Schuitemaker, the Dutch forage wagon manufacturer, has expanded its Rapide forage wagon range with the addition of two new compact models available with or without the XC 80 knife short chop option, capable of chopping down to 24mm.
The new Rapide 6 and 8 range is effectively a shorter version of the existing Rapide 7 and 9 range.
Like the larger range, the newcomers are available in Pro, Performance and Ultimate versions, offering a chop length of 40mm as result of its 50-knife chopping unit.
The four-model Rapide family can be equipped with the hydraulically movable front panel and patented RapidRelease system, which is said to significantly increase the capacity of each machine by 4m3 to 39m3 (Rapide 6) and 50m3 (Rapide 8).
The unique deviating direction of rotation of the rotor ensures that the crop is pressed along the front wall, which ensures optimum filling of the wagon.
Body lengths of the now range now measure 6.7m and 7.7m for tandem models and 8.7m and 9.7m for tridem models.
Shorter chop
The XC models are a further development of the recently updated Rapide series and therefore feature a rotor housing containing 80 knives, in order to achieve chop lengths as short as 24mm.
XC models are equipped with 4mm-thick blades, which helps allow space for the extra 30 blades.
Meanwhile, Schuitemaker says that the overall power requirement is minimised as result of the patented cutting shape.
Grass is fed into the wagon via a 2.4m-wide pickup equipped with 3D contour suspension for optimal ground following. Forage is then fed into renewed PowerRotor Pro rotor that measures 2.1m wide.
SHARING OPTIONS