way, we got a stock unit, i.e. the demonstration one. And we still were granted a one year warranty. As a matter of fact, we have a lot of Rostselmash machines at the farm. An RSM 2375 tractor is one of them, we’ve had it for one year, too. We have a sowing system from Rostselmash. As such, we are well familiar with the machines and equipment of this manufacturer.
As for the harrow and tractor. They feel good. We operated at a 6” depth with an average gang angle at 12 km/h. Settings are very simple. Everything is intuitive. We tilled an overall of 2,000 ha. The implement fully meets the specifications. We like it.
We did have breakdowns. But what broke down was already worn, I said that wasn’t a brand new unit. To be fair, I should say that our soil will break any implement. Be it German, French, American, Canadian, we’ve seen them all.”
We thank Sergey for his time and attention. We wish success in business and good yields in the years to come. And here is the traditional summary of the implement.
V-560/870 Viking Vertical Harrow is a heavy (1200 kg/m weight class) disc harrow for vertical tillage after harvest, before drilling, for weeds suppression and initial tillage. Compared to conventional disc units, this implement causes less disturbance to soil, while intensively mixing and working stubble residues well to the tilling depth.
The harrow uses self-sharpening wavy (corrugated) coulter discs sized 508 by 6.5 or 559 by 6.5 mm which provide the above functionality thanks to their shape. Discs are grouped in 8 gangs mounted on a 3-section frame in 2 rows in X arrangement, the design allows changing the gang angle incrementally between 0°, 4°, 8°, 12°, 16°.
The gangs are conventional for Versatile units: 50mm dia. shafts with heavy-duty self-aligning double bearings T2-215 that can withstand radial load up to 10.5 tons. Good geometry and arrangement of components eliminate plugging of the space between the discs. The gangs are mounted on the frame using C spring brackets that provide shock dampening preventing damage to gangs and coulters during operation in difficult conditions.
The third row of working units on the Viking harrow is rolling baskets for field finish by loosening or compacting (selected by reversing the baskets). The baskets can be set aside if not needed.
The 3-section frame flexes at the joints for a better ground contour following over the working width. The harrow has a floating drawbar giving you a huge advantage when working in rolling terrain when the implement goes from a hillside to level ground and back. The unit is designed for heavy-duty applications so it is built with a ruggedized undercarriage, the most robust mainframe in its class, with double gauge wheels for uniform load distribution.