Lely Ireland Ltd has offered baler-wrapper combination systems for more than a decade and, up to now, all were based on a Welger baler. Both Lely and Welger products have been distributed side by side for many years as Lely had a stake in the Welger organisation, not once but twice. The second time around saw a complete buyout of Welger by Lely.

That marriage has resulted in the development of another baler-wrapper combination system under the Lely-Welger banner. Under the stewardship of lead design engineer Wim Reijersen van Buuren and his team in Holland, the Lely Welger Tornado was born, both in fixed and variable chamber variants.

The design of the Tornado is radically different from the Lely Welger Double Action. Gone are the twin-satellite wrapping arms and twin-axles and in their place is a wrapping ring, similar to that of the McHale Fusion. On the Lely Tornado, it operates in the horizontal rather than vertical position. The baler is largely based on the Lely Welger RP245, with some design changes to facilitate its operation with the rear mounted wrapping unit.

Tornado design

The Lely Welger RPC 245 Tornado incorporates many of Lely’s well-proven design features, such as mechanically tailgate locking to ensure uniform bale size and density. The machine’s power-split gearbox drives the bale chamber rollers on the left of the machine and rotor, plus pickup on the right.

This system has been successful and is necessary to handle the ever-increasing horsepower of tractors found in the front of such machines. Versions of the power-split gearbox are now seen on much of the competition.

The Hydroflex floor underneath the chopper rotor features a hinge combined with rubber block suspension to accommodate lumps or smaller obstacles passing through the knives and rotor without blocking the rotor. The Hydroflex floor can be lowered completely if it becomes jammed or for changing knives.

The Tornado features the latest 2.25m, five-tine bar, camless pickup and a new 800mm diameter chopper rotor with Xtracut 25-knife chopping mechanism. It has a selectable split knife bank, giving 12, 13, 25 or 0 knife options.

To accommodate the wrapping mechanism at the rear of the baler, the bale chamber is positioned higher up than a conventional baler. The larger diameter rotor facilitates the transfer of material into the higher position.

There are also some changes to the design of the bale chamber to facilitate the smooth transfer of a completed bale onto the wrapper. On a conventional Welger RP fixed chamber baler, there are two rollers in the front section of the baler directly behind the feed rotor.

On Tornado variants, the second roller is fixed to the tailgate, so when the tailgate opens the path for the bale onto the wrapping unit via transfer chute/ramp is much more direct.

The wrapping unit sits directly behind the axle and large 710/40R22.5 wheels. All the major elements can be and are moved hydraulically throughout the wrapping process.

The Tornado design makes it compact on the road. This is useful on smaller roads as the wrapping ring can be positioned tight to the rear of the baler, almost vertically for road transport.

Road-going Tornado dimensions are 2.9m wide and the overall length is quoted at 5.9m.

In the field, the wrapping ring is raised to approximately 45o to capture the bale.

The wrapping table is then repositioned almost horizontally to wrap the bale before again being raised to allow the bale to be gently dropped off. The wrapping ring carries two rolls of film and is driven by two friction wheels. The ring is held captive by a series of rollers and rubber-tensioned rollers.

The baler and wrapper is monitored and operated by Lely’s Pro link control box which uses touchscreen technology for all baler and wrapper functions. Surprisingly, it is not ISObus ready.

It is equipped with two cameras as standard. These are linked directly into the control unit with various display options on the control unit. One camera is focused on bale transfer to the wrapper, while the other is focused on the bale drop-on table.

An external control box mounted above the unit’s left wheel provides the ability to control tailgate and wrapper functions for servicing, maintenance and wrapping the occasional ‘‘difficult’’ bale.

There are also two wrapping modes: one is based on revolutions of the table and ring, while the other uses a sensing wheel under the middle belt to apply the respective layers in the correct position relative to the bale actually turning.

Tornado on test

Lely Ireland Ltd provided us with an opportunity to operate the Lely Welger RPC 245 Tornado for ourselves.

Lely’s Frank Reynolds provided a demo machine on the rear of a new Massey Ferguson 6616. The MF 6616 is a four-cylinder pocket-rocket which Massey Ferguson states develops 160hp without EPM-Engine Power Management and 185hp with.

With a small window of opportunity between rain the night before and more due the day after the test, nine acres of third-cut grass was knocked down very early the same morning as the test. By mid-morning, conditions were ideal even if the grass could have done with more wilt time.

This meant that the bales were going to be on the heavy side. The knife bank of the chopper unit was set with 13 knives and with heavy bales expected, the wrapping unit was set apply six layers of film.

The smaller field had a little over two acres and was completely flat.

The combination was nimble and there was lots of tight turning and manoeuvring required to finish the first field. The second field, with a decent hill, would test bale transfer on slopes, as well as the tractor’s mettle.

All performed very well. The tractor never dropped a note uphill with combination, including bales, weighing nearly 6t. Load-sensing hydraulics ensured that hydraulic oil was being supplied only as it was needed and not constantly draining power and fuel from the tractor.

The bale transfer is key to the speed and success of any combination machine. When baling is complete, the tailgate opens and the bale is guided onto the wrapping table via the transfer cradle.

The wrapping cycle then begins before the tailgate is closed. The ring rotates up to a maximum speed of 35rpm and wrapping speeds can be adjusted from the control box.

Lely’s Pro link control box provides all monitoring and control functions for baler and wrapper activity behind the tractor. Operation of the unit is far better than some of Lely’s older control units, more intuitive and easier to understand. Decent graphics let the driver know what is happening at each stage of the baling, bale transfer, wrapping and drop-off process.

The footage from the two cameras was set to display in one of the small side squares on the screen then automatically switch into a larger section to monitor the bale as it is either transferred to the table or wrapped on the table. These are very useful and clever features. After a while, you become less dependent on them because the graphics of each operation of the machine function are so good.

The camera is essential, especially if a bale bursts. This presents a problem for any wrapper, and usually requires some degree or human intervention.

External controls on the Tornado allow the operator control, even turning the bale without wrapping to get it going.

Where we were baling on a hill, we opted to manually select the drop-off point of the wrapped bales.

In very hilly situations, the operator can also select to manually operate the baler’s tailgate. The bale transfer chute, wrapping ring and bale table settings/angles can all be altered by the operator for operating in hilly situations.

Fast and efficient

Overall, the Lely Welger RPC 245 Tornado was fast, efficient and quiet. The Massey Ferguson 6616 provided lots of power for the task, which certainly helped with smooth operation, especially on hilly terrain.

Lely’s Pro link control unit is good to use and intuitive but many will be looking or even expecting a machine of this calibre to be ISObus compatible.

The wrapping ring design allows for a more compact design of combination machine, with only film dispensers flying around instead of arms and dispensers. Being able to bring the wrapping ring closer to the baler helps make the Tornado more compact, especially for road transport. But the net and plastic loading could be made a bit easier for the operator.

The price of the Lely Welger RPC 245 Tornado is €72,000, plus VAT.

Likes

v Smooth and fast operation

v Graphics on handset

v Compact

v External controls

Dislikes

X Loading of net

X Loading of plastic

X Not ISObus compatible